The Croatian Boating Industry Association hosted the International Federation of Boat Show Organizers and the Industry Council of Marine Industry Associations earlier this month for the ICOMIA/IFBSO Congress 2019.

The event included discussions among members, networking events and ICOMIA recognized honorary members.

The Marine Industry Associations kicked off the event by providing a forum for sharing experiences, updates and views from different segments of the industry in various regions. Organizers said the high turnout for that event made it especially productive.

ICOMIA’s working committee meetings included the technical committee, which discussed among other things the next steps for NOx Tier III. The market intelligence taskforce progressed actions to improve industry data in the marine industry.

There was also the formation of dedicated working groups in the environment committee, which will each work on key topics including invasive species, end of life boats and industry messaging.

The ICOMIA annual general meeting involved the appointment of new committee members, updates from ICOMIA’s partner shows Metstrade and IBEX, and the ICOMIA website launch.

Geert Dijks of HISWA, the Netherlands water-sports industry group, was made chair of the Grow Boating Committee and Stefano Pagani of UCINA was elected as vice chair of the exports committee.

National Marine Manufacturers Association president Dr. Thom Dammrich and Denis Ricard stepped down from the executive committee, while Sebastian Nietupski, president of POLBOAT, was newly elected as an executive committee member.

Honorary memberships were awarded to Dammrich, who will retire from NMMA this year, and Dr. Jouko Huju, who retired from Finnboat last year.

At the gala dinner, ICOMIA thanked Dammrich for his services to ICOMIA; Goetz- Ulf Jungmichel, outgoing IFBSO President, for his work in fostering a great ICOMIA- IFBSO relationship and Nick Hopkinson, who retires from IBI magazine and has worked closely with ICOMIA for the past 50 years.

“Thank you so much to CBIA, who put on a wonderful Congress and facilitated this important event in the ICOMIA calendar,” said ICOMIA secretary general Udo Kleinitz in a statement. “Undoubtedly our members were able to share experience and knowledge and coordinate important work for our industry. I’d like to thank our members for attending this year and look forward to meeting with them again next year in China.”