OK, you say, so we have another boat show set to launch in the UK. We’ve been here before, so why all the fuss and bother over this one? It’s interesting because the Liverpool show was put to the British Marine Federation (BMF) a few years ago as a show it might like to become involved with.
 
I remember being shown the plans and proposals down at the Southampton Boat Show that year and thinking it all seemed A Good Idea. So I was surprised to hear the BMF had decided not to go for it.
 
When I spoke to Rob Stevens recently, he said had the BMF been offered the same funding options that are on offer now, it might have been a different story. But, with its two NBS shows to look after and seemingly a struggle to get the Liverpool show up and running, the decision was taken.
 
What seems strange now is that while the BMF was willing to go to Mumbai to support a show that had little to do with your average BMF UK member, but the trip to Liverpool seems beyond reach and the Liverpool Boat Show is brushed under the carpet at Egham.
 
Turn down
Didn’t the BMF/NBS once turn down the offer to share in the success of a little European marine trade show that we now call METS?
 
I was given the Cook’s Tour of the area the show will occupy in and around the Liverpool docks. I was met at Lime Street and taken on the short walk from the station to the docks. And this presented the first surprise.
 
As an indication of how seriously Liverpool City Council took its mandate to make Liverpool a centre of excellence and attraction, they decided a few years ago that the docks were going to play a huge part in Liverpool’s future.
 
OK, they said. Let’s move the city centre closer to the docks. That cost £10bn. Bear in mind the same kind of determination to succeed is now behind the Liverpool Boat Show and you can see where I‘m coming from in this debate.
 
OK, so they moved the city centre. So what else has the council done? How about the Capital of Culture Opening Ceremony: Ringo Starr’s live outside performance, watched by 50,000 people, 300 journalists from 40 countries, and reaching a global TV audience of 300 million people.
 
And there’s the MTV Europe Music Awards: a global TV audience of 50 million across 36 countries witnessed Europe’s hottest gig of the year in the Echo Arena – which is part of the docks complex.
 
Then there was the BBC Sports Personality of the Year: a live broadcast, also from the Echo Arena.
 
Live at Anfield
A musician by the name of Paul McCartney performed live at Anfield. And there was the Tall Ships 2008 that, over four days, attracted between 800,000 and one million people, largely around the Albert Dock. Oh, and the Round the World Clipper Race finish in 2008: 60,000 people witnessed the finish on the Mersey.
 
And did you see The Spider on TV recently? La Machine: a public art performance over four days which saw a million people turning out onto the streets to witness a giant animatronic spider which crawled through the city’s streets. Yes. Really.
 
By now, I hope you begin to realise the power, enthusiasm and determination behind this city. Each of these events were successfully delivered by a partnership of public bodies led by Liverpool City Council. Other key players were the emergency services, the tourism agency The Mersey Partnership and transport authority Merseytravel.
 
All of these events required major logistical planning as they attracted massive audiences and entailed significant disruption to normal business life in and around the city.
 
So how will they handle the boat show? The organising company is Marine Industry Events (MIE), which is run by ex-Motor Show man Rob Mackenzie and ex-BMF/NBS man James Gower. Backing MIE is Liverpool City Council, the Northwest Regional Development Agency, the economic development agency, Liverpool Vision and tourism agency and The Mersey Partnership.
 
Then there’s the Liverpool Boat Show Delivery Group, chaired by the no-nonsense chief executive of Liverpool Vision, Jim Gill, who’s one of the most senior and respected figures in the North West of England. Also on the Delivery Group are:
 
Judith Feather, senior events manager, Liverpool City Council; Alistair MacDonald, Liverpool Vision; Pam Wiltshire, head of tourism, The Mersey Partnership; Alan Carter, British Waterways; Sue Grindrod, head of operations, Tate Liverpool; Graham Cook, director, Albert Dock Company, plus Rob Mackenzie and James Gower from MIE
 
Authority
This group will ultimately oversee all aspects of the event and the representatives have the authority to seek and allocate resource from within their own organisations where necessary.
 
For instance, TMP is already speaking to the city’s cultural institutions about what programming they will be considering for the duration of the show. TMP, through its tourism development brief, will also make a significant contribution towards marketing the show to a national and international audience.
 
The city council, TMP and the NWDA have jointly agreed the award of significant European monies to support the show. In addition, the city’s Safety Advisory Group (representing highways, police, fire and the boat show event management company) will assist the organisers with the detailed planning around issues such as public safety, road closures, etc.
 
Development Group members are also working on contact and negotiations with potential private sector backers.
 
The show is regarded as one of Liverpool’s most important tourism and leisure initiatives for the next decade. And to prove it, they’re putting their collective money where their mouth is, to the tune of a £750,000 marketing campaign designed, they say, to propel the Liverpool Boat Show into the European premier league of events.
 
The predictions for the show are equally as impressive. Like around 400,000 visitors. Of these, some 300,000 will have free entry to the docks and the green outdoor areas of the show. The next stage are the paying visitors – around 100,000, reckons MIE. They get the wristband that allows them into red covered boat show area.
 
VIP access
Then there are the VIP visitors who get access to the yellow island sites set in the docks and reachable only by water taxi. Those water taxis are likely to be the hottest trip in town for those who like to seen. And this is, after all, a city in the middle of an extremely wealthy region where people aren’t backward in coming forward.
 
Will they get nearly half a million people there? The promotions budget is by far the largest ever allocated to a boat show in the UK. And they do have a record of attracting people to the docks. Even when there’s no event in the docks, some 50,000 people a week go there to shop, dine and just enjoy the surroundings.
 
And when there’s something on, like the 2008 Liverpool Tall Ships event, they get 500,000 visitors in just three days. 
 
In addition to the advertising, relationships are being forged with boat clubs across the Irish Sea and the whole of the north of the UK so the show is being promoted to directly relevant audiences.
 
More money will be invested in advertising the Liverpool Boat Show than for any other UK boat show. They haven’t started the media selection process yet, but it’ll include specialist magazines and websites, outdoor, radio, direct mail and TV.
 
High net worth
They’ll also be running a high net worth strategy with the region’s banking, wealth management and professional firms uniting as founder partners in support of the show. Between them they are using the show for entertaining their key clients.
 
Almost 30 partners are confirmed so far and have already bought 10,000 tickets. James Gower says they aren’t setting out to attract one large financial sponsor for the event in order not to alienate potential visitors. A total of 50 partners in total are being sought.
 
And partnership marketing offers an impressive list of participants - Virgin Trains, Eastern Airways, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, The Mersey Partnership tourist board and many other official bodies from the North West and around the Irish Sea are entering formal marketing relationships with the show.
 
Between them, these partners will speak to millions of potential visitors. 
 
I had lunch with Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool City Council, and Colin Hilton, chief executive. The enthusiasm both men showed for this project was infectious.
 
‘Liverpool is now one of the top tourist destinations in the UK and we and our partners have pledged our firm commitment to the show’s organisers to help them deliver what will become one of the most successful events of its kind in Europe,’ said Mr Bradley.
 
‘The city’s commitment to this show is unstinting,’ Colin Hilton insisted. ‘We’ll support the event in every way we can, not just through our expertise in events delivery but through our relationships with private sector organisations which we know will derive significant benefit from their association with an event which is set to attract high worth consumers and hundreds of thousands of spectators.’

Exhibitors
OK, so who’s exhibiting? James Gower is getting twitchy. He knows he has to come up with some fancy names and he assures me they have a group of top names almost ready to break cover.
And having the recent announcement that Julian Gowing is now working for Sunseeker and is also on the show Steering Committee (as is Nick Powell of Sealine) surely indicates this show is being taken seriously at a very high level.
‘We hosted 13 more marine businesses in Liverpool yesterday bringing the total to more than 300 companies who have now seen the site,’ he told me. ‘Whilst we are not asking anyone to sign contacts until the end of April we’ve had more than 100 applications for space signed.’
One of the aspects of this show that will catch the eye is the proximity of the city centre to the show. Harking back to the Earls Court days, the male of the species will be able to stroll around the show in the docks, while the female – should she wish – will find all the top store names within walking distance of the boat show.
Add the plentiful hotels and restaurants and nightlife and the Liverpool Boat Show seems certain to be a success.
 
My overriding feeling after going to Liverpool to see what they have up there is that they’ve got what it takes. They’ve got a fantastic venue in the docks. They’ve got the determination to make it a success and they have the sheer enthusiasm to make it a runaway success.

I reckon it's a no brainer.