This was our first foray as a new business into the largest boat show in the U.S. -- the Miami International Boat Show. Overall, our assessment was that it was a good, but not great, show for us -- so far! (We have several good leads for chart art that, after the fact, could make our attendance at MIBS very successful if those orders are completed.)

I think we were somewhat fortunate to get a booth location in a room that was popular with the big game fishing crowd. Our co-exhibitors included Melton International Tackle Box from California; "Restless Lady" Lures & Charters from Ocean City, Maryland (near my home turf); and Ballyhood International Wahoo Lures, also from CA. These guys attracted lots of big time anglers, so we got some spinoff from their customers.

As usual, there were many boaters who, literally, stopped in their tracks when they noticed our chart art. Comments included: "Wow!" and "Never seen anything like this!" and "Can you do chart art for 'X location'?"

Needless to say, Mary and I enjoyed meeting hundreds of people a day and describing how we can provide chart art for over 200 waterways and geographies around the world, already.

The most requested bodies of water were (surprise, surprise):  the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands and the various Great Lakes.  Our display chart art for the Trent-Severn ALWAYS drew our Canadian brethern into the booth to examine the chart and show us their hometown, their boat passage route or childhood vacation spot.  It's always wonderful to share other folks fond memories!

We came away from the show feeling that we got good exposure to prospective customers, got a good education about exhibiting at the Miami Boat Show and got a couple dozen new industry "soul-mates" (fellow exhibitors). We even re-connected with several old friends who either stopped by to see us or discovered our new business in the process of "working the show."