telemonster
Contributor
For those that missed it there was a DC Dive Show this weekend. It featured industry events on Friday followed by public access on Saturday.
There was a vendor hall with a decent lineup of vendors as well as some panel rooms in the nearby hallway with various talks going on throughout the day.
I volunteered with the local Washington Area Meetup Group (via meetup.com, DC/VA/MD) which I am a regular at. So this brought me in on Friday for a few minutes to setup video screen and some up-lights, then returned Saturday way early. Was pretty tired the entire day just from getting up early but that's okay.
I have never been to a SCUBA show of any sorts. I have heard of BTS in NJ and DEMA, but never attended. I have been invovled with "cons" (Music and Gaming, Anime, Scifi) type stuff so know a bit about the hotel and backend side.
So my rundown....
Venue was nice. The DC Convention Center is pretty awesome. The vendor room seemed sized pretty decently for the crowd that attended. Metro was definitely the wise choice if you could pull it off. Nearby parking was a bit of the challenge. The DCCC is MASSIVE, and the dive show was in a ballroom and a few meeting rooms on the 3rd floor. The vendor room was pipe and draped, and on carpeted floor so the noise level was nice compared to being on concrete expo hall space.
There was another event going on that I believe was much larger. During arrival on Saturday before opening we got to hear drum line/marching band type performance though the wall which as former band geek was pretty cool. I assume it was warm up, didn't hear them again after doors opened to DCDS at 9:30am which is good. Venue could hold many events without issue, but neighboring events can bring more car traffic thus making parking more competitive. Probably wasn't an issue, but I lucked out getting the last parking spot in the nearby surface lot ($25) and I arrived pretty early at 8AM. Another person from our group said he had to work a bit to find a spot. Metro and uber are easy options.
Event price point I believe was $35 at door or $25 in advance... Convention space without hotel room commits doesn't come free, I get the price point and it was fair.
The vendor selection... I'm a bit of a geek that is more into technology stuff in addition to diving and was afraid it was mostly going to be people pitching trips. Trips are cool, but a lot of times my trip selection is based on where friends go and I have a mental backlog of places I want to go so I'm not hunting for random trip opportunities. There definitely was a number of exciting looking trip opportunities, as well as Conch Republic Divers out of Tavernier Florida (A bit South of Key Largo.) That was cool, and is a large part of diving. I don't know about any price breaks but it is likely there were some.
But when it comes to hardware, my expectations were beat. Hands down. DiveSoft from .cz was there showing off their beautiful computers/controllers, rebreather parts, analyzers and the Titan CCR. DiveRite, DUI/OMS, and someone representing the awesome looking X-CCR and a nice looking scooter was there. Columbia Scuba working with DiveRite I think with a neat setup of an Optima using a DiveSoft BOV with MAV/ADV made for a streamlines setup. Light vendor, art vendors, DiveHeart, and a number of shops including Coral Edge (endcap), Nautilus Aquatics I believe, Columbia Scuba, The Dive Shack and others. Prescription Dive Masks, Nuvair analzyers/booster pumps/compressor systems and Shearwater were there. Juturna Springs was on site with info about the upcoming season at their quarry up near Fredrick MD. I am totally missing a number of vendors and people so I apologize in advance just recalling what caught my eye. PADI had a large booth. I didn't notice any IANTD or TDI/SDI booths.
This beat my expectations by far!!
There was some live music entertainment which set a good vibe in the vendor hall, worked well. Wasn't too loud. Steel drums and Singler/Songwriter acoustic act as I recall.
The break out sessions in panel rooms, I missed a lot of ones I was interested in but there was a pretty good list of presentations. I'm sure the information is still on dcdiveshow.com with the schedule. From North Carolina wrecks to Cave Diving to Medicine/Careers in diving medicine there were things that should be of interest to a wide variety of divers.
Food is standard convention center food. Overpriced, but that is usual since these type of venues contract out to 3rd parties that get to set their high prices. The venue was in easy walking distance of many other local options if you felt like breaking away for a bit. Re-entry was no issue of course. There was food and a bar in the vendor room which made it super easy if you didn't want to get away. $3.75 for a bottle soda, $12 or so for a sub or pizza.
I even ran into a few diver friends that I haven't seen in a long time, so it was nice to reconnect. Will be grabbing a beer or two with a friends I haven't seen in a good while soon which is an added bonus.
Overall, the event beat my expectations. Hopefully it continues to grow. Not sure what the marketing reach was but there seemed to be a pretty steady stream of attendees.
Not sure how it compared to the earlier version of the show that used to be in Baltimore.
There was a vendor hall with a decent lineup of vendors as well as some panel rooms in the nearby hallway with various talks going on throughout the day.
I volunteered with the local Washington Area Meetup Group (via meetup.com, DC/VA/MD) which I am a regular at. So this brought me in on Friday for a few minutes to setup video screen and some up-lights, then returned Saturday way early. Was pretty tired the entire day just from getting up early but that's okay.
I have never been to a SCUBA show of any sorts. I have heard of BTS in NJ and DEMA, but never attended. I have been invovled with "cons" (Music and Gaming, Anime, Scifi) type stuff so know a bit about the hotel and backend side.
So my rundown....
Venue was nice. The DC Convention Center is pretty awesome. The vendor room seemed sized pretty decently for the crowd that attended. Metro was definitely the wise choice if you could pull it off. Nearby parking was a bit of the challenge. The DCCC is MASSIVE, and the dive show was in a ballroom and a few meeting rooms on the 3rd floor. The vendor room was pipe and draped, and on carpeted floor so the noise level was nice compared to being on concrete expo hall space.
There was another event going on that I believe was much larger. During arrival on Saturday before opening we got to hear drum line/marching band type performance though the wall which as former band geek was pretty cool. I assume it was warm up, didn't hear them again after doors opened to DCDS at 9:30am which is good. Venue could hold many events without issue, but neighboring events can bring more car traffic thus making parking more competitive. Probably wasn't an issue, but I lucked out getting the last parking spot in the nearby surface lot ($25) and I arrived pretty early at 8AM. Another person from our group said he had to work a bit to find a spot. Metro and uber are easy options.
Event price point I believe was $35 at door or $25 in advance... Convention space without hotel room commits doesn't come free, I get the price point and it was fair.
The vendor selection... I'm a bit of a geek that is more into technology stuff in addition to diving and was afraid it was mostly going to be people pitching trips. Trips are cool, but a lot of times my trip selection is based on where friends go and I have a mental backlog of places I want to go so I'm not hunting for random trip opportunities. There definitely was a number of exciting looking trip opportunities, as well as Conch Republic Divers out of Tavernier Florida (A bit South of Key Largo.) That was cool, and is a large part of diving. I don't know about any price breaks but it is likely there were some.
But when it comes to hardware, my expectations were beat. Hands down. DiveSoft from .cz was there showing off their beautiful computers/controllers, rebreather parts, analyzers and the Titan CCR. DiveRite, DUI/OMS, and someone representing the awesome looking X-CCR and a nice looking scooter was there. Columbia Scuba working with DiveRite I think with a neat setup of an Optima using a DiveSoft BOV with MAV/ADV made for a streamlines setup. Light vendor, art vendors, DiveHeart, and a number of shops including Coral Edge (endcap), Nautilus Aquatics I believe, Columbia Scuba, The Dive Shack and others. Prescription Dive Masks, Nuvair analzyers/booster pumps/compressor systems and Shearwater were there. Juturna Springs was on site with info about the upcoming season at their quarry up near Fredrick MD. I am totally missing a number of vendors and people so I apologize in advance just recalling what caught my eye. PADI had a large booth. I didn't notice any IANTD or TDI/SDI booths.
This beat my expectations by far!!
There was some live music entertainment which set a good vibe in the vendor hall, worked well. Wasn't too loud. Steel drums and Singler/Songwriter acoustic act as I recall.
The break out sessions in panel rooms, I missed a lot of ones I was interested in but there was a pretty good list of presentations. I'm sure the information is still on dcdiveshow.com with the schedule. From North Carolina wrecks to Cave Diving to Medicine/Careers in diving medicine there were things that should be of interest to a wide variety of divers.
Food is standard convention center food. Overpriced, but that is usual since these type of venues contract out to 3rd parties that get to set their high prices. The venue was in easy walking distance of many other local options if you felt like breaking away for a bit. Re-entry was no issue of course. There was food and a bar in the vendor room which made it super easy if you didn't want to get away. $3.75 for a bottle soda, $12 or so for a sub or pizza.
I even ran into a few diver friends that I haven't seen in a long time, so it was nice to reconnect. Will be grabbing a beer or two with a friends I haven't seen in a good while soon which is an added bonus.
Overall, the event beat my expectations. Hopefully it continues to grow. Not sure what the marketing reach was but there seemed to be a pretty steady stream of attendees.
Not sure how it compared to the earlier version of the show that used to be in Baltimore.
