Fighting back

Andy Williams, MD of National Boat Shows discusses London Boat Show and how the new Earls Court show will affect it

Since the end of the Show we have been analysing and listening to every piece of feedback (positive and negative) given. Visitor feedback has been exceptional with over 2,000 completed questionnaires and two early indications are that:

- 81.8% of visitors said they would return next year v 44% last year
- 81.3% of visitors rated the Show as good or very good compared to 59.9% in 2006

We have also received valuable exhibitor and industry feedback through the electronic questionnaire sent to exhibitors and also face to face feedback many exhibitors have been good enough to give. It is all being used for development of future plans. This is a good foundation to build on for the Show in 2008, which takes place from 11-20 January, a week later than this year’s Show.

We know the majority of exhibitors think this Show was a turnaround over previous years both physically and fiscally. However, not all had such a positive experience and we intend to change this. We have taken the feedback onboard and are working up even more exciting plans for 2008.

We shall be taking these plans to the NBS Board at the end of March and following any enhancements we will then present these by the end of April.

To do this, the NBS team will be staging a set of regional presentation roadshows in the South and Midlands so that we can inform exhibitors of all visitor and exhibitor feedback, the resulting strategies and the development plans and initiatives for the Southampton 07 and London 08 Shows.

The BMF at Boat Shows

Members of the Federation Team will also join us on the roadshows, as the London Boat Show is an incredibly important platform for the British Marine Federation. Since moving to ExCeL, the BMF has developed a comprehensive range of business-to-business activity around the Show. There are events every day that add value to exhibitors and trade visitors ranging from Technical and Training Workshops to the highly successful Inward Mission of Buyers where 515 meetings took place in 2007 between buyers from all over the world and BMF members.

Plans are in place to grow this initiative in 2008 (Toby tells me his plans will double it). The BMF has also made the London Boat Show the place that politicians and Government Ministers visit to learn more about our industry and meet with business leaders.

NBS’s view on the proposed new start-up Earls Court Boat Show

While we have been evaluating our Show and planning for 2008, the NBS team has frequently been asked for its thoughts and views, as well as its position, on the Earls Court Boat Show that is proposed for December this year.

We all know that competition is a fact of life. However, we are concerned about the news of this proposed boat show as I, and I think most of our exhibitors, believe that two London Shows hitting the same audience would not be of benefit to the industry a month apart.

If a show at Earls Court in December were to go ahead it would of course reduce our visitor numbers. To estimate the potential loss of visitors is difficult at this stage as it depends on so many factors e.g. the type and size of show at Earls Court, Advertising, Pre-Xmas apathy, exhibitor attendance etc. The event could mean a potential loss to our audience of 20,000 people (some believe more). With a target of 140,000 visitors in 2008 (we will demonstrate our reasoning for this increase over 07 at the roadshows) this would have a significant detrimental effect. As is well known, all of the profits from London and Southampton are invested, through the Federation, into activity that benefits the whole Marine industry. Any reduction in revenues, however caused, would either need to be made up elsewhere or Federation activities could be affected.

I have heard and read comments that refer to “the old days at Earls Court”. NBS did not move the show on a whim and I’d like to reiterate the reasoning behind the members’ decision to move the London Boat Show from Earls Court to ExCeL. The Show needed to continue its growth and development and the only way it could do that was to move.

Please do not forget the attendance was declining significantly before we moved. In fact, if the Show had remained at Earls Court an extension of the decline would have seen approximately 85,000 people attend a cramped 2007 show. I say cramped, because we should all remember that it was becoming impossible to get many boats in, especially with the new market ranges and their increasing sizes. Without the move how could companies launch new boats over 75ft at the London show?