With the first two days of the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show a wash out with floods, damaged exhibits and broken infrastructure, many attendees are asking is the show staged at the wrong time of the year?
This is not the first show where visitors have had to wade through flooded areas and exhibitors have had to suffer damage to stands caused when carpets that cover drains cause their display areas to flood.
Many exhibitors are beginning to despair with the timing of the show and blame changing weather patterns for the blight the show has suffered in recent years.
But while attendees and exhibitors alike suggest staging the show some two or so weeks later Show Management the company that operates the show is convinced the timing is right.
Efrem “Skip” Zimbalist III, Chairman and CEO of Show Management, spent nearly an hour giving a speech to journalists at a Press Breakfast meeting on the first day of the show. In his lengthy presentation he explained why it was essential that superyachts on their way from Europe bound for the caribbean be given the opportunity to attend the show and he stated that these were the only two weeks of the year in which the show could be staged if that goal was to be achieved.
Show Management are set in their ways and the financial aspect of the show is the only thing they think of. The calender has formed this way and they are set in it at a bad time.. His comments have merit BUT the BIG BROTHER attitude could be reduced with a slightly more accommodating manner. It will take one of the structures to fail with people inside and someone to get hurt and then perhaps they will listen. They were lucky this year…. but luck has a tendency to run out!
The show in the aftermath of “Wilma” was a perfect example. We were at that time a small, growing company in the market place, This was to be our first time to use the show as a tool for the business. “Wilma” arrived, destroyed our home and our home office including the several thousand dollars worth of marketing material we had made for the show. Our area for our booth was unusable at the convention center. We were not told where our booth was then going to be placed till after the show started and of course we had nothing to use to market there. The request for a refund was treated with contempt, no offer of even a reduced rate for the following year. The show was a failure but they did get our money.. they may have got it once but they will never get a cent again from us. Now we walk the show, meet our friends, clients and other vendors. Its our bread and butter show, we get more work from this one than any other. Its a shame its run the way it is.
Personally, I wasn’t at the show, but many of my colleagues were and they’ve described the scenes with wires going through water, the metal structure swaying back and forth, water funnelling through the tent and onto peoples stands and furniture and on Thursday somebody in our tent (the Yacht Designer’s Tent) did get injured. The foot fall suffered as a result of the hurricane and if the time of year doesn’t receive serious consideration, I think many exhibitors will back out. The most important thing is peoples safety.
Maybe it is staged on the wrong day of the year. I’m afraid those hand built wood yachts might have been damaged due to the flooding and some damaged materials on the event.