I tried....and, I mean, actually *tried*, which is something I don't often do- to get involved and promote the expo. I'm sorry that it has become what it has become. And Rick deserves as much credit for making it happen in the first place, as he does blame for letting it die on the vine while DNN went national. Like a lot of others around here, I feel like he used us as a stepping stone.LCF wrote:They don't publish anything anyone sends them -- the very nice article on God's Pocket that Scott Lundy and I put together didn't ever see daylight.
It's really a shame to hear the bitterness and dismissive posts. I think we have a really active and enthusiastic dive community here, that would truly flock to a good Expo. But the economy has hit manufacturers, who are cutting back on the shows they attend. They have clearly decided that our show isn't on their radar, and it may be in part Rick's fault, and perhaps not entirely. Certainly, with fewer vendors attending, the show was smaller, and the seminars got moved to the main hall to save money, which made them awful and won't encourage anyone to present next year.
Putting on something of this scale is a HUGE, multi-year-long undertaking. Rick may not have done a stellar job of it, but I think we have to recognize that at least he DID it, which no one else had done. I'm very sorry that the Expo is failing -- I would have loved to see it succeed, no matter who was at the helm.
Agree that the new dive magazine is hardly worth the effort to bring it home.
And that article you wrote? It will definitely get published. But he will probably misspell your names and use the pics for advertisements for other products or events without giving you or Scott credit. He's been doing it for years and years.