The Florida Yacht Brokers Association said its ninth annual Charter & Destinations Seminar, held Oct. 7 at the Bahia Mar Resort in Fort Lauderdale, was its largest seminar to date, attracting 150 registered attendees, nine event sponsors and 26 charter yachts, which were on display during an afternoon open house.
The agenda included presentations on New Zealand, chartering to Cuba, the Abaco Beach Resort in the Bahamas, the Flamenco Marina in Panama and an industry perspective and customer trends presentation by IGY Marinas and a statistical review by Boat International Media.
A raffle at the end of the session raised more than $2,300 for the Freedom Waters Foundation and the Bahamas relief effort.
“By all accounts this was the best seminar we’ve ever hosted, with the New Zealand presentation and Cuba discussion panel proving to be among the most popular topics of the day,” FYBA executive director Cindy Sailor said in a statement. “On behalf of our entire team, we want to thank our event sponsors, who made the seminar possible, as well as all those who attended.”
“The feedback from the survey posted on SurveyMonkey after the seminar was phenomenal,” said Daphne D’Offay, Ocean Independence charter manager and co-chairwoman of the FYBA Charter Professionals Committee.
“Ever since we merged the Charter Destinations and Charter Education seminars, it really works well. The ‘Standing Out in a Crowded Market Place’ presentation by Boat International covered a lot of ground, offered fun facts and included information that will be helpful to our marketing efforts.”
At the conclusion of the seminar, everyone headed out to the docks at Bahia Mar to tour charter yachts available in the Fort Lauderdale area and network with colleagues.
