his group’s needs are met and any issues that arise during the trip are remedied quickly. He said his main group trips are booked five years out, and during the show his team is looking for smaller “fill-in” trips to try out. “It is important to get to meet and know the management of your destination at the show and develop a relationship with them to ensure your trip goes off successfully,” Thomas said, adding again that you are associating a face with a name and vice versa so that the destination’s management works well with you prior to your group’s arrival. Meeting with Training Agencies: Scuba classes are a major part of any dive center’s income and success, so sched- uling time with your center’s representatives and regional di- rectors is important to ensure your center is on track with the training opportunities currently offered by the agencies and any new programs coming soon that may put an added boost in your profits. Thomas suggested that in addition to your main 45-minute to one-hour meeting with the agency, also try to schedule some “mini-meetings” with some de- partment managers, like marketing, to discover new ways to promote your business in your specific area, but warned to come prepared to the meeting with your specific needs of yours that they can address then or follow up with after the show. Keeping up with continuing education is important for dive staff members, and there are usually important update sessions offered at the show on key issues like standards, risk management, and other key factors that ensure dive-training staff are all conducting the same agency procedures and processes. The same holds true for retail staff keeping up with customer relationship management (CRM) and point- of-sale (POS) software updates or training sessions. The DEMA Show also hosts multiple manufacturers’ equipment repair clinics where dive center technicians get updates and training on maintenance, repair, and servicing procedures for those product lines. In addition to show dates, these clinics are sometimes offered on days prior to the DEMA Show opening due to the time required for the training. Thomas said that he tries to bring all his technicians to the show for repair process updates and training. He estimates that dive gear servicing accounts for approximately 25 percent of his center’s business in the Dallas area and has even recently converted a former classroom into an additional dive gear servicing area. New Products and Useful Seminars: In addition to meeting with his current product line manufacturers, Thomas DEMA SHOW continued
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