Scott and I have attended the Seattle Boat Show for the past 20 years. This year the show will be a virtual boat show and quite different thanks to the pandemic. The organizers of the show NMTA, have launched a fantastic website at www.seattleboatshow.com. Here you can buy different ticket levels, which gain you access to many features, including four days of virtual seminars (83 to choose from) January 28 – 31.
This will be the largest virtual boat show in the country and already they have sold tickets in over 40 states. There are over 600 boats featured on the website ranging from $1400 to $3.6million.
Going from 35,000 sq ft
As many of you know, I am head of marketing for Union Marine and the annual boat show is one of my biggest tasks each year. Normally the show takes up over 200,000 sq feet at the convention center at Century Link and my company normally has over 35,000 sq ft of that space.
Like many boat dealers, we are not only doing a virtual boat show, but we’re also hosting an open house at two of our locations in Seattle and Fife. To try and squeeze in a show of this size into two local showrooms is definitely a challenge, but I feel good about our accomplishment.
Hosting a Virtual Boat Show
No other organization has ever put together a show of this size and honestly, none of us know what to expect. One very cool feature of the show, is many dealers chose to do a 3D virtual walk-thru tour of their showrooms. You can see the two virtual boat show displays for Union Marine on our website. These tours are real life videos of our actual show rooms. You can click on specific targets and get information about a brand, including a brand video, build a boat or see our inventory.
The question still remains, how many people will shop virtually versus in-person? Guess we will have to wait and see. Just like a car, everyone loves to touch and see a boat up close and in person. Scott and I put a quick video together to give you an inside peek of the show both in-person and virtually – so check it out below.
This year, we hope to get to the Annapolis and/or Fort Lauderdale shows, so be sure to subscribe to our channel for upcoming episodes.
As always, thank you for following our blog! Be sure to follow us on social media @BoatingJourney too. Next week, we’ll take you on a tour of a brand new Sea Ray L590 Fly Motor Yacht.
Cheers, Scott and Ally
One Reply to “Seattle Virtual Boat Show 2021”
Comments are closed.