who do you have assigned to manage and cover your dive center’s daily operations while your group is in New Orleans? “We encourage our dive and retail staff to attend the show,” said Richard Thomas , owner of two International Scuba lo- cations in the Dallas area and a DEMA Board member. But those staff members who attend must follow a “code of conduct” at the show; always be professional, wear dive center logoed gear, and have assignments to attend and cover seminars, training sessions, and educational programs related to their staff function at the shop. Thomas said that one or two dive center staff members cannot cover everything going DEMA SHOW continued
without appointments are often requested to set up appoint- ments after the show is over, losing valuable face-to-face time. Setting up meetings at the exhibitor’s booth is important, Thomas said, so that any new product samples will be readily available for you to inspect, as well as presentations set up at the booth. It is important, though, that a dive retailer be prepared as well for the meeting with a list of meeting topics that include supply chain issues or holes in your inventory that need to be addressed. If there is nothing new that hasn’t been addressed by your representative previously, then make
on during the four-day show, so deep planning in advance is required in preparation for the show, and everyone develops a schedule of the tasks needed each day they are there. He added that he emphasizes to his staff that they can’t go out and “cut their own deals” with exhibitors while represent- ing his dive centers and recommended that staff shouldn’t be issued “buyer’s badges” unless they are authorized to do so for the dive center.
the meeting short because your time and their time are valuable during the show. But the one important factor of any tradeshow is ‘relationship,’ Thomas said. Besides meeting product line ex- ecutives, he said he wants to meet and shake hands with the people at the show that he has dealt with throughout the year over the phone, whether they are customer service representatives,
accounting personnel, or whoever he is in contact with that attends the show because, “Once you shake hands and associate a face with a voice, then those folks will probably go out of their way in the future to make things happen for you,” he said. Group travel meetings: Travel wholesalers and destination resorts always put out “DEMA Specials” to get your group trip business, and many extend these special discount offers prior to the actual DEMA Show to lock up travel plans with dive retailers before they can see competitors’ offerings at the show. For extended details on planning dive trips at the DEMA Show, please see online the September 2025 issue of Scuba Diving Industry Magazine and the article “Planning your DEMA Show Travel Appointments.” While there will be many deals and special offers for trying out new travel locations or going back to favored ones, Thomas said he has participated in many of his dive center’s group trips over the years to see what is important to them. He said choosing his trips boils down to one main value factor – “relationships.” Thomas explained that he has found that once many travel salespeople sign you up on a group trip, support for your group almost disappears, so he plans his future trips with companies he has developed a relationship with over the years, as they go above and beyond to ensure
In addition to having printed business cards and utilizing DEMA Show badge “QR” codes for post-show contact in- formation, dive center staff can take advantage of electronic business cards (that don’t run out), allowing people they meet to have a face (picture on the electronic business card) and contact details, with the ability to add notes and follow-up details to this electronic format. Attendees can share these digital cards either through QR codes in their mobile wallet apps or NFC (near field communication) taps that transfer your details instantly to the other person’s phone software. This includes the iPhone's AirDrop feature or Android’s Blue- tooth transfer service. Filling out your show schedule: Thomas, a long-time veteran of attending DEMA Shows, said he prepares a spread- sheet months in advance of the tradeshow of meeting times with key industry and manufacturer representatives as early in the show as possible. He said that his product line repre- sentatives often will try to set up meetings with him prior to the show, if possible, because meeting times during the tradeshow are valuable commodities that must be portioned out to key accounts and scheduled far in advance of the show. Dive professionals who show up at the show wanting time with manufacturer executives or key travel decision makers
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