January February 2019 Marina World

CONFERENCES & EVENTS
Greek Marinas Association, the conference
host, and event sponsors D-Marin
welcomed over 300 attendees to a gala
dinner at the spectacular Zappeion in
Athens.
IWMC 2018:
Cross sea challenges
for marinas
Marinas are a social centre irrespective of whether visitors are boat owners
or not and are the ‘route’ to boating rather than just part of essential nautical
infrastructure. This message, reinforced by the realisation that boat ownership
and use is changing, leading to ‘more boaters per boat’, was repeated
throughout last year’s highly successful ICOMIA World Marinas Conference
(IWMC), held in Athens 25 th -27 th October.
Key conference pointers were
summed up by Martinho Fortunato
CMM, chair of the ICOMIA Marinas
Group as “the need to address change
– new technology, energy, sustainability,
training and marketing.” Topics included
work on creating a longlife battery
for future electricity storage (Donald
Sadoway, MIT, USA); the electric
boat (Christian Pho Duc, Torqeedo,
Germany); drystack construction
(Robert Brown, GCM Contracting
Solutions, USA); and floating solar piers
(Anthony Baro, Power Docks, USA).
Baro summarised the top concerns
impacting marinas as: the growth of
electric vehicles and electric propulsion;
renewable power; energy storage;
power resiliency; remote sensing and
monitoring; autonomous yachting;
sea level rise; and sea pollution and
microplastics.
In terms of marketing, Ioannis
Kostopoulos, CEO Sammyacht,
focused on intelligent systems for next
generation marinas. “Customers are
demanding a highly personal service.
Real time data is the diamond of the
future,” he believes.
Buy or rent
“There has never been so much demand
for time on the water. It’s just that boat
ownership has changed.
We need to enable the
sharing economy,” asserts
Udo Kleinitz, secretary
general ICOMIA, whose
policy papers and statistics
give the industry hard
facts to support plans and
proposals.
But it’s essential to get
into the correct mindset.
“Young people are hassleintolerant,
more demanding
and seek smooth solutions,”
says Mats Eriksson,
CEO of Swedish Marine
Industries Federation,
Sweboat. “We need to sell
boating by participation, not by selling
boats.” Armed with the key buzzwords
– fractional ownership, watersports
(not boating), and why buy when you
can borrow? - Sweboat’s initiative took
the association to the ski slope where
it could display a boat to a young
audience already enjoying one form
of outdoor sporting activity. “There are
many initiatives around the world and
we’re exchanging campaign ideas,” he
says.
Participation is definitely becoming
the key consideration. “People under 40
don’t want to be seen to be owners and
the move to share under-utilised assets
is fast growing,” explains Nanke Den
Daas, CEO Den Daas Group. “But,” she
warns, “this is less so for boats aside
from use as static accommodation.
Boat charter is up 7% but boat sharing
is slow to take off.”
Sharing boats also has different
implications for the marina, such as
greater use of facilities and the need
for 24 hour security – for the owner
who is sharing the boat, the marina
office staff who need to know who is on
site, and for other boat owners around
Thanking the hosts (l to r): ICOMIA
secretary general Udo Kleinitz; Stavros
Katsikadis president Greek Marinas
Association; Martinho Fortunato, chair
ICOMIA Marinas Group; Stavroula
Kakaletri, Greek Marinas Association;
and Chara Dina, event organisers Hazlis
& Rivas. IWMC 2018 is widely considered
to have been one of the best in the series to
date, attracting 414 attendees.
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www.marinaworld.com - January/February 2019