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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 11
July 2010
Businesses buoyed by CME venue, attendance
Because success can be contagious, we’re encouraged by the modest swell of enthusiasm and enterprise that ran through the aisles of the Commercial Marine Expo (CME) trade show in New Bedford in June.
This year’s show was not perfect. But it was a credible, ground-up retooling of the former Fish Expo-Atlantic, and it seemed to strike just the right chord with exhibitors and attendees.
Fish Expo, frankly, had fallen on hard times. By its final run in April 2008 in Providence, RI, the show had eroded to a shadow of its former self.
Some of us remember the glory years when Fish Expo meant hundreds of booths and boats filling Boston’s Hynes Auditorium or the Bayside Expo Center. Marine supply houses from across the region would send tractor-trailer loads of gear to help satisfy the demands of thousands of fishermen looking for show specials.
Granted, those fishing boom days were in the past, but Fish Expo-Atlantic had slipped out of sync with the commercial fishing industry.
So, when the show went up for sale, Commercial Fisheries News was among the bidders. We bid low, not certain what it would take to turn the ailing franchise around. But we bid nevertheless, committed to the belief that Expo was important to the industry, that it was an institution worth preserving.
When another bidder ended up with the show, we, along with many others, watched with interest as he set about re-energizing the ailing event.
And there was some skepticism when show director Ted Hugger announced: a name change from Fish Expo-Atlantic to Commercial Marine Expo; a location change from the Rhode Island Convention Center to the State Pier in New Bedford; date changes from early spring to early June; and a refocusing of the event to include nonfishing elements, including the work boat community.
Well, it worked.
Hugger recognized that the show needed to get “real” and get back to its roots. New Bedford was the right place to do that. The city and the local industry welcomed CME with open arms and worked to assure its success.
The venue, while spartan to say the least, was ideal for re-establishing the working feel of the show and creating an environment where industry people could feel at home.
Some old timers might recall the great show at the State Pier back in the late 1980s co-sponsored by Commercial Fisheries News and the New Bedford Chamber of Commerce. That was a low-tech event that died with the scallop fishery collapse at the end of the decade. But, at its best, it worked well and was popular with both exhibitors and attendees.
CME recaptured that magic.
Hugger also concluded correctly that the show focus had to be expanded to bring in more potential buyers. Many exhibitors – the marine engine and electronics folks, for example – service markets beyond commercial fishing.
While some exhibitors missed the small boat guys from Maine, who show up at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum in March, Hugger has promised to push harder to reel them in next time.
And many more exhibitors said the expanded show formula worked well and that they had good traffic. Most importantly, they said, folks were buying. And that’s good news for all of us.
No, this isn’t a boom, but it’s progress. Here’s hoping this success is, indeed, contagious. /cfn/
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