Northwest Dive and Travel Expo – Year 2 Twice as Grand
The second year of the Northwest Dive and Travel Expowas twice as big than its premier last year. The over 3500 attendees had a smorgasbord of 246 exhibitors. As he did last year, Rick Stratton of Northwest Dive News (NWDN) succeeded in booking a purposeful and pleasant balance of dive equipment manufacturers, local dive shops and dive clubs. The attendance on Saturday alone was more than they entire show last year. The show also included a film festival, the Deep Ambitions program and three days of seminars. The Deep Ambitions program provides middle and high school students (12-18) an opportunity for students to learn about and experience scuba diving and aquatic-related careers.
Not resting on their laurels the NWDS team is already planning on improvements for next year’s event. These will include less talk between shows at the film festival, an earlier and more definite choice of seminars and an improved and larger photo contest. We suspect they will also want to improve the visibility in the demo dive pool. The pool was apparently filled with a fire hose and the increased volume of flow cleaned the sediment out the local water mains and into the pool. The fuzzy green pool water looked like it was trying to mimic the Sound after a plankton bloom. There was always a mix of students from the Deep Ambitions Program and other divers in the pool so it did not seem to matter.
An Oregon college student was elated to walk away with the chest of gold (1000 Susan B. Anthony dollars) as the grand prize from the treasure hunt.
This year DEMA (Diving Equipment and Marketing Association)held an informative seminar for diving professionals entitled, “Financial Tactics in a Recession.” It featured speakers from the SBA talking about loans and rescue plans for struggling dive business. Dave Ricinti, Treasurer of DEMA’s Board of Directors also gave an inspiring talk on how a group of dive shops are working together for the benefit of all. He also encouraged dive shop owners to join DEMA for the great advantages available for very a little cost. Although it was a valuable event, it was not well attended despite phone calls and email invitations going out to most area dive professionals (maybe it was the boring title). Those that did not attend missed a good chance at improving their bottom line.
NWDS attendees this year also got an unexpected side show. The show “America’s Got Talent” was holding auditions in hall below the NWDS. The hopeful acts were in every corner and in every form of costume practicing for their shot and the big prize. It was a “hoot.”
Scuba Gadget reporters covered the show live this year via Twitter. They spent a fulfilling Saturday at the Expo interviewing exhibitors and attendees and sending tweets from our Blackberry. It seemed like every diver in the area was there. All attendees interviewed said it was good time and much bigger than expected. This show is quickly becoming the must attend event for divers.
We will post many more articles featuring what we learned in the coming weeks. Check back often, subscribe to ScubaGadget and/or follow us on Twitter. (All related articles with have “NW Expo” in the headline)