Jane Wilson's exhibitions team at Mercator Media has been researching both options and both have pros and cons.

The October option has failed commercially ever since the show left Sandown Park in the early '90s. Even with a subsidy from the British Marine Federation, the show never really got further than being an excellent networking event.

The Seawork option sounds alarm bells because it's a commercial marine exhibition and the fear is adding a leisure marine element will dilute the proven and very successful format that Mercator has evolved over its 11 years.

So before we make this very important decision we want to ask you, the industry, to consider those pros and cons and vote for your preferred option.

We've set up an online poll on the Boating Business website at www.boatingbusiness.com  You'll see the BBEx vote button near the bottom of the navigation panel on the left.

Just vote for October, or Seawork and your vote will be counted automatically. This is all about the future of BBEx, so we need to make sure we get it right for the majority.