Features
SEAS 2004
SEAS2004
I write this hot off the plane after exhibiting at SEAS2004 last week in Nice. SEAS2004 was the new show organised by the Yacht Report magazine for the super yacht industry. The acronym stands for "Superyacht Equipment And Services", which explains who the exhibitors were. The show was targeted at yacht owners, captains, crew, yards, project managers and designers. The megastar yacht builders were actively encouraged not to exhibit.
The show was held at the Acropolis in downtown Nice, not an easy place to get to at the best of times. It opened on Tuesday morning and closed on Thursday evening.
Workshops
In conjunction with the show, a series of Workshops were held just off the main exhibition halls. The Workshops covered a wide range of subjects from "Galley Planning" to "Aids to Navigation". These were not sales seminars, but took the form of a general question and answer session prompted by an introduction by, on average, three industry experts covering each topic.
The main sponsor of the show was Inmarsat, one of E3´s main suppliers. Such a large, high profile sponsor encouraged us to exhibit, as we are an Inmarsat Service Provider (ISP). Inmarsat´s Fleet hardware manufacturers KVH, Thrane & Thrane and Nera were also encouraged to exhibit.
Inmarsat conducted two Workshops each day with a very professional presentation of Inmarsat Fleet applications such as video conferencing, text messaging, weather and chart updates.
Mallorca representation
There were a few Mallorca-based companies represented at the show. These included Fred Dovaston, Quantum, The Super Yacht Cup (ex Vela), Yacht Engineers, Bluewater Training, The Link and E3 Systems. Fred had a very eye-catching and professional stand and, together with his team of girls, enjoyed a successful and interesting show. Otto from Quantum told me that they were very busy and pleased with the show. Jane Thompson was manning the Super Yacht Cup stand which, like that of Fred Dovaston and E3 Systems, was designed by Malcolm Hall of Compass Design, another Mallorca-based company.
George Parkinson of Yacht Engineers in Palma also sponsored one of the morning breakfast seminars. Jason Cook from Bluewater Training was representing his Portals office. Phil Edwards from Yacht Help was based from the E3 stand representing The Link, with the aim of attracting more work to Palma. The feedback I received from all was one of quiet satisfaction rather than bursting enthusiasm.
Visitors to the Show
In general I thought the attendance was low and certainly not as high as that forecast by the organisers. However, the quality of the visitors was good. I can usually gauge a good show by whether or not I have lost my voice by the end of the week. Unfortunately this was not the case last week in Nice...
The show was compact and it was possible for a visitor to visit all the stands within a couple of hours, although many stayed on for the Workshops.
There were some captains visiting the show, although many of these were either project managing a new build, or looking for their next job...
Among the visitors from Mallorca were Mark and Mel from Rolling Stock and Interiors, together with baby daughter Poppy, Remy from Pinmar and Stefan from Astilleros.
There were international visitors from all over the world and the networking was fantastic, as at any super yacht show.
Timing?
Last year when the Yacht Report announced SEAS2004, E3 was pleased to support the new show, but we did have reservations about the timing. The super yacht season traditionally starts with the Cannes Film Festival, closely followed by the Monaco Grand Prix. Thus most yachts are already busy with owners or guests on board, or they are frantically trying to get ready for the new season.
Likewise May is traditionally a very busy month for E3, and we could not afford to have many of our team in Nice for this show. However, we managed to send 4 representatives from the Palma and Antibes offices to the show, all of whom spent a disproportionate amount of time taking orders on their mobile phones.
New technology at the show
On the audio visual side, E3 was representing Linn and had a fabulous Linn Classik system on our stand with a 42" plasma. In addition to this, Linn had a full cinema demo room with all their latest equipment including their new Unidisk 1 disc player, which plays every disc format know to man!
We were also exhibiting Seetrac, our tender tracking system, which attracted a great deal of interest, as well as the new ENC electronic charts.
Conclusion
All in all, the show held few surprises. A number of other exhibitors thought it was poorly attended, and some high profile exhibitors have told me they will not book for 2005. So, will E3 be back next year? Well, the show was perfectly timed to coincide with the Monaco Grand Prix, and a good time was had by all...
Roger Horner, E3 Systems Tel: +34 971 404208/400738 email: roger@e3s.com