This is the first time that I attended Beneath The Sea. In January I was at the Baltimore/DC Dive Show which I thought was nice and quaint. BTS appears to be another animal altogether.
Wow, is it big. I was told it would be a large show but I was pleasantly surprised at just how large it was. I have been to large shows before, bigger than this one, but, BTS certainly ranks up there as one of the largest. The shear quantity of vendors really made this show successful.
I arrived on Friday and did a quick scan walk around. It was relatively busy but not all vendors were set up yet. I attended 2 seminars Friday evening to make the $20 cost ($5 DAN discount applied) worth the preview.
Saturday my non-diving girlfriend and I were one of the first through the door and I basically followed her lead, curious as to what would get her interest. With the amount of travel vendors present, we were there for 3 hours just getting info on trips. I really did not stop at any equipment vendors in this 3 hour span. She even made a mask purchase for snorkeling. From there we grabbed a quick lunch and attended a seminar about traveling to Fiji.
Saturday afternoon I was on my own to do my stops which focused mainly on equipment and a visit to an operator that I am going to dive with at the end of this week. After getting my fill and dealing with really sore feet, I decided to call it quits and head back to the hotel. I have decided not to go back on Sunday (today) as I truly saw everything I needed to over 1-1/2 days. Here are my thoughts on the show:
Positive comments:
*Very large amount of vendors.(most important)
*Many vendors had give-a-ways.
*Seminars on all 3 days.
*Training courses available.
*Variety of vendors
*Food/beverage available without having to leave.
*Well organized and open just enough days/time.
Negative comments:
*We stayed at the Sheraton and had to take a shuttle. I did not know it was far away from the expo since it was listed as the "host hotel". I would have expected the host hotel to be at the expo center.
*Not enough bathrooms for the amount of people present.
*Some of the vendors had a booth but were never present at the booth (their loss)
*There were not any areas (other than a small food area) to sit down and take a break. Usually these areas are present and proved popular which also promotes people to stay longer and continue stopping at vendor booths.
*The seminars were located at 3 different buildings which made it difficult to go from one to the other. If I was at a seminar in the expo center from 1-2 then wanted to see another seminar that was at the Holiday Inn, I had to walk outside and missed the first 10 minutes of the seminar.
Overall it was a great experience but truth be told this function has appeared to have outgrown the area it is hosted in. The much smaller Baltimore DC show could have been easily hosted here but BTS would have been much better if located at a better, larger location such as the Baltimore Convention center which could have easily handled a show of this size. The Baltimore DC boat show was larger than BTS and was hosted at the same time the dive show was. There were actually 3 shows going on at the same time in Baltimore. Once you were in the building, you could go to all seminars within seconds to minutes. Unless there is a better local venue to host this very large, well appreciated event, it continues to "burst at the seams" and needs to be relocated to an area that can handle all of the vendors, seminars and keeps the hotels all within walking distance. I am not trying to promote the Baltimore Convention Center, simply demonstrate that a show the size of BTS needs a convention center of that size.
This does not take away from the amount of work put into this by committee members. They are doing the best they can with what they are given. It may be time for them to seriously look into a better option for a show of this size.
Wow, is it big. I was told it would be a large show but I was pleasantly surprised at just how large it was. I have been to large shows before, bigger than this one, but, BTS certainly ranks up there as one of the largest. The shear quantity of vendors really made this show successful.
I arrived on Friday and did a quick scan walk around. It was relatively busy but not all vendors were set up yet. I attended 2 seminars Friday evening to make the $20 cost ($5 DAN discount applied) worth the preview.
Saturday my non-diving girlfriend and I were one of the first through the door and I basically followed her lead, curious as to what would get her interest. With the amount of travel vendors present, we were there for 3 hours just getting info on trips. I really did not stop at any equipment vendors in this 3 hour span. She even made a mask purchase for snorkeling. From there we grabbed a quick lunch and attended a seminar about traveling to Fiji.
Saturday afternoon I was on my own to do my stops which focused mainly on equipment and a visit to an operator that I am going to dive with at the end of this week. After getting my fill and dealing with really sore feet, I decided to call it quits and head back to the hotel. I have decided not to go back on Sunday (today) as I truly saw everything I needed to over 1-1/2 days. Here are my thoughts on the show:
Positive comments:
*Very large amount of vendors.(most important)
*Many vendors had give-a-ways.
*Seminars on all 3 days.
*Training courses available.
*Variety of vendors
*Food/beverage available without having to leave.
*Well organized and open just enough days/time.
Negative comments:
*We stayed at the Sheraton and had to take a shuttle. I did not know it was far away from the expo since it was listed as the "host hotel". I would have expected the host hotel to be at the expo center.
*Not enough bathrooms for the amount of people present.
*Some of the vendors had a booth but were never present at the booth (their loss)
*There were not any areas (other than a small food area) to sit down and take a break. Usually these areas are present and proved popular which also promotes people to stay longer and continue stopping at vendor booths.
*The seminars were located at 3 different buildings which made it difficult to go from one to the other. If I was at a seminar in the expo center from 1-2 then wanted to see another seminar that was at the Holiday Inn, I had to walk outside and missed the first 10 minutes of the seminar.
Overall it was a great experience but truth be told this function has appeared to have outgrown the area it is hosted in. The much smaller Baltimore DC show could have been easily hosted here but BTS would have been much better if located at a better, larger location such as the Baltimore Convention center which could have easily handled a show of this size. The Baltimore DC boat show was larger than BTS and was hosted at the same time the dive show was. There were actually 3 shows going on at the same time in Baltimore. Once you were in the building, you could go to all seminars within seconds to minutes. Unless there is a better local venue to host this very large, well appreciated event, it continues to "burst at the seams" and needs to be relocated to an area that can handle all of the vendors, seminars and keeps the hotels all within walking distance. I am not trying to promote the Baltimore Convention Center, simply demonstrate that a show the size of BTS needs a convention center of that size.
This does not take away from the amount of work put into this by committee members. They are doing the best they can with what they are given. It may be time for them to seriously look into a better option for a show of this size.
