DEMA Show 2008 Education Program Sessions

3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Room: S232
Session Title: The Ships 2 Reefs Revenue Stream; How Communities Benefit By Funding Reefing Projects
Session Description: Sunken ships draw divers and fisherman from all over the world, generating tourist dollars for all in the wreck's vicinity.  This seminar outlines how to work with local and government entities to promote reefing projects, acquire local funding, and generate support in the local community for your Ships 2 Reefs project. 
Speaker: Capt. Robert Turpin, Manager, Marine Resources Division, Escambia County, Florida 
Track: 3

4:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Room: S233
Session Title: Consumer Lifestyles and Their Effect on Spending
Session Description: The future of retail will be influenced by lifestyle trends and different generational needs.  Consumer awareness is invaluable, teaching us to understand and capitalize on the newest trends and services to be successful.  This session will help you understand today’s customers/divers and the effects lifestyle and age have on spending.  This session will also teach how to position and market a business in today’s retail environment and how to keep up with the ever-changing times. 
Speaker: Barbara Wold, International Speaker/Retail & Consumer
Expert, Wold International 
Track: 1

4:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Room: S232
Session Title: Getting Noticed without Going Broke!
Session Description: Publicity is free but it isn't easy.  Learn from a master of publicity how to get noticed and not get lost in the clutter.  In this session you will learn how to use publicity to get your shop noticed.  Discover how to use success stories, seminars, targeted events, and other techniques to create attention, curiosity and interest in diving.  Don't get lost in the clutter, get noticed without going broke! 
Speaker: Jerry Ross, Executive Director, Disney Entrepreneur Center 
Track: 2

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Room: S233
Session Title: DEMA Member Update

10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Room: S233
Session Title: Serving Diverse Generations and Why They Buy
Session Description: This session is aimed at teaching owners and managers how to reach a generationally diverse population of customers.  The workshop will consist of exercises, best-practice discussions, and implementation assignments. 
Speaker: Becky Hookanson and Barbara Quarles, Planet Management 
Track: 1

10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Room: S232
Session Title: Are You Delegating Or Baby-Sitting?
Session Description: Why is it that there is never enough time to do it “right,” but there’s always enough time to do it over?  Participants learn to create high energy and focus by collaborating with their team to leverage change by setting goals and performance standards that warrant recognition and rewards.  They will learn to create the conditions to generate effort, enthusiasm and productivity. 
Speaker: Kathryn Dager, President and Founder, Profitivity Inc. 
Track: 4

1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Room: S233
Session Title: Powerful Promo Pieces That Bring in New Customers
Session Description: You’ll see how to design effective promotional materials, from flyers and ads to mailings and web pages using Be A Diver Imagery to draw a steady stream of new customers. “Effective” means your marketing communications get response.  To do that, you’ll need Larry’s Magic Formula for Persuasion.  It’s a five-step outline for writing promotional copy that grabs your target prospect’s attention, walks them step by step through your riveting communique and demands action. Then you’ll learn simple graphic design skills to make the piece inviting, easy to understand and effective.  After you use this information once and see how well it works, you’ll use it for every marketing communication you create in the coming years. 
Speaker: Larry Mersereau, President, PromoPower LLC 
Track: 2

1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Room: S232
Session Title: Ships 2 Reefs Legislation - Keeping Divers Active Through Government-Supported Reef Making
Session Description: Bob Harris, Attorney, Lobbyist for the Diving Industry and Author of the Florida "Ships 2 Reefs" legislation, which was recently signed by Florida Governor Charlie Crist, will be on hand to introduce this important legislation designed to make reef-making easier in one of the hottest diving states in the US.  Bob will be on hand to help groups in Florida take advantage of this new law and help those in other states enact similar legislation to clear the way for Ships 2 Reefs projects nationwide. 
Speaker: Bob Harris, Attorney & Dive Industry Lobbyist, Messer, Caparello & Self, P.A. 
Track: 2

3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Room: S233
Session Title: Retaining Customers Using Online Tools - A Bird in the Hand...
Session Description: What do the internet, email, blogs, social networks, podcasts, and text message alerts have in common?  They can all be used to effectively and efficiently retain and nurture customers and cultivate value and advocacy.  During a period when the U.S. economy is in a weakened state, it is more important than ever to increase the value of existing customers and generate word of mouth and referrals. Come learn how! 
Speaker: Jason Heller, Founder & CEO, DivePhotoGuide.com 
Track: 3

3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Room: S232
Session Title: How To Attract & Screen “Good Employees”
Session Description: One of the greatest challenges in a dive business is hiring the best people.  One of the keys is to recruit, recruit, recruit!  (Rather than hoping the right person walks in.)  So we will start with active (and passive) ways to recruit the “right” candidates for your business.  Then we will demonstrate our fabulous “scratch and sniff” interviewing techniques so you can screen in the good employees and screen out the misfits. 
Speaker: Kathryn Dager, President and Founder, Profitivity Inc. 
Track: 4

4:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Room: S233
Session Title: Customer Loyalty…Priceless
Session Description: OK, you got them to buy once, but they’re not a profitable customer until they buy again and again. In this program, business growth expert Larry Mersereau will help you create a promotional plan that will turn your current customers into a “dive community” through participation in education, group dives and travel opportunities… maybe even your own Ships2Reefs program.  You’ll turn your dive center into “the place to be” for dive enthusiasts.  You’ll see how word-of-mouth marketing can bring even more people into your community, even new divers who’ll want to be part of it. Creating loyal repeat customers is the least expensive (meaning most profitable!) way to grow your business. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to put more dollars into your pocket in 2009. 
Speaker: Larry Mersereau, President, PromoPower LLC 
Track: 3

4:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Room: S232
Session Title: Born in the Wrong Sea - What Do We Know, What Can We Do?
Session Description: Indo-pacific lionfish have invaded the Atlantic and are rapidly expanding throughout the Bahamas and Caribbean.  REEF has formed strong partnerships with NOAA, National Aquariums in the US and Bermuda, the USGS, University groups and dive operators to better understand and address the situation.  Since January 2007, Lad Akins, REEF's Director of Special Projects, has led 16 lionfish research projects in the Bahamas collecting more than 1700 lionfish.  This presentation will focus on the current state of knowledge, current and upcoming research and examples of what can be done about this potentially disastrous problem. 
Speaker: Lad Akins, REEF; Andy Dehart, National Aquarium;
James Morris, NOAA 
Track: 5

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Room: S233
Session Title: DEMA Espresso Education Session
Dive into the International Year of the Reef
Session Description: 2008 has been designated the International Year of the Reef by the International Coral Reef Initiative. The ICRI International Year of the Reef 2008 is a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability, and to motivate people to take action to protect them. Join us for this informative session to get updates on the 2008 International Year of the Reef, to learn about the status and importance of coral reefs and to understand the industry’s role in this important initiative.” 
Speaker: Dr. Gregor Hodgson, Founder and Executive Director,Reef Check; Francis Staub, IYOR Coordinator, ICRI Secretariat 

10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Room: S233
Session Title: Retail Merchandise Buying 101
Session Description: Many owners and managers entered this business because of their love of diving, but awoke to terms like open to buy, basic stock method, and sales to stock ratios.  So what does it all mean and how do you buy? 
Speaker: Becky Hookanson and Barbara Quarles, Planet Management 
Track: 4

10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Room: S232
Session Title: Double Your Sales!
Session Description: In this session you will learn the most current way to pay salespeople, managers, instructors, and even repair.  The goal of the session is to understand how to pay for performance. 
Speaker: Harry Friedman, The Friedman Group 
Track: 4

1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Room: S233
Session Title: Where Are the Ships and How Can We Get One?
Session Description: This program will provide an overview of the requirements for obtaining and sinking a ship, including information on why ship disposal programs exist and how they benefit local communities. 
Speaker: TBA 
Track: TBA

1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Room: S232
Session Title: Dive into the International Polar Year
Session Description: Polar environments, once the exclusive underwater domain of scientific divers, share a commonality of remoteness with distant tropical reefs, enticing divers seeking that unique adventure with an environmental component.  A comparative Arctic-Antarctic perspective introduces the diving community to ice diving in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (79oN) and McMurdo Station, Antarctica (78oS) in a “bipolar” fashion.  A diving-related focus on polar environments, above and below the ice, is timely during this fourth International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2009. 
Speaker: Michael Lang, Director, Smithsonian Scientific Diving
Program 
Track: 5

3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Room: S233
Session Title: Creating Repeat Business
Session Description: The key to developing life-long customers starts with the first time visitor turning them into repeat customers.  We will discuss sure-fire tactics to help you create repeat business, including Repeat Customers by the Numbers; how to track your numbers and what to do with them, and Repeat Business Programs; deciding which program is best for your business and how to implement it. The workshop consists of exercises, best-practice discussions and implementation assignments. 
Speaker: Becky Hookanson and Barbara Quarles, Planet Management 
Track: 3

3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Room: S232
Session Title: Creating a High Performance Dive Shop
Session Description: What every store owner has to know to expand their business and show bigger profits.  From organization, staff, inventory, marketing, instruction and sales increases.  This must see session will be rapid fire techniques and strategies for turning your store into a machine that produces higher sales and profits. 
Speaker: Harry Friedman, The Friedman Group 
Track: 4

4:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Room: S233
Session Title: Bubbles for Boomers
Session Description: The ubiquitous Baby Boomers are retiring.  Their retirement is predicted to bring the largest travel and tourism dollars in U.S. history and diving is on their adventure travel lists.  Join accomplished diving industry educator Tec Clark for this informative seminar on the impact of Boomers in the diving industry.  Learn who they are, what their interests are, what their weaknesses are, and what you can do to align your business offerings to this significant population. 
Speaker: Tec Clark, President, ScubaGuru.com 
Track: 1

4:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Room: S232
Session Title: Born in the Wrong Sea - What Do We Know, What Can We Do?
Session Description: Indo-pacific lionfish have invaded the Atlantic and are rapidly expanding throughout the Bahamas and Caribbean.  REEF has formed strong partnerships with NOAA, National Aquariums in the US and Bermuda, the USGS, University groups and dive operators to better understand and address the situation.  Since January 2007, Lad Akins, REEF's Director of Special Projects, has led 16 lionfish research projects in the Bahamas collecting more than 1700 lionfish.  This presentation will focus on the current state of knowledge, current and upcoming research and examples of what can be done about this potentially disastrous problem. 
Speaker: Lad Akins, REEF; Andy Dehart, National Aquarium;
James Morris, NOAA 
Track: 5

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Room: S233
Session Title: DEMA Espresso Education Session
Born in the Wrong Sea
Session Description: This presentation is directed towards dive operators and Tourism Boards and other government agencies throughout the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and Bermuda.  The population of Indo-Pacific Lionfish that are colonizing the waters of the Atlantic and the Caribbean may be one of the largest ecological threats in our lifetime.  This presentation and discussion will address the biology of the fish, why they are the perfect invader, what is currently being done in areas where the population has exploded and what should be done to try and stay in front of this imminent threat.  The health of the Caribbean Reef System is vital to our ability to curtail this population explosion, work together and look for a solution.  NOAA Scientists as well as a representative from the National Aquarium and Baltimore Aquarium will also be available for questions. 
Speaker: Lad Akins and Lisa Mitchell, REEF; Chris Flook, Bermuda Aquarium