Livorsi Marine and More Enjoy Successful IBEX

Complementing a press release about how the International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition and Conference (IBEX), which took place Sept. 19-21 in Tampa, Fla., attracted nearly 6,500 marine industry professionals—a 4 percent increase over 2016—Livorsi Marine’s Mike Livorsi confirmed that this year’s IBEX was a success even with the challenging weather situation leading up to the event.

Livorsi Marine showed off a wide variety of products for performance boats and more at IBEX in Tampa, Fla., last week.

“Despite the chaos of one of the most powerful storms in history—Hurricane Irma—less than one week before the show, the OEMs came to Tampa because they felt that it was important to be at the exclusive show and not let the weather deter their continued effort to making their boats better,” said Livorsi, who showed off a ton of product including the company’s new stepped tabs and DTS shorty controls. “Many other marine companies showed up displaying their new product lines as well. The show was well attended and the organizers and exhibitors really pulled together despite the forces of Mother Nature.”

According to the IBEX release, international professionals made up more than 7 percent of the attendance from more than 50 countries. Show organizers also reported an increased number of no-shows for 2017, acknowledging the impact Hurricane Irma had on many registrants’ ability to attend.

“I’m so relieved we could keep IBEX on schedule and thrilled the industry supported our decision,” says Anne Dunbar, IBEX show director. “Coming together so soon after Irma was difficult, but it was the right thing to do. Tampa needed us here, and our industry needed to gather. It was important for us to recognize the impact Irma had and we are happy we were able to make a donation to Feeding Tampa Bay and host a special session on hurricane recovery. From everyone at IBEX, a big thank you to marine industry for your support and participation.”

The event also reported a 9.7 percent increase in the number of exhibiting companies with more than 600 companies filling 123,435 square feet of exhibit space. Only 13 exhibiting companies were unable to be at IBEX due to impacts from Hurricane Irma. The full IBEX dock build-out was unable to be implemented, but due to help from the Tampa Convention Center, the permanent docks were available. In spite of this, there were 24 boats used to display marine equipment on the water. IBEX is scheduled to return to Tampa in 2018 (Oct. 2-4).

Livorsi Marine and More Enjoy Successful IBEX

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