Tag Archives: Coronavirus

After a year filled with uncertainty and disruption, including the cancellation and postponement of many boating industry events and shows, NMMA president Frank Hugelmeyer shares his thoughts on the importance and future of boat shows: The unprecedented disruption from COVID-19 has been a blessing and curse for the recreational boating industry. On one hand, we have witnessed a remarkable shift ...

The German Federal Government has decided that trade fair participants are generally considered business travelers with good reason to enter Germany. This clears the way for the boot 2021 water sports trade fair to go on as scheduled in Düsseldorf, Germany, from January 23 – 31, 2021. When entering Germany, trade fair exhibitors must submit a confirmation of participation from ...

The 30th International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference (IBEX), scheduled for September 29 – October 1, 2020, announced today it will transition to a virtual only event allowing the entire marine industry to come together in a new way as an online community. This decision was made to pivot the in-person show to a virtual only event due to the ongoing COVID-19 ...

Newport Exhibition Group announced that its annual boat show scheduled to take place September 17-20, 2020 at the Newport Yachting Center in downtown Newport, R.I., has been cancelled. Due to spikes in new cases of COVID-19 across the United States, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, stated that, although Phase III of re-opening would have included no cap on the number ...

By David Gee A colleague who works as the editor at a sister publication recently went boat shopping to replace an aging pontoon at the family lake cabin. Since we are all hungry for news about “what it’s like out there” I thought I would share some of the anecdotes from his experience at the first dealer he went to. ...

Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) recently released a letter signed by 29 national outdoor recreation trade associations, supporting over 100,000 businesses, urging Congress to pass the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). This legislation would fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and address the nation’s public lands maintenance backlog in order to support rural communities and rescue the outdoor ...

Volvo Penta is taking action in response to the prevalent need for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). At two of its North American facilities, the company is producing and distributing this vital protective gear to healthcare workers in the local communities and beyond. The efforts are part of an ongoing initiative from Volvo Group North America which plans to supply thousands ...

By Adam Quandt A different world nearly every day, sometimes every hour. The evolving novel coronavirus — more specifically known as COVID-19 — global pandemic has the professional, social and almost every other aspect of everyone’s lives changing rapidly. Business leaders have been particularly challenged to implement and try new models at a rapid pace, while others have been faced ...

By David Gee It ended well – and began well; 2019 and 2020 that is.  At the end of 2019, NMMA’s Marine CEO Sentiment Survey found business confidence among marine manufacturer CEOs increased in the fourth quarter with 88% of marine CEOs saying current conditions were stable or expanding. And slightly over half of all marine senior executives at recreational ...

By David Gee I like the word community. I use it a lot. In fact, I likely overuse it, and I’m not the only one. It seems these days especially, more and more advertising, marketing and social media messaging contains, and in some cases co-opts, the word community. So, I am attempting to reframe in my own mind what it ...