On the other hand we have the Whyte & Mackay sponsored Earls Court Boat Show. What can they offer?

They have enthusiasm. In spades. Doubled and redoubled.

They have Earls Court on board, with its sales and organisational experience.

They have the money. Whyte & Mackay is a very successful company. In John Vincent it has an obviously very able businessman and communicator. As well as running Whyte & Mackay, he runs his own successful fast food chain going head to head with McDonalds.

Do they know the marine industry? I’m not entirely sure choosing Paul Streeter as their operations director demonstrated a knowledge of – and empathy with - the UK leisure marine industry.

They claim to have been working on this show with Earls Court for a year or more. So why didn’t they have at least one sketch of the pool with a few boats and banners as hard evidence of a boat show that I could print to help convince you, their exhibitors, that this show will happen?

And why, a week after asking for names of the companies intending to exhibit, have I heard nothing?

In short, we have NBS, which has yet to crack the problem of ExCeL, even though this year showed huge steps forward in getting some spark back into the show.

Then we have the Earls Court Boat Show, which is starting from scratch and needs to be sorted by September to make it work in December: about eight months to produce 600 exhibitors, design, develop and produce a boat show.

Both shows want you to exhibit. But before signing with either, please take some time to think through the effects on the industry as a whole – the industry that provides your livelihood - if we end up with two London boat shows…

Why not air your thoughts through the BB Letters page – no more than 200 words each, please. Email them to pnash@boatingbusiness.com

We live in interesting times…

Peter Nash

Editor