Notes from DEMA Expo Day 2
Let me apologize in advance: I’m beat. I walked the floor at least five or six times today, did several interviews and attended a few seminars. So for today, I’m going to share several of the videos I recorded using Qik on my iPhone. 3G (both AT&T and Sprint) seem to be rather slow in the Orlando area compared to back home, so the videos are a little choppy, but audio seems to be fine. One other thing to note: I need to practice aiming my iPhone at myself so you don’t just see my giant forehead 🙂
Pre-Show Entertainment by SCUBA Radio & The SCUBA Cowboy
I showed up a little early to the show, so had the pleasure of watching the SCUBA Cowboy perform with a few SCUBA Radio mermaids. It could have been worse.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JHco1RXnYA[/youtube]
Drop Zone: Dive In – Attracting Younger Divers
As someone with quite a few years of generational marketing research behind me, this seminar intrigued me. Francey at Full Spectrum Marketing presented a new joint venture project called Drop Zone: Dive In which is designed to help dive centers reach Generation X & Y. I think it’s an interesting idea and I look forward to seeing the movie. To be a member, which gets you access to a members-only blog to share best practices (amongst other things), it only costs $150/year, which includes a screen print setup for branded shirts. I don’t want shirts though, perhaps they’ll come out with a pricing model that reflects people such as myself that want to network and have access to the marketing materials, but don’t want shirts.
I apologize for the darkness of the videos, I was in the front row, but almost all of the lights were off in the room.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFr0gsWwJms[/youtube]
One point she made that I loved had to do with the concept that Generation Y doesn’t just “respect their elders”. This has been a long-time complaint I have learned, but Francey explained it beautifully. If you (a Boomer) constantly ask ME for help with your TV/VCR/Tivo/computer/ETC, we have become peers and you have lost your authority. Now, for someone who likes to exert their authority on others, that can be problematic. For those that believe in the esprit de corps style of leadership, peers are a good thing.
Jason Heller from DivePhotoGuide.com talks Social Network Marketing
Jason Heller from DivePhotoGuide.com is the DEMA resident expert at online marketing and gave a talk on using Social Networking for a local SCUBA diving business.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt6u_XqoiEs[/youtube]
As I’ve discovered when teaching classes of my own, there are a few potential problems with teaching large groups of people about online marketing:
- You’re speaking above the participant. If this is the case, odds are the participant feels extremely overwhelmed, calls it a fad and does nothing. Worst case, they believe the importance and pay someone through the nose for less-than-stellar service.
- Your participant understands 75% of what you’re talking about. They may be able to go home and use the techniques mentioned (if they were able to write them down fast enough). Worst case, they are able to speak intelligently to an outside vendor and know when their money is being wasted.
- Your participant understands 100% of what you’re talking about. My guess is there is a very small handful of these people attending DEMA Expo this year (judging by the lack of blogs, Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts being updated), so this is the best strategy for the presenter. Maybe some day this industry will be “with it” enough to offer an Advanced Social Networking class, but I think that’s a ways out.
Jason did a great job presenting and introduced himself to me on the floor a while later and is a genuinely nice guy.
