Our World Underwater, held at the Donald E Stephens Convention Center, in Rosemont, IL, Feb. 20-22, 2009, is the Midwest’s largest scuba trade show.
There is plenty to do all weekend from in-depth workshops (cost you $) on underwater photography; continuing training; repairing equipment, using Adobe Lightroom,( a great software program for editing u/w photos; rebreather hands on with Richie Kohler; intro to Photoshop and tons more. There are also many good free seminars you can sit in on about shipwrecks; sharks; dive travel and many more to mention here. Then the film festival on Friday and Saturday evening is a not to be missed event !
The exhibit hall is jammed packed with dive shops, travel agents with good diving deals, underwater photography (like Ikelite, etc), underwater art and much, much more.
If you have never been to a consumer scuba trade show, this is a great place to start.