Oct 16, 2016

The 26th International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition & Conference opened with the Industry Breakfast on Tuesday, October 4th and the room was packed with a reported 750+ attendees.

The industry breakfast began with the announcement that METSTRADE and IBEX will join forces to service the global marine marketplace with RAI Amsterdam purchasing a 50% Stake in IBEX to become co-owners of the event with the NMMA.  

Photo Caption: Pictured here are (left) Ids Boersma, Executive Vice President of RAI Exhibitions and Thom Dammrich, President of NMMA.

From an entertaining speech from Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington to kick off IBEX to the Opening Night Party, thousands of marine professionals who attended the opening day of the 26th International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition & Conference were not disappointed with the energy and excitement about the future of the boatbuilding industry. 

The exhibit hall was sold out on the upper level with more displays on the ground level but the big excitement of holding IBEX at Tampa was that the Tampa Convention Centre is on the water and numerous marine businesses were keen to display their products in action.

Show organizers reported that the event aattracted over 6,000 registered industry professionals during the first two days of the event.  Unfortunately, with Hurricane Matthew heading toward Florida many local marine industry companies were unable to attend as they had to tend to both personal and professional hurricane preparations. But even with the storm, IBEX, the marine industry’s largest technical trade event in North America, drew marine industry professionals from around the globe to learn about and explore the newest in marine innovation from 556 exhibiting companies, covering 118,000 square feet of exhibit space.

The 2017 IBEX is scheduled to take place at the Tampa Convention Center, September 19 – 21, in Tampa, FL USA.  For more information, please visit www.ibexshow.com.