Courtesy IBEXThe International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference is scheduled for Oct. 3-5 at the Tampa Convention Center in Florida, and once again, show director Anne Dunbar will be at the helm. Dunbar handled marketing for IBEX before taking over as show organizer in 2014. She works in collaboration with the National Marine Manufacturers Association, which owns a 50% stake in IBEX, and with Metstrade organizer RAI, which acquired 50% of IBEX in 2017. “The partnership has been fantastic,” she says of RAI. “They basically said to me, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing, and let us know what we can do to make IBEX even better.’ ”
Soundings Trade Only caught up with Dunbar in late July, when expectations were that this year’s show — after last year’s cancellation due to Hurricane Ian — would return to prepandemic levels in terms of exhibitors and attendees, as well as add a new Sustainable Technology Pavilion. This interview has been lightly edited for space and clarity.
It’s been about a half-dozen years since the IBEX partnership with Metstrade was announced. How is that going?
Our global presence has expanded exponentially because of being associated with Metstrade. We’re branding them as sister shows. If you want to tap into the global marine industry, your choices are Metstrade for Europe and Asia, and IBEX for North and South America. We’re constantly creating synergies. This year, you’re going to start seeing more global branding, more promoting of all of that.
Courtesy IBEXAnd working with the NMMA, they’re really sharp. The whole staff is really impressive. They’re true events people. Then you get aligned with RAI and Metstrade — the breadth of knowledge and the resources have just been game-changing.
IBEX is coming off a tough few years. In 2020, the pandemic forced a virtual-only show, and last year, Hurricane Ian forced the show to shut down. How fast did you have to make the decision about the storm?
When we arrived on the Friday before opening day, it was just a tropical storm down by South America. By Saturday morning, it had built into the hurricane, and it was traveling toward the U.S. By Saturday afternoon, they were saying it was going to hit Tampa. The show was about 80% set up. By Sunday at noon, when we canceled, we had to take down the show. It was really heartbreaking. There was absolutely no choice.
Courtesy IBEXWhat we learned about the whole process, and what we’re really proud of, is that we started communicating really early. We were really transparent and honest. We gave a timeframe. We’d say, “We were going to give another update in three hours,” and then I was having board meetings and meetings with the city of Tampa.
Our goal was that people weren’t getting on planes. That’s why we were aggressively communicating, so people could delay their flights. The last thing we wanted was thousands of people in Florida who could not leave. I ended up having to rent a car and drive to Atlanta with three members of my team.
The IBEX press release that went out in mid-June said you’re expecting at least 680 exhibitors this year. Is that still an accurate number?
We’re at 705 exhibitors right now. We’re sold out. Out of those, there’s a little over 100 that are new, and we have 37 boats on the docks.
Courtesy IBEXThose sound like 2018 and 2019 numbers, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
We are easily back to prepandemic levels. We have a 99% renewal rate. What happened during the pandemic was that everybody was working at home — they were on Zoom. As soon as people could get back out and see things and touch things, they came back with a vengeance. Boat shows were doing well all along — there was a supply-chain issue, but people wanted to be out on the water. The event industry, for the most part, has come back even stronger. People now understand the value of face-to-face interactions.
For years, we were afraid of the internet. There was a real fear that we were going to lose our shows to virtual shows. Then the pandemic hit, and we scrambled to do virtual shows, and they all sucked. People hated them. People want to see each other. They want to connect in person. They want to have those wonderful, serendipitous moments where they run into the person they’ve been trying to talk to, or they meet someone and have a beer and get an idea that will completely change how they do business. That kind of magic is what makes IBEX so powerful.
Courtesy IBEXSo the exhibitors are back. How about show attendees?
We’re 10% over where we were at this time last year.
The big, new element of this year’s show is the Sustainable Technology Pavilion.
It’s interesting. It’s been percolating in our seminar series and with several of our exhibitors. Now there’s electric. There’s hybrid. And it’s not just little companies; there’s significant companies investing in this. It’s been a slow burn, and now it’s bubbling over.
We have the Sustainable Technology Pavilion on the first floor with about 30 or 40 exhibitors. Then there’s a separate trade route for all the exhibitors we couldn’t fit into the pavilion. There will be stickers on the floor marking the route to get to them. We put it all in the app and make it easy for people to find them.
Then there’s the sustainability track in the education conference. It’s 10 seminars on this topic, everything from lithium-ion batteries to our big special session, “The Carbon Conundrum.” Jeff Wasil from the NMMA will be there with a whole panel of speakers, the luminaries in this area, all talking about how the marine industry is navigating this. IBEX is where boatbuilders find this information. There’s no place else to go and find this information specific to marine applications.
The first- and second-floor exhibit halls will be companies new to the show and the industry. Are you seeing any trends there?
The biggest trend is sustainability, sustainable products. But until I get there and walk the show to set up, that’s when I start to see all the great ideas. There’s constantly changing materials. Just carpeting and fabrics, it sounds boring, but they’re changing. Lighting has changed exponentially. What’s going on with electronics and incorporating AI into navigation is mind-blowing.
The third floor will include the compliance and education pavilion. What’s new there?
What’s exciting up there is the American Boat and Yacht Council is working on its career day for workforce development. That was supposed to launch last year, with all these students from technical schools coming in to speak with the exhibitors and learn about different jobs in the marine industry, walk the floor, do some seminars on the last day of the show so they don’t interfere with what’s going on during the rest of the show. I’m not sure how many kids are coming this year, but it’s happening. Workforce shortages are a big challenge in our industry, so bringing in these students, this is a great start.
What else can you tell us about this year’s show?
All the networking is coming back big time. It started to come back last year, but this year, everybody can expect multiple networking events every night. We’ll have exhibit hall parties and our opening-night party, but we’re also seeing the return of a lot of private events, social events. There’s a lot going on. IBEX has weathered the storm, and we’re coming back better than ever.
This article was originally published in the September 2023 issue.
