And we will be presenting a brand new award to The Young Business Person of the Year.

This is an award that recognises the future of this industry lies in the next generation of movers and shakers. So we're looking for nominations.

The award will go to the person under 40 who has made the biggest contribution to the success of the business they run or work in.

Nominations for both awards - Retailer of the Year and Young Business Person of the Year - can be emailed direct to awards@bbex.co.uk and should include a brief resume of why you think the person should receive the award.

Entries must be received by the end of the London Boat show, so you can search for inspiration around ExCeL if you need it.

The awards will be presented on the Wednesday evening, when we are running our No Jacket Required drinks reception in the excellent room upstairs from the exhibition floor.

As the title suggests, this is an informal reception with drinks and a few Things On Sticks to nibble while you're waiting for the chat. This will be kept as short as possible and will culminate in the two presentations.

After that, everyone is free to enjoy the delights of Bournemouth, its restaurants, pubs and clubs.

But we expect you all back the following day, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to do business? It was always our intention to make the Boating Business Exhibition (BBEx for short) a show that would offer ways and means of improving your business.

Read the comments from David Lewin in our front page story and you'll see how he reckons there has been a huge change in the retail world over the past year or so.

He is so confident of the power of the Internet he is taking Compass Watersports out of the London Boat Show.

The Internet is here and will change the way you do business. This really cannot be emphasised enough. For smaller retail outlets, it could mean the difference between staying in business. Or going out of business.

Unless, of course, you find out how to work with the Internet. One thing is certain.

You can't fight it.

So come along and listen to our Internet and retail experts - Ian Atkins and David Lewin - and get some ideas on how to carry on in business when your best prices are being undercut by a bloke running a website out of his bedroom.

We've also got Jonno Barrett from Kudos, which specialises in administrative software. He can offer ideas on keeping track of your stock, automatic ordering and reordering and lots more that can make the administrative burden a lot lighter.

Clive Bartlett from Saltwater is a specialist in promoting your business, products and services. He has some high flying clients - Fairline and Avon are two - but can offer some ideas on how you can work with your local media to get people into your shop.

International Paint will be exhibiting its own products and also bringing in its experts to run seminars. The themes will be helping small chandlers do more business by offering advice on small retail outlet merchandising - stock rotation, shelf displays, etc.

On top of all that, the main exhibition will have the very latest new products for the coming season, with a few deals on offer and delivery guaranteed for the Easter rush, no doubt. We're also working on some interesting "how to" workshops to run in the exhibition hall.

And the people who can help you with BBEx? Easy.

Jane Wilson is Mercator Media's exhibitions manager.

She runs the incredibly successful commercial marine trade show Seawork and is bringing her extensive knowledge of B2B trade exhibitions to BBEx.

Kate Didymus is the sales manager on BBEx. She's worked for Boating Business and Seawork and is now handling BBEx.

Peter Nash is the editor of Boating Business. He's also very involved in BBEx and will be playing a major part during the show. He'll want to know exhibitor's product details for the show preview that runs in BBFebruary.

Andrew Webster is the managing director of Mercator Media, the parent company of Boating Business, Seawork and BBEx. The driving force behind BBEx, Webster keeps a watching brief on the entire proceedings and will be very much in evidence at the show itself.

Diary dates BBEx 2007 is booked for February 14 and 15 BBEx 2008 is booked for February13 and 14