You had to be there…

Oct 10, 2023

I’m just back from the IBEX 2023 show in Tampa, Florida but the glow of all that new product excitement and all the people we saw, lingers for quite a while. We encouraged our readers to see that opportunity and to visit the show to see the new products and processes for themselves. We were pleased to recognize many familiar faces at the show.

In this edition of Boating Industry Canada News Week Digest, we list the IBEX Innovation Award winners. I was honoured to have been one of the judges and I got a front row seat to the whole parade of nearly one hundred new products. About 20 received an award or honourable mention. 

When entering their products for the competition, they select the category the maker feels is the segment the product will compete in and while some categories had just a few entries, others had a long list for the judges to consider. You may be very interested in some of the winners for your own needs or interests but there might have been other things that didn’t get award recognition but that would have been a revelation for your business. The point is that you had to be there to see it all.

Bill Connors of Connor Industries, makers of Stanley Boats, Lighthouse and Metalcraft Marine was there with six of his team members. They were all signed up to be in seminars and it was a unique educational opportunity for each person to expand their knowledge as well as to meet the educators and other seminar participants who are probably also working through similar processes or construction challenges. IBEX is a remarkable resource to boat builders and others in the marine industry. Bill said that a visit to IBEX is both a reward and an inspiration.

Some truly unique new products were on display at the show even though they might not have won award recognition. Here is an example. Several times, I walked right past a huge thing that looked like a kid’s bouncy castle, complete with whirring fans and plump inflated plastic columns. About the third or fourth time I walked past, I suddenly realized what this was – a portable, inflatable spray booth with air filtration that I was told, meets most of the industrial health and safety requirements. The maker had sold several into Canada without a problem.

A real permanent spray booth (even a relatively small one) can cost over $100,000 and it will require a large floor space that will only be in use when you are spraying paint or gel coat. For about $15,000 I was told a shop could get one about 15’ x 25’ and that the spray booth could be cleaned, deflated and stored away in a short time. For a boat builder with limited shop space, this was a game-changer. I discussed it with Bill Connors and he agreed that the inflatable spray booth could be a huge opportunity for a small volume shop or marina.

I had never considered a portable spray booth and if I hadn’t been at IBEX in person, I would never have seen this clever idea. You had to be there…

Andy Adams – Editor