International Boat Industry Magazine to Launch Export Excellence Award at IBEX, Call for Nominations Open
This year`s International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition & Conference (IBEX) in Tampa will host the launch of a new export award for U.S. companies – the Export Excellence Award – conceived and sponsored by International Boat Industry (IBI) magazine.
The award is designed to recognize excellence in the realm of export sales by U.S. boat builders or marine equipment manufacturers, or distributors and manufacturer representatives of U.S. products.
The award will be presented by IBI editor Ed Slack at the opening day IBEX Industry Breakfast to be held at the Tampa Marriott Waterside hotel on Tuesday the 2nd of October.
The independent panel of judges will be evaluating the entries based on a case study describing export strategies such as market research, product modification when required, creation of trading partnerships, financing mechanisms, solutions to trade barriers, use of federal or state promotional services, overcoming cultural differences, etc. They will also take into account the growth in overseas sales achieved between 2016 and 2017.
The judging panel will be comprised of Tom Douglass, former Vice President of Sales and Marketing with SeaStar Solutions, now retired and a past member of the METSTRADE exhibition committee; Rebecca Torres, soon to be retired member of the Diplomatic Corp with the U.S. Foreign Office Commercial Service Dept with responsibility for developing strategies to optimise U.S. exports; and chair of the panel, Ed Slack, IBI`s editor of the past fifteen years.
IBI`s publishing director Nick Hopkinson commented, “We are pleased to be working with IBEX and the NMMA to promote U.S. export development, a role which the magazine has been supporting since its inception fifty years ago.”
The award is open to all members of the NMMA as well as to exhibitors at IBEX and companies are encouraged to self-nominate.
Please follow this link to the application form. Entries should be submitted by August 3rd at the latest and the winner will be notified by September 12th.
The winner will be authorized to display the award logo on its communications channels, literature and web site and will be presented with an attractive trophy for display in its offices. The winner will also receive VIP status and benefits for two people during 2018 at the IBEX show in Tampa and at the METSTRADE show in Amsterdam.
Furthermore, the winner will be granted two free annual subscriptions to the IBI Plus international market information web site and to the IBI Plus Daily Industry newsletter.