As a reporter covering the high-performance boating world, I get the very best of the Miami International Boat Show. I know about the hottest stuff before the Miami Convention Center opens its doors, so I check it out at whatever pace I choose. I get invited to all the coolest parties, from the joyful Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats Opening Day affair to the swanky Florida Powerboat Club/Speed On The Water South Beach Bash. (OK, I have to cohost the latter celebration to secure an invite, but it’s worth it.) I get wined and dined to excess.
Short version? I’m spoiled during the Miami affair, maybe even rotten.
So why do I leave the show each year underwhelmed and annoyed?
Because I am not my reader—and I care about my readers. They are the lifeblood of what I do. Without readers, I have no traffic. Without traffic, I have no advertisers.
And advertising pays my bills.
For a new boat in the market I cover—and I have covered this segment for longer than I care to admit—$500,000 is entry level. The Miami affair, however, presents anything but an experience commensurate with that price-tag. From where I sit—meaning in no position to drop a half-million bucks on a boat—it’s not even close.
If I am being courted to spend that kind of dough on an entry-level product, I expect to be pampered and treated like the precious asset I am. I do not expect to view beautiful creations, such as those found in the MTI and Nor-Tech displays this year, under ghastly convention center lighting.
I do not expect to take shuttles or ride-shares through vile South Florida traffic to reach whatever happens to be in the water for demo rides.
Comparisons to the automobile sales world don’t generally apply well to powerboat sales, I know. Then again, head for a BMW dealership and dropped $60,000 on something new. Your experience will be a tad different. Not the same thing all, I get it, but still worth considering.
And let’s not forget the cost of staying in one of the most overpriced, albeit vibrant and pulsating, cities in the country.
As marketing/sales platforms, large boat shows are antiquated and egregiously expensive for exhibitors. Maybe they can be updated, maybe they can’t. The market decides. That’s the beauty of capitalism.
But I view them as dinosaurs that have somehow escaped wandering into the tarpits.
At least for now.