Exhibitors Zone

As the doors closed on this year’s Dive Show at the NEC, it wasn’t just rugby, football and cricket fans that were celebrating. Exhibitors had reported an extremely busy, profitable and enjoyable show, and thousands of eager visitors had left the halls laden with gear on both days.

With such an up-beat feel to the show, it’s no surprise that the visitor attendance for this year’s event increased to 16,293. This is a very good sign for the sport for the coming year.

It wasn’t only exhibitors’ stands that were packed, however. The new, special feature areas of the show were also very popular, as were the established ones.

The centrepiece of the Asia-Pacific pavilion recreated a little piece of this stunning part of the world, providing a popular palm-themed relaxation area. And the display of winning shark photographs from The Shark Trust/DIVER Magazine competition proved a big hit with visitors.

The Mary Rose was the focus of this year’s HDS stand, drawing crowds of visitors wanting to know more about the project to raise this unique vessel. And the New Dive Gear Showcase was alive with divers viewing the products that will be making waves over the coming months.

Investment in the promotional campaign for Dive 2007 reached an all-time high, with a total media budget worth more than £300,000. Radio, internet, press advertising, PR and direct mail were all used to attract visitors to the show.

And to find out what visitors really want to see at Dive Shows, and what they like and dislike, we conducted detailed interviews with more than 500 people as they left the halls. We will be sharing the findings of this major industry survey with exhibitors, so look out for details in future bulletins.

Monty Halls proved once again that he is one of the Dive Shows’ most popular speakers. Queues built up early for his presentations, and some visitors unfortunately had to be turned away as even the standing areas at the back of the room were packed.

New to the programme were “Pacific Abyss” TV presenter Mike deGruy, diving environmentalist Fabien Cousteau and world-record free diver Herbert Nitsch. Both Mike and Fabien played to big audiences, and so popular was Herbert that he got a standing ovation even before he started his talk!

Leigh Bishop, Rick Stanton, Martin Farr, Innes McCartney and John Boyle completed what was one of the best-ever line-ups at a Dive Show.

Love was in the air as one visitor used the event to make a marriage proposal – and got a very positive ‘yes’ in response. A young lady asked speaker Leigh Bishop to read out a proposal to her partner at the end of his talk. Leigh obliged and is now waiting for his invitation to the wedding!

The Northern Diver fashion shows also upped the tempo of the event – as well as the temperature. And Go Dive raised an amazing £1500 for the Hampshire and Wight Nautical Archaeological Society through its Crystal Vault feature.

Next year’s London International Dive Show will be taking place at ExCeL on 8/9 March. The show attracts more than 14,000 visitors wanting to buy kit, book holidays and plan training for the coming season. So if you want to be part of this capital event contact Richard Thompson on +44 (0)208 943 4288 or email him on richard@divermag.co.uk