Your opinion of seaspace 2007

[scubabum2]

My first time too and I also enjoyed seeing some old friends. The biggest highlights for me were the HUPS photo display (awesome job, guys!) in the exhibit area and the photography workshops. I got some great deals at the silent auction and some friends got a great deal on an auction trip too (saved about $1,000).

The exhibit hall mix really reminded me of the old Dive Dallas shows, with a predominance of travel booths, some manufacturers of dive & photo equipment, a few clubs and a smidgeon of odds & ends. People may complain about the mix, but I thought it was good overall and well, if there's an alternative show to attend in Texas, I'd like to hear about it.

A few suggestions for future organizers:
1) You might consider putting more detailed instructions in the mailing for advance purchase tickets- where to go once you arrive, etc. I spent about 15 minutes in line to have my badge stapled to a plastic holder.
2) You might consider staffing the ticket sales booth heavier during peak periods and also have a few more credit card machines
3) You may want to be more selective on who you give a booth too. Green Mt Energy belongs at the State Fair, not at a scuba trade show.

Again guys, great job and hope to see you next year!

 

[Crazyduck]

my review of Seapace is listed under the sticky.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=2808804&postcount=88

Hydro- you nerd, I wish I knew you were going to be there we could have meet up.

Regards, Andrew

 

[parrotheaddiver]

My first time too and I also enjoyed seeing some old friends. The biggest highlights for me were the HUPS photo display (awesome job, guys!) in the exhibit area and the photography workshops. I got some great deals at the silent auction and some friends got a great deal on an auction trip too (saved about $1,000).

The exhibit hall mix really reminded me of the old Dive Dallas shows, with a predominance of travel booths, some manufacturers of dive & photo equipment, a few clubs and a smidgeon of odds & ends. People may complain about the mix, but I thought it was good overall and well, if there's an alternative show to attend in Texas, I'd like to hear about it.

A few suggestions for future organizers:
1) You might consider putting more detailed instructions in the mailing for advance purchase tickets- where to go once you arrive, etc. I spent about 15 minutes in line to have my badge stapled to a plastic holder.
2) You might consider staffing the ticket sales booth heavier during peak periods and also have a few more credit card machines
3) You may want to be more selective on who you give a booth too. Green Mt Energy belongs at the State Fair, not at a scuba trade show.

Again guys, great job and hope to see you next year!

Mark nice seeing you again and having lunch with you on Saturday....glad you had a good time didn't realize it was your first time there....you are pretty much right on with your comments...have fun in Indonesia....I want to see some great shots...with all the information you got from the seminars you may be able to enter your pictures next year

 

[hydro12]

Hydro- you nerd, I wish I knew you were going to be there we could have meet up.

Andrew,

I was just reading your post in the Sticky Sea Space thread about you working the Dive Rite booth - I was thinking the same thing. I wish I had known you were there; I stopped by the Dive Rite booth on Sunday around 2pm to just check stuff out and would have picked your brain (although everyone at the booth at that time was tied up helping folks) had I known.

 

[Wookie]

I thought the show was a rousing sucess, compared to previous years. Our booth was constantly packed with people, new customers and old, asking about the changes to the Spree, how to book, the differences in the Gulf Diving boats, etc. Most of the people there were serious divers, not just tire kickers. Granted, We had an excellent booth location, but every vendor I spoke with had a great show and promised to be back next year. Seaspace has come very close to dying, and I think that would be a shame. Many of the manufacturers weren't there due to a "boycott" of some of the Houston dive stores. These shops are upset that retail sales were allowed, and were afraid that the show floor would turn into a flea market. Nothing was further from the truth. The manufacturers were very careful not to step on their shops toes and undersell them, and some of the shops represented did a brisk business in non-life-support gear. It was a great opportunity to meet and make plans with training agencies, gear manufacturers, ond other travel destinations. We helped convince one shop in Cozumel to stock helium for gas blending, so that trimix will be available in Cozumel. I did my trimix open water checkout dives in Coz, and it was way better than Lake Travis. We may have another new destination for the Spree soon, and I could not have made those contacts without a trade show environment. If you felt that the show was small, talk to your LDS and ask them why they weren't there. Many dive shop owners cannot see that the industry is changing around them, and are stuck in an old paradigm of what a dive shop should look like. I am a full time supporter of dive shops, but shop owners must be flexible when it comes to their business. Dive shops who insist on doing business the old fashioned way are going to be left in the dust. Business must be chased after and nurtured. Those who wait for divers to fall from the sky will be waiting a long time. Getting your name out there and being visible is what it's all about. I really think next years show will be bigger and better, as many of the exhibitors at this years show vowed to return.

 

[Crazyduck]

Too funny...
I had to leave at noon to do some thing around the house.
Sorry missing you at the show.
Pickle away anytime.

Regards, Andrew

Andrew,

I was just reading your post in the Sticky Sea Space thread about you working the Dive Rite booth - I was thinking the same thing. I wish I had known you were there; I stopped by the Dive Rite booth on Sunday around 2pm to just check stuff out and would have picked your brain (although everyone at the booth at that time was tied up helping folks) had I known.

 

[scubabum2]

Mark nice seeing you again and having lunch with you on Saturday....glad you had a good time didn't realize it was your first time there....you are pretty much right on with your comments...have fun in Indonesia....I want to see some great shots...with all the information you got from the seminars you may be able to enter your pictures next year

Ann it was great having lunch with you guys too! Made me really miss our fun Cozumel trip last July. Speaking of pictures, I still have a few pictures from that trip that you might be interested in - PM me your address and I'll burn a CD for you. They're not HUPS exhibit quality, but there are a few I'm proud of.

 

[RTRski]

Thanks for the comments divewookie. And I have to admit I'm a bit more pleased as I just got a call indicating I won the bidding on your generously offered Spree gift certificate, at just enough of a discount I feel like I paid for the drive down and hotel room with a bit to spare, but not so much of a discount I'll feel guilty that the organizers didn't get good use of your excellent donation!!

Just waiting for the 'check to clear' to confirm it's all kosher, get the paper in the mail, and I'll be on the horn with y'all or thru my LDS, however I need to set it up, to get scheduled. No doubt I'll have to buy another seat at full price as the wife won't let me go solo....

It honestly is good to hear that an exhibitor considered it a positive experience - that kind of feedback is good for those who took a pass on it to see and help them decide for next year. I did like some of the suggestions made in the stickied thread about how to make it better still, but not being an exhibitor myself maybe I don't know what I'm talking about... . Being from DFW, I really never even considered the whole LDS vs. show sales issue (I was travelling in to visit...why wouldn't mfrgs, reps, and shops?), was just curious about why there wasn't more "stuff" on offer, but now I kind of get it. Maybe that can be worked on constructively, and maybe not (the Zeagle rep for example gave me their show discount specials, but you had to buy from their official local dealers, of which he had a list...how much more respectful can they be??). But either way, as negative as I have been in my prior thread about the direction trade shows seem to be going, I would very much like to be proven wrong!

 

[parrotheaddiver]

Mark... you got at pm

 

[scubapro50]

Was my first time there, but I have to admit it was about what I expected it to be; perhaps a little smaller. More tour/travel operators than anything else, and some of the tour/travel operators looks pretty disappointed with the turnout and frankly not too enthused to be there. Even the 'deals' didn't seem that good....can do as well with good internet search and comparison shopping skills...and there's the rub, ain't it? Since people can, they will...and shows like this will continue to be supplanted by it.

I didn't mind the prevalence of travel sites, but I guess I was hoping to actually learn a bit more about some of them rather than just get gladhanded with a pile of pamphlets. Like most of you, I've probably got a good idea of where I'd like to go dive in terms of islands - but that doesn't mean I can't still be swayed in choice of hotel, etc. Only the tourism board type booths seemed to me to really want to discuss details and options and in general answer questions...everyone else just wanted to hawk their packages. (And of course tourism boards aren't exactly unbiased, so when I'm saying they were the ones I liked talking too, that kind of says something...)

Driving down from DFW I probably didn't need to get a hotel and plan to drive back Sunday a.m., but since I was already on the hook for cancellation charges by the time I decided I'd seen enough about 4pm Saturday, just took it easy. With the weekend rain it was probably a good plan, regardless.

I've been to several conferences for work too (electrical engineering related) and it seems like they're ALL going downhill. Being a dedicated computer geek I read the same thing about the formerly premiere computer equipment cons too like CeBIT, etc which are almost all either dead (E3 for example) or dying. With the prevalence of info exchange on the internet, it seems like showing up is just something people do so no one can say they weren't there...not like they see it as a way to really gain adherents and truly engage with their supposed customer and potential population. The days where the conferences were the only place that vendors and customers really got together in a giant group like that are kind of falling by the wayside; the internet provides more data all the time, without the travel expenses (and without the personal touch, but again, it didn't seem like the attendees on the booth side for the most part really put out the effort to provide that missing element, with a few exceptions).

That said there were a few highlights. I found the gentlemen from Waterproof to be pretty fun to talk to, and while their product is a bit out of my price and need range (although I did lust after their shorties), I was quite impressed by the quality and features of their wetsuits. I definitely bid on their wetsuit in the silent auction (no call yet - must not've won it with my max bid ). The rep from Zeagle was also great, spent quite a bit of time with me discussing BC and reg upgrade options, and didn't even laugh at me when I said I wished Zeagle did something kind of 'AirTrim-like'. He was a great representative of his company's products and attitude toward the diving consumer, which is exactly the type of person you should have at a show like that! The Ikelite people were fairly helpful, and the Reef Photo and Vid guys were even more so (no slam on the Ikelite people intended - my questions really were more camera than enclosure related, so more in the ballpark of the Reef guys...). And there was a couple selling 'fun' custom wetsuits and whatnot that I'd never wear personally (I'm a no-fun sort of fuddy-duddy) but I could tell they were really trying to keep a good attitude and appreciated their enthusiasm. Had to have been disappointing for them, I suppose - I didn't get the impression that the turnout was 'worth it' for expenses unless they're pretty local. And of course I made the obligatory FG donation for my Tshirt...

All in all, I'm glad I went. Not sure I'll feel I "must" go next year - and if I do, definitely won't bother with a hotel room unless the exhibit size seems way bigger.... I can empathize with the exhibitors, having done that sort of thing myself for many a year in another industry, having my own management breathing down my neck that it was all about 'lead generation' and not to waste time talking to current customers we wouldn't get more money out of anytime soon. So the customers get jaded, the exhibitors are forced to try to do more and more to just get attention (silly gadgets and bling), and the whole spirit dies a little more.

I don't have a past history to look back on to say how it was compared to prior years...I just saw something kind of like any other current conference I've been to in the last 2-3 years....

I do have a history with both SeaSpace and the Houston Underwater Club going back almost 30 years. The 2005 show was larger but then I wasn't impressed with that one either. The best SeaSpace shows were given at the HILTON in downtown Houston. They had about the same amount of booths but had a better mix of vendors. The Hilton shows also featured underwater photo contests that had entries from all over the world sent in to compete for prizes. The photo constest became so large that it took weeks to sort through and judge the entries. At that time they had a video contest and several dozen entries also. It was great not only to see these films but talk to the people who made them. There are several problems going on at SeaSpace. First let me tell everyone that putting on a regional show is a lot of work. Today SeaSpace is a nonprofit organization and 99% of the work is done by volunteers. In the distant past it was run by the Houston Underwater Club as their yearly main event. I for one would like to see major changes. (1) move the show back to a major hotel/convention complex (2) Remove the restrictions on selling merchandise. This may make some local shops mad but you need to look at the larger picture. Seaspace at one time was getting national attention. Go back and check SKIN DIVER magazines from the 80s and 90s and see how large it was and the attention it was getting. (3) BRING BACK THE PHOTO CONTESTS .... showing great pictures is one thing but haveing the public involved by partipating is just plain better. (4) Get the big boys back to the show. I have talked with Phil Mintz about this and the attitude is that regional shows aren't worth the expense. We must figure away to change this attitude and get the big three (Aqualung, Scubapro and Mares) back to the shows. (5) Remember that the majority of vistors to SeaSpace are already divers. When I worked with Joe Jordan at BlueWater Divers we did sign up new customers who wanted to learn how to dive but found that targeting the already certified divers and getting them involved in advance courses and was a great source of income for the shop. (6) Do more workshops and advertise them so people know they are going on. In the past I can remember standing room only for some of the better ones. Not only have the major scuba comapnies (#4) highlight their products and answer questions in a "classroom" enviroment but do more with subjects lkie equipment maintance, local dives (both fresh and saltwater), computers, specifics of cave or wreck diving ... what you need to know that the "basic" course didn't teach (5) Internet vs your local shop ... good or bad ... what do you get or lose by shopping either one. .............. WELL MY SUGESTIONS could go on for another thousand words or so but I'm running out of time this morning. I would hate to see regional shows like SeaSpace die ... they are fun to attend. I didn't see too many old friends from past shows at SeaSpace this year (PUNKY ... where were you?) but did get to meet and talk to several people I hope to get to know better and have a chance to go diving with in the comming months.