IMAGE COURTESY IBEX Organizers at the International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference last night responded to an inquiry from Trade Only Today regarding what effects Hurricane Helene might have on the annual trade show.
“As Helene continues to develop and move closer to Florida, show management is in communication with the team at the Tampa Convention Center, the city of Tampa and our vendors in Florida,” organizers told Trade Only Today in an e-mail. “This is a developing situation; currently there are no changes to the IBEX schedule. We do not expect the storm to impact IBEX next week.”
Shepard Exposition Services, which manages the setup of the show, said in a statement yesterday afternoon that setup would be paused today:
“IBEX show management and Shepard are aware of Hurricane Helene and monitoring the situation. The first day of move-in for IBEX 2024 is continuing as planned today, Wednesday Sept. 25. The Tampa Convention Center is under mandatory closure Thursday, Sept. 26.
“The IBEX move-in process is planned to resume on Friday, Sept. 27, pending all guidelines from the city of Tampa. All exhibitor freight delivered to the IBEX advanced warehouse will proceed as normal, with staging at the convention center beginning on Friday, Sept. 27.”
Hurricane Helene is continuing to track north-northeast in the Gulf of Mexico at 12 mph, with winds of 100 mph as of 8 a.m. Storm surge of 4 to 8 feet is the biggest threat for the Tampa Bay area with this storm, as the center remains offshore. Helene is expected to make landfall this evening as a Category 3 hurricane in the Big Bend area of Florida, southeast of Tallahassee.
