Earls Court Boat Show - the verdict

It’s funny how your memory plays tricks (writes Matt).  I hadn’t set foot in Earls Court since the end of the last Boat Show to be held there, and the impression that instantly struck me was that I’d forgotten how small it is.  Compared to Excel, let along RAI in Amsterdam, Earls Court is just tiny!  There can be no going back, there just isn’t the space.

Impression number two, at 1130 on the Tuesday morning, was that the place was almost completely deserted.  The guys and girls on the stage did their best to liven the place up with fashion shows, rowing competitions and interviews, but my heart went out to them as they served it all up to groups of sometimes half a dozen or less.  Most of the people that we bumped into in the aisles seemed to be other members of the industry checking things out just like us - so the number of punters must have been pretty minimal.

Interestingly, though, the exhibitors seemed a lot happier than we might have expected.  Customers were few, but had money to spend, was the majority verdict.  This can be a bit of a euphemism for not much going on, but the enthusiasm seemed genuine, so maybe it was shaping up better than first impressions seemed to indicate.

All in all, an interesting day out, and definitely a nostalgia-fest, but a rival for Excel?  No!  That ship, as they say, has sailed.