What a great opportunity to be at the Dubai International Boat Show 2013, one of the most important and renowned event in the maritime sector! The event was held at the Dubai International Marine Club Mina Seyahi from 5th to 9th March and provided us with a great platform to promote the project among the local, regional and international public.
We are extremely grateful to the Pavilion Dive Centre for allowing us to share their space and the Dubai Dolphinarium for sponsoring the printing of posters, stickers and business cards. We were in the Dive Middle East Exhibition (DMEX) section and this was a great platform to reach a wide range of organisations, companies and people with a keen interest in the sea.
The public ranged from enthusiastic divers, passionate fishers, parents and children, businessmen and boat owners, and everyone we approached showed a real interest in the project, maybe just because we didn’t try to sell anything to them! Poster and stickers were also distributed to everybody while we explained the importance of reporting sightings and we had had a good feedback with people joining our Facebook page.
Our corner was kitted with a 20 minutes video proving the presence of dolphins in UAE waters through a collection of UTube videos of dolphin sightings made by the public (check out the playlist!) It also illustrated the key targets of the project, how the public can actively get involved in helping us to better understand the local dolphin population and also simple rules that everybody can follow to enjoy their sightings.
Overall we think it was a real success and we will definitely try our best to be there again next year!