Wetpixel’s official coverage of DEMA 2011 has started!

The team are gathering at their salubrious accommodation at the Days Inn.

Adam Hanlon and Abi Smigel Mullens have arrived, and Alex Mustard is due to join us later tomorrow.

DEMA 2011 is being held in Orlando, Florida, in the Northern Concourse of the Orange County Convention Center:

Monday is set-up and registration day at the show, and I went along to take a look at what was going on. Most people simply don’t realize how much work goes in to setting up the stands. The whole hall is a buzz of activity, with forklifts and trolley wagons zooming about, carrying huge packing crates. Radios crackle and there are scores of people moving about.

Amongst the stands, I bumped into the guys from Reef Photo setting up their stand:

And the Backscatter team carrying out a carefully choreographed stand assembly (!):

Aquatica were ahead of the curve; by the time I arrived, they had completed theirs already;

Ultralight Control Systems seemed well ahead of the curve too:

Team DivePhoto Guide turned up while I was there. Meet (from left) Cal Mero (well known by Wetpixel readers), Joe Tepper and Matt Weiss.

New to the show are GoPro. They have brought a rally modified Porsche car that I think will be the center of much attention over the next few days. Ryan Canon of Reef Photo was certainly professing a hankering for one!

The show starts in earnest tomorrow, and Abi and I will be thrown into a hectic schedule of appointments and meetings. There has already much talk of exciting new products that will be unveiled here, and we aim to be the first to get the news out about them. We will be publishing daily reports on what we have seen and chatted to people about. So if you can’t actually be here, reading Wetpixel will be the next best thing!

For those of you who are here, the “golden” tickets of the event will be available from Alex, Abi or Adam.

You NEED one of these to attend the legendary gathering of underwater image makers from all over the world, so please demand one from one of us when you see us on the show floor over the next few days.other As a reminder, the party is at the Rosen Center Pool from 8pm on Thursday 3 November. Please book the time into your planners folks; you won’t want to miss this!

Wednesday 2 November: Booth visits.
Thursday 3 November:Booth visits.
Special report: Shawn Heinrichs receives the Sea Hero of the Year Award.
Slideshow of images from the Wetpixel/DivePhotoGuide Pool party.
Friday 4 November: Booth visits
Saturday 5 November: Booth visits
Slideshow about the “people of DEMA”
DEMA 2011:Final thoughts and conclusions.