Whilst at a networking event in Aberdeen, Scotland in late October and I happened to get speaking to a women who ran a company called Aberdeen Entrepreneurs. She was interested to hear all about Scuba Duba Dive and what I had to offer. For some reason the subject changed onto school career fairs. They were very keen for me to attend their first event in less than a week’s time. I said I would have a think about it and be in touch. My main worry was I didn’t really have much to build a good stand. Nevertheless I agreed to attend and have a Scuba Duba Dive stand at the school show in the North East of Scotland.
What would make a good, interesting stand for the children coming to visit? I put together all my dive gear and had some good diving movies which I’d play. People always like to take away something from a show so leaflets were the answer. Recently getting the grips of Adobe Photoshop I designed some last minute leaflets detailing all the courses offered in the different locations. The problem was printing them but with help from my local printers I managed to get 200 copies run off at 5pm when I was due to leave the next morning at 6am.
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During the day I had a lot of pupils and teachers interested in scuba diving. The fact that I had a very inviting stand with some movies from Koh Tao in Thailand playing when it was near freezing outside interested people also! I had a quick look around the room at other people’s stands as I wanted to get some ideas as how to improve my own. The thought of a roller banner displaying all my basic information seemed good but also instead of my dive gear just sitting there, a mannequin wearing the gear would be a lot better.
After that show the next one is January – plenty of time to go about improving my stand. So the hunt for a decent mannequin began. Asking around department stores and various friends who I knew worked in or had contacts in department stores proved fruitless. Every time I asked the member of staff they just looked at me very oddly and said sorry no. It was then I turned to that great website GumTree. Posting an advert ‘wanted full sized mannequin with arms, legs and a head’ and within two hours I’d received two phone calls, one saying she had two in her shed and another saying they had four. After receiving pictures of these mannequins the woman who had four had the better mannequin. I traveled up to “meet” the new member of the team and it was exactly what I was after and fits my dive gear perfectly. He even has a great story behind his past. Scuba Steve: used to be a guardsman on a ship to deter pirates!
All I had to do now was design my roller banner to have the perfect stand. I set about making a basic design to get reviews from other people. Keeping the pictures and information short and to the point would catch people’s attention. Designing a two meter tall banner on a 24 inch monitor really didn’t give you much feel as to how it was going to look in the print. I finally sent it off to the printers and when it arrived it was perfect. My stand looks more professional for the four shows I’ve got coming up this spring. It really goes to show what networking can do.
Who would have thought a random conversation in Aberdeen would have resulted in all these shows. My advice never be shy to speak to someone or ask the question, as you never know who they know or what they do!
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Whilst at a networking event in Aberdeen, Scotland in late October and I happened to get speaking to a women who ran a company called Aberdeen Entrepreneurs. She was interested to hear all about Scuba Duba Dive and what I had to offer. For some reason the subject changed onto school career fairs. They were very keen for me to attend their first event in less than a week’s time. I said I would have a think about it and be in touch. My main worry was I didn’t really have much to build a good stand. Nevertheless I agreed to attend and have a Scuba Duba Dive stand at the school show in the North East of Scotland.
