Team Alba does METS
We are just winging our way back from Amsterdam where we had a great week catching up with industry at the Marine Equipment and Trade Show (METS). Team Albatross loves visiting Holland – as well as being the home of Stroopwafel, lots of tall people (the only place in the world Ellie feels short!), beautiful surroundings and the epicentre of the European yachting community, it’s also where our marketing partner Anco Kok of AK marketeers is based and it was great to catch up with him for strategy meetings.
For those who haven’t been, METS is the world’s biggest marine trade show with nearly 1400 companies exhibiting, including several from Australia and New Zealand in dedicated country pavilions. As a B2B show it’s a valuable opportunity for companies to get in front of decision makers and influencers. Many of our clients were also exhibiting in the Superyacht Pavilion (SYP). A ‘show within a show’, the SYP fills two halls with superyacht specific exhibitors and has a very different look and feel to the rest of METS after undergoing a rebrand in 2014. A team of two this year, with both Isla and Ellie on site, we were really proud to be flying the flag for so many amazing companies. Namely: C-Tech, Doyle Sails, Fastmount, Glasshape, IMED, JP Ribs, KZ Marine, MUIR Windlasses, NZ Marine, Propspeed, Tru-Design, Ultralon and WASSP. Big congratulations to Tru-Design who were a category winner in the prestigious DAME Awards with their Load Bearing Collar Product. It’s doubly enjoyable to do our job when there are so many exciting products and innovations coming from our clients.
Top left: Jesse and David of IMED
Top right: Duffy, Matt and Simon of Doyle Sails NZ
Bottom left: The Tru Design Team
Bottom right: Richard Duckworth of Glasshape
The show gave us a chance to showcase the companies and their products to an array of journalists including editors from SuperyachtNews.com, Superyacht Design, SuperyachtTimes.com, Professional Boat Builder, Superyacht World, Superyacht Business, IBI and more. Seeing our journalist friends is one reason we love shows so much. METS is the last major show of the year, coming hot on the heels of FLIBS, Monaco and more and having done it ourselves as journalists we can remember well the feeling of total exhaustion as you come to the end of a busy year of news stories, print deadlines, shows and events. So a big thank you to all the journalists who always keep their enthusiasm and work so hard to get the news out day after day! It wasn’t all work and no play and we also enjoyed the hospitality of the always spirited Aussie’s at the Australian Drinks night and our Dutch friends at the Dutch Drinks and celebrated ten years of Superyacht Company at the popular SuperYacht Night Amsterdam.
METS wraps up our show season for 2015 and we are now eagerly looking forward to our next event, the 2016 New Zealand Millennium Cup, for fun, sun and racing in the beautiful Bay of Islands.
