Shows & Events Are Important
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Building a Global Diving Community takes a lot of strategic thinking, organized planning, business knowledge, and a love for diving.  Putting a plan together that organizes the recreational diving industry takes a fair amount of insight into consumer behavior and an understanding of how goods and services in our supply and demand chains flow from conception to consumption.   That is what Dive Industry Planners are for.  We focus on the best ways to grow the recreational diving industry for the sake of the Global Diving Community.  Diving is fun.  For most it is a recreation.  Pure and simple.  Of course, for many others across the globe it could be an experience, a hobby, a profession, or even a working tool that is used in the collateral duties of another profession.  We realize that scuba diving and other aspects of diving are used in the military, public safety, law enforcement, educational institutions, marine sciences, and the health professions, to name just a few.   Our job as industry planners is not to split hairs on what defines a diver but to make sure that our Global Diving Business Network is run professionally and ethically to ensures that our recreation is safe and enjoyable for the millions of people who participate in diving and diving related activities.  While we cannot be everything to everybody that participates in diving, we should strive to address the specific needs and wants of the millions of divers in the world to the best of our ability.

To help maintain and grow the recreational diving industry, our message to the general public is:

• • • • • Learn to Dive
        • Buy Your Gear
        • Go Diving
        • Stay Active

Attending diving and diving related shows and events is an exceptional way for divers to stay active in our recreation.  There is nothing better than a world-class, face-to-face event where attendees can participate in seminars and workshops, see the latest diving equipment and technology, get updated on dive training techniques, learn about diving in new exotic dive destinations, meet Dive Industry Leaders, and socialize with peers and colleagues.   The recreational diving industry has been conducting trade and consumer dive shows for over 60 years.  As an industry planner and dive historian who specializes in shows & events, I have access to at least 50 years’ worth of materials, brochures, and data from some of the most popular dive, surf, travel, and outdoor shows.  I have seen and experienced numerous trade and consumer shows that start, grow, succeed, and fail.

Trade, Consumer, or Hybrid Shows & Events:  In the recreational diving industry we have trade shows, consumer shows, and professional development conferences.  Trade shows are designed to bring buyers and sellers together.  The attendees are wholesale buyers, group buyers, and decision makers in the trade and are there to purchase programs, products, and services at wholesale prices from their vendors, to resell at the retail level.  Consumer dive shows and trade shows are created to inform, educate, entertain, or sell to end users of diving programs, products, and services.  Professional Development Conferences are for anyone in the industry who is interested in continuing education for a recreation, hobby, or profession.  Hybrid shows in the diving industry attract wholesale and retail exhibitors who are looking to do business with wholesale, retail, or final consumer attendees.  To quote Rhonda Abrams, author of Trade Show in a Day. “At a trade show or expo, the primary action takes place on the exhibit hall floor.  Attendees are there to visit booths, and all non-exhibit activities are secondary.  At a conference, the opposite is true.  Attendees are there to go to seminars and educational sessions, visiting the exhibition hall only during breaks in their daily schedules.” 

The Dive Industry Association realizes how important Shows & Events are to the Dive Industry Professionals.  We maintain a Shows & Events page on our website.  In our Weekly News press release service to have a Shows & Events Countdown column.  We also publish a Shows & Events section in our monthly trade magazine, The Dive Industry Professional, and in our Industry Trade Directory that is updated monthly.  Our website, marketing, and social media analytics show us that our Shows & Events columns are the most popular features in all of our publications.

Trade and Consumer Show Components:  The major components of shows and events are exhibitors, presenters, sponsors, advertisers, and attendees.  That is not counting the venue staff and the show management and staff.  Putting a trade show or event together takes a team or teams of people to pull it off.  The composition of the show staff normally includes a major organizer, their paid staff for key roles, and an all-important volunteer staff.  We could write a book on the various show staffs we have known in the past 40 years.  Some good and some great.  When you have a few years and more than a few shows behind you, you get to know many of the trade show venues in the country.    It is best to make yourself knowledgeable about dealing with the shipping and receiving people, setup contractors, labor unions, furniture and fixture suppliers, local security, and venue services personnel.  A good source of information about suitable venues across the country is Smart Meetings, published by Bright Business Media, LLC.  Subscriptions are available at www.smartmeetings.com   

Exhibit Hall Layouts:  The are three common floor plan layouts for exhibit halls.  A Trade Show floor plan layout is normally designed for wholesale and group order writing at the show.  Exhibitor booths are designed to accommodate a limited number of products on display, adjacent to tables and chairs for small groups of buyers and their company salespeople.  Apparel companies typically have a small stage or runway for live models and a back wall with displayed products for order.  Vendors who have these types of booths prefer to schedule appointments with their dealers before or during the show but sometimes can accommodate walk-in buyers.  Exhibiting vendors at the Surf Expos in Orlando utilize this type of buyer / seller format and are very successful in writing orders at the show.  Having a booth setup for sales actually reduces the number of booths that are required for a successful order writing show.  Learn more about Surf Expo Exhibitors by going to www.SurfExpo.com

A common exhibit hall floor plan design in the diving industry is what I like to call a Show & Tell type of booth layout.  Because we are dealing with Dive Industry Trade Professionals (Qualified Retail Buyers) as well as Dive Industry Educational Professionals (Opinion Leaders) at dive trade shows, our exhibitors usually take out more exhibit booths to show their entire line of products.  We have seen over the years that the majority of booth man-hours is centered around talking about the features and benefits of products and answering questions from attendees.  Hence, Show & Tell instead of order writing.

Exhibitors:  Exhibitors are an important part of the trade and consumer show makeup.  Albeit they are not always the most important part.   As a general rule of thumb, the revenue received from the sale of exhibit booths pay for the venue.  At Film Shows, Educational Shows, and Professional Development Conferences, exhibitors contribute to the payment of the venue and help to reduce the price that show management charge the attendees for admission.  Learn more about being an exhibitor by subscribing to Exhibitor Magazine at www.ExhibitorOnline.com

Sponsors & Advertisers:  Sponsors and advertisers can play a significant role at shows and events.  At Professional Business Conferences, major exhibitors often spend great sums of money as show sponsors in order to gain access to seminar attendees.  With major show sponsors like Microsoft, Adobe, Meta, Google, Intuit, and Palo Alto software, show management can reduce the size of the exhibit hall and still be able to significantly reduce the price of admission for attendees.  Sponsorship opportunities can include advertising in print, digital, and in-person formats.  It can include a plethora of marketing and promotion opportunities in addition to valuable access to exhibitors, speakers, and attendees.

Speakers:  Do attendees come to dive shows because of the exhibitors or the speakers?  I think both, but if you have a wide range of exhibitors, speakers, seminars, workshops, and social activities, I think you can just about cover all bases.  And a good show should do just that.  I have been to many seminars at countless dive shows.  I have been delighted and dismayed by many.  I am sure that many of us have suffered Death by Slide Show and Death by PowerPoint at one time or another.  And most likely we may suffer Death by Zoom Meetings in the near future.  With all that said, speakers are precious.  They are our storytellers.  They bring their world to us, and we live vicariously through their adventures and explorations.  It’s tough to be a speaker because you constantly have to come up with new material.  Of course, to get new material, a speaker has to invest in recording equipment and pay for all that adventure travel.  I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that Shows & Events Speakers have to pay their own way to the shows, along with their airfare, hotel, and food.  That all has to change.

The industry needs story tellers.  I recommend we all put our industry money where our mouth is.  Let’s stop giving titles like Ambassador and Sea Hero to our explorers and adventurers if we are not willing to pay for their travel, equipment, and efforts to represent our companies and our industry.  If you want a ambassador or spokesperson to represent your company to the public or you want to acknowledge an environmental leader, then prove it financially.  I know that a number of equipment companies in the surfing industry are getting away from contracting with sponsored athletes, but maybe the diving equipment manufacturers can pick up where they left off?  Hey, let’s be better than the Surfing Industry.

If our industry wants to increase its ranks of story tellers, we will need to give speakers more opportunities to make presentations.  The decline of regional consumer dive shows in the past few years has taken away many speaking platforms for our story tellers.  Until the regional shows make a come-back, I believe we need to think about creating digital platforms for speakers.  Maybe Industry Planners can resurrect Dive Clubs and recreate their role in the Global Diving Community?  Just a thought.

Attendees:  The majority of Dive Industry Professionals believe that the best Shows & Events are put together for the Attendees.   Take it from someone who has exhibited or attended hundreds of dive, surf, boat, travel, outdoor, and business shows & events over a fifty year period.  Being a show person for so many years, you get an opportunity to speak with tens of thousands of Divers and Dive Industry Professionals.  Over time, you get to see what works and what does not.  When show producers put their prospective attendees first, the show gets built around the things that attract divers.  A well-designed show picks a popular venue, schedules interesting speakers, contracts with industry-driven workshops, works to fill the exhibit hall with a wide selection of dive equipment, training, travel, non-profit, and lifestyle vendors, sponsors social events for the local diving community, and maybe even highlights the weekend with a Film Festival that features a well-known industry icon and a few local artists.  A well-planned event like that is meant to attract a large number of attendees.

The Future for Diving Shows & Events:  Based on what we have learned in the past 60 years from attending and exhibiting at diving and diving related shows and events, I honestly believe that our industry should continue to invest in diving trade and consumer shows.  As an industry, we have the collective experience and resources to create meaningful meetings and events that fulfill the needs of the Global Diving Community and the Global Diving Business Network.  We know the components that go into creating a trade or consumer focused event.  We have access to the marketing tools and technologies that we need to design, create, and conduct meetings, shows, and events that help us achieve our planned outcomes.  Our biggest challenge in creating future shows and events will be in defining the major focus of the event and what our planned outcomes should be.  Once a major focus and planned outcome agenda has been established by the show producer, it is much easier to put the necessary components together to make it happen.

This is an exciting time to become part of the Global Diving Business Network.  For more information about Shows & Events marketing, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director of the Dive Industry Association, 2294 Botanica Circle, West Melbourne, FL 32904.  Phone: 321-914-3778.  Email: gene@diveindustry.net  Web: www.diveindustry.net 

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