A couple of weeks ago, Martin Redmayne shared with us his reluctance to keep doing the superyacht events circuit: boat shows, conferences, discussion gatherings. A late variation on this desperate desire to belong are the various prize-giving ceremonies that have popped up. With very few exceptions, these prize givings are an event trying to appear important, or at least with good fundament, but they are no more than trying to be part of a league that is very difficult to belong to. 

To this league belong the real guys: shipyards, designers, publications, suppliers, agents, brokers. People that have been there for ages, those at the core of large-yacht yachting who were part of the birth of serious superyachts in the 90s, and not only sailed along with the industry but helped develop it at their own time, cost and experience gathering. It is only natural that on the outer edge of an industry like the superyacht one, a second and third layer grows: cheaper shipyards building sub-standard yachts, brokers and agents surviving thanks to a few clients, and without the financial muscle to be able to react when necessary, aspiring designers whose concept’s depth does not go further that the first sketch on a A3 sheet ...

Another characteristic of the serious industry players is sharing knowledge and trying to transform that into value benefiting everybody, like SYBAss or The Water Revolution Foundation does. Martin got it spot on: there is no point in flying around the world to meet the same people, to listen to the same speakers, discussing the same matters. There is no need to discuss superyacht international fiscality eight times a year, certainly not when it is the same state of international fiscality discussed by the same people, often not surpassing very shallow analysis.

The same can be said for superyacht design, superyacht marinas, destinations or crew training. Many good magazine articles address these matters, and if you read them with attention, you will not be short of the information one gets from the average conference.

Of course, there are events worth attending: METSTRADE, The Superyacht Forum, the Monaco Yacht Show, selected conferences in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. The difference in purpose and value must be clear between boat shows and conferences: a boat show is an exhibition of products and services, the main purpose of which is to promote brands and services and help increasing sales. A conference is an intellectual discussion about industry trends and possible developments. Both models include very valuable networking and creating communication links that widen the views of the industry. But these events are only as good as their weakest participant and quality of the matter to discuss. When the minimum level is not there, the event is flawed.

Organisers and speakers must be experienced professionals and, when possible, good communicators. Matters to be discussed must be decided with the industry’s guidance. Conferences can be of international or regional reach, but a local conference must make its reach clear and not pretend to transcend further borders or influences: ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret (stick to what you know best).

Promoting such events should not be a marketing exercise but an informative campaign. Not finding enough speakers or sponsors can be an early indication of an unneeded or doomed event. Usual mistakes in conference organising are the unnecessary repetition of subjects, lack of homework on the matters up for discussion, speakers with a conflicting commercial interest, speakers who lack knowledge and experience. We’ve flown across countries, sometimes continents, to listen to them all and learn the hard way. With the very good editorial coverage of conferences today, it should be enough to join just a few conferences boat shows a year and read about the rest in the professional publications. It is the conferences that must help industry players with accurate, high value information, and not the players to make the effort for such conferences to merely subsist.

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