It’s March – Again!
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

March is the official last month of the pre-season marketing push for the diving industry – at least according to the professional marketing planners in our dive business community.

When you look at the dive industry trade show calendar, you’ll quickly see that January, February and March is filled with trade and consumer shows almost every weekend.  Dive, Surf, and Adventure Travel Shows dominate our weekend activity for the first three months of the year.  That leaves us two months (April and May) to focus on post-show follow-ups before the season officially begins on Memorial Day.

If you follow-up with customers you met at a recent trade show, you are in the top 20% of Exhibitors that actually do follow-up with trade show leads, according to Rhonda Abrams, of the Planning Shop.  She outlines very well, what professional trade show exhibitors need to do to complete the pre-show, at-show and post-show  duties of a face-to-face marketing campaign.

While the Dive Industry Association has been following up with people that we have spoken to at the January and February Trade Shows we exhibited at, we are also getting ready to conduct our third and final Regional Summit Meeting with local Retailers, Dive Boat Operators, Clubs and Instructors at the Beneath the Sea Show in Secaucus.  Our follow-up will be individual for the three local communities we held conference in (Dallas, Chicago, and Secaucus).  It will also be a combined summary of all three communities.

We hope to be using that learning experience in the promotion of the new DIVE LOCAL campaign.  Join the discussion with us at the North East Summit Meeting on Friday, April 1, 2016 at the Holiday Inn Secaucus, in conjunction with the Annual Beneath the Sea Show.  We will be in the Holitech Room from 1:00 p.m. – 4 p.m. meeting with the local diving community.  Join us, but please RSVP with gene@diveindustry.net