MDCE Announces 2012 Dates and Location

The MDCE marine dealer event will be held Nov. 11-14 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. The 2012 show follows on the heels of four-consecutive years of growth in dealer attendance and the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is preparing to break new records in 2012.

The event, which will be held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, will take its educational line-up to the next level, offering dealers a bevy of fresh topics and more expert presenters than ever before.

“The MDCE’s success is based largely on its ability to deliver educational content that attendees can use to advance their business and increase their bottom line,” explained Liz Walz, editor-in-chief of Boating Industry, which co-produces the MDCE with the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas. “We are committed to offering a can’t miss agenda that will provide new strategies dealers can use to produce real results in today’s market.”

The process of building that agenda will begin on Feb. 1, when organizers will issue their annual Request for Presentations. It will continue later in the month with the kick-off of the annual MDCE dealer survey regarding prospective attendees’ educational goals for the event.

“Every year we have found ways to improve upon the opportunity that the MDCE offers dealers from across North America,” said Rob Soucy, president of Port Harbor Marine and chairman of the MRAA’s Convention Committee. “This year, we expect to take the educational agenda to a new level and provide more best practices and greater expert advice than ever before.”

In 2012, the MDCE expo hall will be the largest in the event’s history at more than 150,000 square feet. As part of this new, larger floor plan, organizers will improve upon one of the most popular features of last year’s event, the modular classrooms that created better traffic flow throughout the expo hall and brought dealers and suppliers together for unprecedented networking opportunities.

In 2011, MDCE was held at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando and attracted 471 dealer attendees, an increase of 1 percent, which contributed to a total of 947 attendees.

This year’s host hotels will be the newly renovated Rosen Plaza Hotel and the Rosen Centre. Both hotels are conveniently located adjacent to the Orange County Convention Center, at the center of Orlando’s theme parks, 15 minutes from downtown Orlando, a short distance from the Pointe Orlando shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and within 15 minutes of Orlando International Airport.

“We’re looking forward to another outstanding MDCE,” said Matt Gruhn, MRAA president. “Couple these content-improvement plans with the fabulous feedback we had from exhibitors from the 2011 event, and there’s no doubt in my mind that this year’s MDCE will be the best yet.”

For more information about MDCE 2012, please visit www.boatingindustry.com/MDCE