Strengthening the Future of Boat Shows

Miami’s return to Collins Avenue and Indian Creek showed why location and planning shape the entire boat show experience. 

Filmed in Washington, D.C., during the American Boating Congress, Kristina Hebert is joined by Grant Henderson, president of the International Yacht Brokers Association and sales broker at Burgess Yachts, along with Larry Berryman, VP of Southern Shows for Informa Markets, to discuss what worked, what still needs improvement, and how transportation, dock design, and site access affect attendees. 

The conversation also explores marine industry advocacy, infrastructure needs, crew visa updates, and the economic impact boat shows have on Florida’s boating industry. 

Subscribe, share with a boating friend, leave a comment, and review the show to help more people discover the conversation.

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Transcript

Welcome From D.C. And Introductions

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Worthway Podcast. We're here in Washington, D.C. at the American Voting Congress, but we are actually going to be talking about what happened in Miami. So I'm here. I'm going to let my colleagues introduce themselves. To my left, I do have Grant. Please introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

My name is Grant Henderson. I'm president of the International Yachtburger Association and a broker with Burgess Yachts out of Miami.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

And to my right, Larry?

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Good morning. My name is Larry Berryman. I'm vice president at Forma Markets, and I help uh oversee Miami National Boat Show.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

And you are collectively partners of this show. Define that for the book.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Yes, well we have a it's really a three-headed or three-pronged partnership. We have the National Marine Manufacturers Association, which of course are the owners of the show, Discover Boating Miami National Boat Show. Then EBUV, of course, and Grant's team were partners in production and helping, uh, especially on the brokerage side, uh, partner with their association to bring in some of the larger boats all over the world that you see uh on Collins Avenue and throughout the show.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Well, I had a pr an opportunity to participate in Miami, and I have to say I found it to be um a fascinating

Who Runs The Miami Boat Show

SPEAKER_00 1:05

and very strong show. And I hope that the two of you felt that way. But I but I'd like to get some feedback from you from an EBA perspective.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Yeah, it uh going from the the downtown location back to the creek was uh I I thought it was a great move, especially, you know, Larry and I were there at the ribbon cutting on on Wednesday morning. Uh the layout and how they they built everything, I thought was absolutely fantastic. You know, a lot of these boat shows, they're mazes and they're tough to get around. It was a very easy show to navigate. Um and I think that you know the Miami show really has its direction. And if you have the right product for that area, I think it's a show that you you cannot even think about missing out and not participating in. Um you know people in Miami unfortunately don't go north to Palm Beach. A lot of people, Palm Beach people don't really come south to Miami. Of course, you have exceptions, but I think that show has really grown. I th I believe there is physical room to grow at the show, Larry, get a little bigger. Um, but I think that if we can expand it and expand it, I think it's a fantastic show. Um and again it has its direction now.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

I think um so many people, and especially a lot of your membership, was so happy to see it back on Collins Avenue. It was coming back home.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Well, it it's more of an experience now with the hotels and the restaurants that you have there, you can Captivated. Yeah, you can go to the show, or maybe some of your family sits on the beach and you can go have lunch and you can go back and forth. So I think it's really created a different experience for the consumer and the person going to that show. And it's Miami Beach in February.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Right, exactly.

Why Collins Avenue Matters Again

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Who doesn't want to be there?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Nailed it. The this was really a transitional year for the show. Um, not only a physical transformation back to Indian Creek, which we'd been had been there since 2018, which was a heavy lift. I think we talked about that back in February. What a huge lift that was from everybody, everybody in the industry that needed support and really get behind it. And again, a huge thanks to you know the Fountain Blue hotel owners and the the Eden Rock and all the property owners up and down Collins that we brought the show back to. Um we do have the opportunity to expand. Uh we um, you know, we went from the the south point of the Fountain Blue property line to the north point of the blue-green diamonds. That's about a half mile stretch. And the heyday, it was over a full mile. So there is significant room for growth. I think the connectivity back to the beach and the convention center was critical for the show. It's, you know, we've talked about it, it's tough to get around downtown, it's tough to get around the beach. But once you get to the minor beach, you know, then you the connectivity between Collins Avenue and the convention center was much, much better. So the brokers and the dealers and the boat manufacturers that are at both sites have the opportunity to go back and forth in a much quicker um time frame, which helps the show, helps the attendees, helps broker business. Um so we're proud, we're we're excited, and I think the right word direction, like we know where we're going now. Yeah, um, and it's build back better. We there's some improvements that we need to make for transportation and continue to um fine-tune the transportation messaging so people know that once you get to the beach, um it's an exciting place to be. And it's the connectivity between the two primary sites. We won't forget our sailboat friends on IGM. I was just gonna say, but but the two primary sites, at least for the powerboat side, I should say, um, are much have a much better connectivity. And and you know, we're already planning 2027 with an reintroduction of water taxi service to the beach, which will be huge. That will be because we need more parking rides from the city of Miami where people can park, leave their car, get across, and then enjoy the show. So um someone asked me, you know, what do you do for the rest of the 11 months? Well, we plan. We plan, and we don't stop planning.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

You know, you know, Larry, you brought a good point. Miami is no exception to the fact that it's tough to get to all boat shows. Yeah, they're massive events, or to conferences.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

I mean, we are in Washington. This is not necessarily easy to get to, too.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Right with hundreds of thousands of people. And so it's that's I gotta imagine for you guys that's always the struggles is the logistics of getting making it easier to get there, which I think the water taxis will make a huge difference in that. What I did love about Miami, that once you were there, it was just the the layout, everything was so easy to get around. Uh it was a fun show to walk around. Um, and I think, you know, like you said, the doing the water taxis, I think, will greatly improve accessibility.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

We looked at different ways to do Collins Avenue. We, you know, the the face pier or the header pier, as I call it, you know, the the stretch that goes north-south along the creek. Um, we doubled up docks. So it was 20 feet wide in most of the areas. So there was a lot of opportunity. It wasn't so packed where you couldn't get around. You could you could walk the show, you could enjoy it. It was crowded, but it wasn't packed to the point where you're like, I gotta get off the docks. So um, you know, anytime you you redo something or you think about it differently, it gives you the opportunity to say, okay, what could we do differently? What could we do better? And since we weren't stretched a mile long, we're like, okay, these are areas where we can double up docks and create a little bit better experience for our attendees and our exhibitors. So it's more, you know, more of that uh looking forward. Now we would like to expand, don't get me wrong, we you know, the half mile was nice. Um

Fixing Access With Transport Plans

SPEAKER_01 6:10

but in order to grow, we would have to go a little bit further north and maybe a little bit further south. Lair, I got a question for you on that.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Obviously, you're you're limited on the creek by the by the bridge. Yes, right, and just the width. Yes. Probably about 50 meters is probably about max there, 45.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

I think um 30 to 40 meters is probably your your safe high water mark for size.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

What would you what do you want to do next year in in the perfect world with the island guarded space? Would you like to bring in some bigger boats there to keep the sailboats there? Both?

SPEAKER_01 6:43

So everybody wants to be at one site. That's challenging with the bridge because you can't bring the sailboats because it's a fixed bridge. Yeah. So fixed bridge limits us to, you know, uh any sort of power boats under a certain height. And then, of course, sailboats with their mast, you know, 50, 60 feet. It's just you can't get there. So Island Gardens remains a critical hub for us. And if we could incorporate the some of the larger, what I'll call the brokerage yachts or super yachts, mega yachts that can't get to Collins Avenue and combine the sailboat component with that component, that's the vision long term, is use the super yacht marina there for super yachts. Yeah. And then of course the sailing contingent. Um, you know, we had a mixed bag with sailboats. Uh it's very strong on the catamaran side. We'd love to see more monoholes, but um we do have the opportunity to utilize that utilize that site in a in a more immersive way for both next year. Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Now, are you guys up here in Washington? I know that um, you know, we're both we're all up here talking about you know what's important to the industry, and let's talk about protect, preserve, and promote um from a regulatory basis. Are there any issues that you are working through here that can benefit that will benefit Miami? I know, for example, um people are talking, you know, dredging, for example, along Indian Creek. Is that something that is uh maintenance dredging?

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Is that something that's it's not something on the radar today, but it could be tomorrow. And that's you know the beauty of ABC and the connectivity. Keeping those relationships. Yes, and keeping those relationships and seeing people, you know, Grant and I get to connect every so often, but there's so many colleagues across the industry that this is the you know the epicenter of ideas and fostering collaboration and getting things done. You know, one of the one of the seminars earlier this with this morning was how amazed this administration was how quickly we could make change on Red Snapper. You know, in a in a project that could have taken 10 years, took two or three. And that still sounds, oh my god, it took two or three years. How'd you do it in two years? So that's the beauty of ABC. You know, we're here to learn, we're here to collaborate, we're here to push things through, progress, uh, progress for the industry. Um, dredging's a small piece of that. Um but when we need it, we have we have the team in place to do it.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

100%. And and from an EBA perspective?

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Uh from an EBA perspective, it's really you know, again, to connect and collaborate, like Larry just said, and at work and shake hands with people in our industry and get to know other people in their in our industry. But in terms of the hill visits tomorrow, it's tomorrow's is really gonna be about um just pushing making voting easier in all ways, shapes, or form in Florida. So it will be specific to Florida because that's where we're from. But you know, behind tourism, it's one of the biggest industries in our state. Making it easier, I mean we could we we did it with uh the tax cap, you know, we tried with deferred importation. That will always be, I always will bring that up. I think that's something that eventually we could hopefully get there on. But again, just promoting boating, the ports of a boating, how much uh a boat spends when it sits in a marina, and make it as easy as possible during the purchasing and the selling process to allow the owners of those boats to keep in float as long as they can. Absolutely because when they're there they spend and that creates jobs. And from the from uh dry cleaner to the generator guy to the fiberglass guy to the electrician. I mean, we just have to say electrician, I'm serious. Of

Island Gardens And The Bridge Limit

SPEAKER_02 10:05

course, of course. I mean the the the the the list is never ending when it comes to spending on a boat. And so just how can we keep these boats here longer?

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Well, I know the Marine Industries Association in South Florida, I sat in a a couple of meetings, and one of the meetings I sat in yesterday was with CBP, and it was it's all about the crew visas and making sure that the crews and the reality is the laws and the regulations have not changed. There have been um some modifications in certain countries um that would require some bonds, but the reality is it just seems to be constant misinformation. But that can be damaging both to a show and to a broker if crew have issues on on boats coming into the United States.

unknown 10:48

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

And they really don't. I can assure you, you can come in. Your visa is welcome. The right visa is a B1, V2, and um that's what we heard from CBP, and it was so great to sit there to hear it directly from them that you are saying the right information, it is the right visa. We do want the crew to come in, and we want the crew to come in in the boats. We're not worried about your industry, we're worried about the people that are not coming in on a visa, we're worried about the bad apples. CBP, I will say, from a Washington perspective, and also and we're lucky in our area, truly understands our industry and wants to be helpful, and they recognize that we want to be helpful too. Yeah. So even just a at just a meeting at that level. Another thing that's come up is maritime prosperity zones. And I do want to kind of toss that out to you as an inform, but also I think it would benefit EBA. And it's this maritime action plan that the this administration put out sometime in February, I believe, of this year. And they're they're talking about maritime prosperity zones, and these are for mainly um commercial boat building, but I believe that we should talk about it from a recreational industry because it has elements of economic impact, it has training, it has hiring, water access, infrastructure, all the things that we need. So I know that people in this uh in this conference are also doing the same thing to talk about making sure that boating stays in South Florida and boating comes to the United States, and we need to make sure we're promoting it.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yes, and I think you bring up a critical point there. You know, there's a distinct difference between commercial operation and recreational operation. And educating our administrators, our congressmen, our congresswomen, everybody that lives, eats, and breathes politics here, um, educating them on the differences and the importance of recognizing both in a unique way. But you bring up an idea where there's collaborate collaboration on the commercial level that could lead to opening doors on the recreational side. And we need to be at the table's the bottom line. That's why we're here. We're at the table for all these things because if the commercial industry is getting a piece that can help the recreational side, then we need to be at that discussion. And that's you know, that's that's the genesis of what you're talking about is all right, do we piggyback on this? Do we co-partner? How do we

Industry Advocacy And Smart Regulation

SPEAKER_01 12:55

how does this how do we work together? So both industries, we don't want to ignore the importance of the commercial industry. It we we we feed off it in a certain way. Um but we need to be at the table of those discussions, and that's that's the critical part of this.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Well, I think so many people see the industry, they they see boating as a hobby, they see boating as an activity, but sometimes it's it's about educating the legislators to remind them we're an industry, that we have an economic impact. I mean, you look at some of the economic impact numbers over here about you know the amount of jobs, and I mean, I know in South Florida I can probably rattle those off, but it's 138,000 jobs and a and a 18.1 billion dollar economic impact, and that's incredible. And that's a recreational voting industry. That's an industry that we need to make sure that we're talking when we're talking about maritime prosperity zones, South Florida and those are direct numbers.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Imagine all the ancillary and tangential connections. I mean, you're talking tens of thousands of additional people that are tied into this industry.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

I mean, how many people attend a boat show?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Oh my goodness, you know, between 70 and 100,000. It just depends on which show and you know what time of the year, but you know, shows like Miami and Fort Lauderdale are are generally closer to 100,000 uh visitors. Um, and then people that that come in and stay for three, four, or five nights. Oh, it's and that it benefits the hotels, the restaurants, and everything. So, I mean, it we're all part of this ecosystem, whether you're you're a carpenter, you lay fiberglass directly for the marine industry, or you're helping service it in some capacity. So your numbers are correct, but I mean the the the outreach beyond that is beyond bigger, you know. Um it's a reason we're part of like I think what 2. You know, the boating and outdoor recreation. So it doesn't 2% doesn't sound like a huge number, but if you think about it, that's an incredible number. It is um incredible number.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

So that's why we're here, right? Is to let our legislators know that this this industry is as big and is as enjoyable and as flashy it may look. That there is an engine behind that. We're the kind of people that different aspects of the industry that keep that engine lubricated and running. And you know, it's just uh I mean you're you're talking about boat shows. I mean, the economic impact of Fort Lauderdale. It's like having a super lapel there every single time.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

And and what is the cost to the city?

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Well, the economic impact are in the billions.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

No, but I meant the cost. The the boat show covers garbage, police. We pay for everything. So anything.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

When when you when you compare it to a Super Bowl, we're working on those elements. But Super Bowl does get a lot of gift in kind, whether it's police or services and gift.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

And it's not a guarantee.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

And it's not a guarantee. But I mean, there's you know, you can make the argument the NFL is king and and you know, wherever they go, they're gonna get impressions from all over the world. I get that argument, but day in and day out, every single year, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Palm Beach bring close to a billion or more in economic revenue to the state of Florida, to those counties, to those people. Super Bowls, you know, every five, six, seven, eight years. We get it. We get it. But um sometimes

Crew Visas And CBP Misinformation

SPEAKER_01 15:55

you can be taken for granted because you have a 70 or 80 year legacy in a certain city and you just come to expect it. So that's a that's a mountain that we've been climbing for a long time. But um we constantly remind our friends and partners in the cities, we're still here. We are we're still here, and we're not going anywhere. We need your help.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Yes, we need your help, you can't get away too from the ports of boat shows from uh, let's say a broker standpoint. In COVID, yeah, you people we don't need we don't need boat shows to sell anymore. And I think we've really shifted back to the importance of boat shows because it's it's such an opportunity to see a ton of product. Customers love it. They come in, we wind them and dye in them. You can get on tons of boats, see tons of product in a very short amount of time. Uh it's exciting, there's always a vibe, uh, it's electric, there's tons of events going on. Like they really are a great way to connect with a customer. And from a sales guy, I bet in my 22 years of doing this, I bet I can connect 80 to 85 percent of my sales to a boat show. It doesn't mean that at Palm Beach last year or this year that I wrote a contract, but I had a customer there that I've sold to in the past and I will sell to in the future. So those boat shows are touch points.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Agree, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

And it's it's it was a it's a staggering percentage of brokers that you you have touched that customer in some way, shape, or form because of a boat show.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, 100%. The consumer's journey often starts at the boat show. Like Grant said, they may not sign the deal at Palm Beach or Miami or Fort Lauderdale, but part of that journey started at a boat show. Yeah, when you sell a activity started at the boat show.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

When you sell a guy a boat in June, ask the question Were you ever with that person at a boat show? Yes. I would say 80, 85 percent minimum is yes. It's a nice testimony.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

I have a uh I know, I like that. I have a question, and I've been getting statistics, some of them, but I I used to hear, and I believe it's still accurate from uh wearing your EBA hat now. Isn't it one out of 50% of every single transaction sale of a yacht in the world touches a Fort Lauderdale yacht broker?

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Fort Lauderdale yacht broker? Yeah, I could see that.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Yeah, maybe we could say South Florida.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

I mean, the the

Prosperity Zones And Florida’s Impact

SPEAKER_02 18:10

statistic might be old, but it was just um Well, I could say probably even a EBA broker.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Okay, we we could just say an EBA broker. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

I mean, we're the largest organization on the planet when it comes to a brokers association. We're uh just over 2,000, closer to 2,100 members. We've got digital services now with our own MLS or forward-facing uh website for customers, uh a document processing system. We do stuff like this, the legislation, we do continuing education events, whether they're seminars, uh we have open houses, we have we last week we had our golf event, which my team won. Okay, okay, well there you go. Shameless plug. Just saying. Uh so there's there's there we are ever widening our membership and trying to provide as much resources for our members to make selling boats easier. So yeah, I would say that that number doesn't surprise me at all. I think it actually could be higher.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

What's a uh what's on the future for for EBO? What's one of your top priorities that that you're looking for?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Well, right now it's our it's our digital services.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

It's yaapburger.org, it's yachter, and it's boat docks, continuing to get people to sign up, make it very affordable, make it where we can put a couple bucks in our pocket that will continue to build and better the technology and the product. We're not looking to become rich, we're looking to provide member services. So we want to get enough signups so we can continue to make this product great. We need to hire more people to make it even better. Um, and again, that's yachtbroker.org, yachter, and boat docks.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

That's that's so how do they sign up? Just go to the website.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

You go to the website or call our office. Okay, and and somebody will walk, Wendy will walk you through it. And it's it's that simple. It's cheap. It's $349 for under 25 boats and under, it's $4.99 for uh $25 boats and up. So for Marie Max, it's $500 to sign up.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Wow. It's uh very affordable.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

And again, it's you know, these digital products you kinda you have to have the manpower. And it's owned by the eBA. Okay. Okay, so that's good. You know, we're not selling out to private equity. It is your your your data is safe. That's critical. That's important. People need to know that. It's industry-owned MLS that is um your data is safe and it's owned by the industry. Owned by the industry for the industry, developed by the industry.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Now, does Informa help, you know, drive some of that, perhaps, in a way?

SPEAKER_01 20:41

In a way, yes. I mean, we're all kind of in this together as far as I I love the discussion about data-driven, you know. Um Data is key. Data is key, you know, in any industry, and you gotta make smart decisions. And the the data and the and the

Why Boat Shows Still Sell Boats

SPEAKER_01 20:55

decisions we make have to be based on good data. So in that sense, yes, we're aligned. Um, you know, and and building these events, you know, from a consumer standpoint, trying to create a better consumer journey driven by data, listening to what our consumers have to say, listening to what our exhibitors have to say, our partners. Um, and you know, we're on this constant journey of improvement. I think that's what's critical. You know, we the there's always a hurdle or two or three that we have to think about all right, how's that gonna impact the show going forward? So um, using data-driven uh analytics to make smart decisions, listening to our customers, and then always having the growth mindset, how can we improve this event? How can we draw more qualified, fun, enthusiastic boaters to these events or new boaters? Um and so in that sense, we're absolutely a hundred percent aligned.

unknown 21:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Excellent, excellent. And from a Burgess perspective, what's what's what's new going on with Burgess? Anything on the forefront you'd um I know I'm catching everybody kind of flat footed here, but that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

I can tell you in our this is our fifty first year. Oh well, congratulations. Um Our last year was the company's second best year revenue-wise. Wow. So from the sales perspective, we're always looking to build our central listing fleet. The charter side, we're looking to add more charter boats to our inventory and yacht management, same thing. Looking to add more boats to our inventory, the boats that we manage. So our CEO is now out of our Miami office because he's seen the growth in the Americas. And just a huge portion of our customers these days are Americas. And so that's where, you know, like Larry just said, building, making everything better. He's like, yeah, I want to be a part of this. I want to build this market. So right now I think we're we're focused a lot in the US because that's just where a lot of the market is.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

I'm gonna throw another one

EBA Tech Tools And Future Plans

SPEAKER_00 22:45

out there that I that I we we definitely didn't rehearse this. Um Refit. What are your if your CEO is now located in in Miami and your yacht management, are are you looking to try to push refits to be in South Florida?

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Refit like we're like we're refit of boats.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Refit of boats, correct.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Um we have a uh a new build sector called uh Burgess Technical Services, where we have naval architects and engineers that assist with customers. So I kind of pull back when it comes to that stuff and hand it over because that's not what what I do, but we do help customers either purchase new boats and go through that construction phase, and we do help customers with all right, hey, we gotta do a substantial refit. Where do I do this? And again, if if we could keep something like that in South Florida, that would be great, but it just depends on what they're doing, the manufacturer, all that. Agree, agree.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

We do have a keep it in the United States. How about that? And let's

Burgess Growth, Refits, And Closing

SPEAKER_00 23:45

keep it in the United States, and I and I think that that's something that we're talking about. Let the longer the boats stay here, the more likely they're gonna be to show. It benefits all of us. It benefits all of us at every level.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Keep them here.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Keep them here, keep them in the U.S. Well, thank you both for meeting with me today, and thank you for being at the ABC. And I look forward to seeing you guys on the Hill Meetings today.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Appreciate all you do. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

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