DEMA Expo 2009 Special Reports

For those of you who were fortunate enough to attend the 2009 DEMA Expo in Orlando, I hope you can agree to some degree that it was simply amazing. From the weather to the seminars and conversations, if you didn’t learn somethingyou were sleep walking.

DEMA Expo 2009 Continuing Coverage

I started writing my comprehensive coverage of my experience at DEMA, but it quickly became a rather lengthy manuscript. Instead of making you read page after page of computer screen text, I’m going to be breaking it up into easy to digest pieces with valuable marketing lessons derived from each topic.

Here’s the schedule (not necessarily in this order):

• Building value through continuing education
• What your SCUBA web site needs
• How “going green” can help your business (and the world)
• Attracting the next generation of divers
• Best practices for Facebook Pages
• Which online tools do you need for marketing your SCUBA business and why?
• Standards changes: the fight between making diver easier to attract new customers or keeping the sport safe (and do they need to be at odds?)
• eLearning: a necessary evil or a life saving tool?
• PADI’s Business Focus: a look at teaching instructors to sell
• Is underwater digital photography the gateway drug to lifelong SCUBA customers?
• How PADI struck gold with their Boy Scouts of America agreement
• How to cater your sales skills to multiple venues (not all sales are done in your SCUBA store)
• Rod Roddenberry’s vision to “incorporate the philanthropic ideals embedded in Star Trek into real world experiences for divers and non-divers around the world”
• How Twitter can help you at a conference (even if you’re the only one using it)
• Two businesses effectively using Social Media (while still working busy booths)
• A branding lesson from PADI and DEMA
• How you can perform better than the big names in SCUBA at Social Media Marketing in 3 easy steps
• A Vision of the Future from Tom Ingram

Whew! It’s a long list, I know, that’s why I’m breaking it up instead of throwing the whole book at you. So stay tuned, it’s coming at you fast and furious.

For those of you who are concerned it may be too pro-PADI, I will be keeping the information neutral and only presenting facts and valuable lessons we can learn. If you want to talk about what you’ve learned from any other dive agency or manufacturer, I would love to share your message.