How does DEMA affect the average diver

[mike_s]

Although you don't see it, Dema does affect everyone of you. Sometimes it depends on how much your LDS owner takes away from the show. There are LOTS of seminars from repairs, to retaining students, to lowering costs and being more efficient...even seminars on using the web to grow. Their are some great tools for people to use. That doesn't mean they always use them. I spoke at one of the seminars last year with about 40 people in it...who knows what they walked away with or tried to implement....but there was some great info in the entire seminar!

Your shop can find, better pricing for you, new class offerings(more agencies), better repair training for fixing your equipment, get away from the shop and come back refreshed, find new equipment to bring back for you or better pricing on current equipment due to networking, come back with more knowledge on current trends in the industry that help their customer base which is you, figure out new ways to bring in and retain more divers that grows(your dive club, your dive community, creates demand lowering their prices, makes more dive buddies for you) and of course different travel options and specials that benefit those not wanting to sit on SB all day and go on a vacation

There is ALOT the show does or I should say can do to benefit you. You just don't see the benefits unless you look a little deeper. That doesn't meant the show couldn't be better, but what in this world couldn't be better.

If Dema went away, you might not see a big difference, but your also not looking at the shops books, student counts, or business growth....which really does affect you no matter how much you try to say it doesn't.

Remember, your dive shops success brings more into the dive community and DEMA is trying to give them options to improve! If you don't like what they do, tell them....if they listen, GREAT! If not, go to another shop and let the weak fail and the strong survive. It does help EVERYONE to have them around and introducing more to this great sport we all fell in love with! More people to dive with, more people buying equipment and helping lower prices and bring in new equipment, going on trips and filling that extra couple spots needed, more awareness about environment and protecting our oceans, there is always some things you don't think about

If the DEMA show didn't happen, LDS's would still get info. They would still get pricing, etc.

Manufacturers have incentive plans all the time to get LDS's to order. They have them for DEMA also. Usually they last a lot longer than DEMA also, because they want your order...

if the show goes away, the manufacturers will still want your order. It won't stop.

 

[RonFrank]

DEMA's #1 priority is DEMA. I don't see them going anywhere even if there is some debate. They don't seem to want a lot of outside input.

If DEMA does go the way of the dinosaur, than something else will replace it.

 

[The Chairman]

Mike, we are in the process of changing our booth location. The show is a LOT smaller than the map we picked off of (%40+ smaller???) and so we now appear to be at one corner of the show. We are hoping to move a bit towards center both physically and philosophically.

where will scubaboard be?
Will scubaboard have a booth? If so, what number?

ScubaBoard will now be in Booth 607!
​

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I don't like the whole idea of a dealer and dealer associated attendance only event. I used to be an R&D person for an airbrush paint company and we did many shows including the SEMA show in Vegas. Thousands of dollars for a booth!!. It was a show identical to the DEMA show except for anything automotive related. We would get lots of paint store owners and shop owners looking at our stuff, but they weren't the ones even using it. All they cared about was margin and how much room was the display going to take up.
The shop owners were a little better because some of them maybe used the stuff.

We did much better when they would send me out to the paint stores or custom shops to do a physical demo and show the guys off the street how to spray the stuff, it's capabilities and answer questions directly.
The store/shop would advertise the seminar for a few weeks in advance and we generally had about 40 to 50 people attend. They would provide pizzas and sodas and everybody would have a great time.

We also had better success doing smaller cheaper shows that allowed the general public to attend. We had a chance to talk directly with the end user of the product and answer their questions first hand.

I don't see where the dive business is much different. I would be good to have the makers of this gear to talk one on one with the person who uses it. The guys working at my LDS don't really even dive much anymore, how are they going to know what works and what doesn't.
I don't like the idea that some mucky muck decides I'm too stupid to know any better and thinks they're just going to feed me their info and products through my LDS. I want to personally see what's out there, not rely on my deadbeat LDS owner to tell me what's out there.

I think there needs to be more open local shows and more direct contact with the the avarage Joe Diver to help grow the sport and get back some enthusiasm.

 

[PhilEllis]

I want to personally see what's out there, not rely on my deadbeat LDS owner to tell me what's out there.

I fear we, as an industry, may never live down this impression. How sad.

Phil Ellis
Discount Scuba Gear at DiveSports.com - Buy Scuba Diving Equipment & Snorkeling Equipment

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Although you don't see it, Dema does affect everyone of you. Sometimes it depends on how much your LDS owner takes away from the show. There are LOTS of seminars from repairs, to retaining students, to lowering costs and being more efficient...even seminars on using the web to grow. Their are some great tools for people to use. That doesn't mean they always use them. I spoke at one of the seminars last year with about 40 people in it...who knows what they walked away with or tried to implement....but there was some great info in the entire seminar!

Your shop can find, better pricing for you, new class offerings(more agencies), better repair training for fixing your equipment, get away from the shop and come back refreshed, find new equipment to bring back for you or better pricing on current equipment due to networking, come back with more knowledge on current trends in the industry that help their customer base which is you, figure out new ways to bring in and retain more divers that grows(your dive club, your dive community, creates demand lowering their prices, makes more dive buddies for you) and of course different travel options and specials that benefit those not wanting to sit on SB all day and go on a vacation

There is ALOT the show does or I should say can do to benefit you. You just don't see the benefits unless you look a little deeper. That doesn't meant the show couldn't be better, but what in this world couldn't be better.

If Dema went away, you might not see a big difference, but your also not looking at the shops books, student counts, or business growth....which really does affect you no matter how much you try to say it doesn't.

Remember, your dive shops success brings more into the dive community and DEMA is trying to give them options to improve! If you don't like what they do, tell them....if they listen, GREAT! If not, go to another shop and let the weak fail and the strong survive. It does help EVERYONE to have them around and introducing more to this great sport we all fell in love with! More people to dive with, more people buying equipment and helping lower prices and bring in new equipment, going on trips and filling that extra couple spots needed, more awareness about environment and protecting our oceans, there is always some things you don't think about

I tend to believe that anything occurring at DEMA could be done ... and probably more efficiently ... at the various regional dive shows and expos that occur throughout the country every year. I think these shows have a lot more impact on end users and local dive businesses than a centralized show that is exclusionary and remote from almost everyone who participates.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[mike_s]

I don't like the whole idea of a dealer and dealer associated attendance only event. I used to be an R&D person for an airbrush paint company and we did many shows including the SEMA show in Vegas. Thousands of dollars for a booth!!. It was a show identical to the DEMA show except for anything automotive related. We would get lots of paint store owners and shop owners looking at our stuff, but they weren't the ones even using it. All they cared about was margin and how much room was the display going to take up.
The shop owners were a little better because some of them maybe used the stuff.

We did much better when they would send me out to the paint stores or custom shops to do a physical demo and show the guys off the street how to spray the stuff, it's capabilities and answer questions directly.
The store/shop would advertise the seminar for a few weeks in advance and we generally had about 40 to 50 people attend. They would provide pizzas and sodas and everybody would have a great time.

We also had better success doing smaller cheaper shows that allowed the general public to attend. We had a chance to talk directly with the end user of the product and answer their questions first hand.

I don't see where the dive business is much different. I would be good to have the makers of this gear to talk one on one with the person who uses it. The guys working at my LDS don't really even dive much anymore, how are they going to know what works and what doesn't.
I don't like the idea that some mucky muck decides I'm too stupid to know any better and thinks they're just going to feed me their info and products through my LDS. I want to personally see what's out there, not rely on my deadbeat LDS owner to tell me what's out there.

I think there needs to be more open local shows and more direct contact with the the avarage Joe Diver to help grow the sport and get back some enthusiasm.

Having been involved with "professional shows" that were open to the public, I can see certain issues with the "general public" coming to "professional shows".

You're trying to sell large orders to large buyers. You don't want your sales force spending all their time with someone talking about a $15 item for half an hour. There is a place for that at "consumer shows". and Yes I'd like to see more local scuba "consumer shows"


However, a perfect example of a ruined professional show by the public was we had a large electronics manufacturing show at our local civic center. The show ran Friday and Saturday. Friday was supposed to be open to professionals and saturday the rest of the general public.

Well, a local school system wanted to expose their high school kids to all the technology at the show, so they brought them down by the busload. I mean 10-15 buses pulled up, each packed with 40+ kids. You couldn't walk for all the high school kids. People got frustrated and left, not giving the vendors a chance to "show their stuff". The kids hit the booths and sucked up all the freebies (coffee cups, pins, gimics, etc.) The large amount of High School kids in the booths frustrated the vendors who paid good money for their booths and many of them traveled to get there.

In the end, the show suffered. It really suffered. The next year most of the vendors didn't buy booth space because of complications of the previous year. The show got even smaller the next year as the "big names" pulled out, there were no "anchors" to get the smaller booths filled.

Now... the show is no longer.

DEMA show is headed that way. This year many of the "big names" choose not to participate in DEMA show. DEMA gave many of them "free booth space" to get them to come. They are holding on by a string.....

 

[Scott L]

Mike, we are in the process of changing our booth location. The show is a LOT smaller than the map we picked off of (%40+ smaller???) and so we now appear to be at one corner of the show. We are hoping to move a bit towards center both physically and philosophically.

ScubaBoard will now be in Booth 607!
​

Hopefully your excellent business acumen had you secure the services of several hot models to hand out SB stuff?

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

I tend to believe that anything occurring at DEMA could be done ... and probably more efficiently ... at the various regional dive shows and expos that occur throughout the country every year. I think these shows have a lot more impact on end users and local dive businesses than a centralized show that is exclusionary and remote from almost everyone who participates.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Its nice to be the customer somewhere though too.....its a show for US, not the consumer. Again, not all shops utilize all the info properly, and thats their fault. I don't have time at a local show to learn...because I have to work my booth. I want to walk the show, and be a customer...I like DEMA for this reason. Its a show for ME....that I can have a few drinks at and not worry about pissing off a customer or getting bashed for it.

 

[The Chairman]

Hopefully your excellent business acumen had you secure the services of several hot models to hand out SB stuff?

Dude, that you would describe ScubaKevDM as a "hot model" speaks volumes!