GMI delivers European marina valuation and investment seminar

METSTRADE provided the ideal setting for the first outing of the GMI marina valuation and investment seminar on Monday 13 November.

Delegates from the UK, Italy, Netherlands, France, Montenegro and the Middle East took part to discuss key topics for marinas such as asset management and operational risks.

Hosted by John Hogan CMP, Chairman of the Global Marina Institute, the seminar welcomed delegates with a roundup of the latest developments impacting on the worldwide marina sector. This was provided by Carol Fulford, Editor of Marina World, the exclusive media partner for GMI.

The GMI was formed in 2011 as a partnership between British Marine and Australia’s Marina Industries Association, to deliver global marina training and certification with the aim of maintaining and increasing standards in marinas across the world.

Sarah Dhanda, Chief Officer of Membership and Services at British Marine commented on the successful seminar and plans for the future: “I was delighted with how the day went, the strength of the presentations and the discussions held on the back of those and the great feedback we have received from delegates. Ian Froome’s (a Partner at Vail Williams LLP in the UK) presentation on ‘understanding where your profits are generated’ was particularly insightful and generated plenty of debate. I would like to thank everyone who took part.

“I am pleased to announce that, building on our relationship with the Rai Amsterdam and the team at METSTRADE, GMI is planning a Certified Marina Manager (CMM) and Professionals (CMP) marinas networking event for next year, to be held on Monday 12 November 2018. Further details will be available in due course, but I hope everyone puts this date in their diaries.”

Delegates also commented on the success and importance of the seminar. Robert Parton, Managing Director at Church Minshull Marina in the UK said: “The marina investment seminar was an extremely interesting and thought provoking day. I travelled home feeling much better informed about potential future trends and what customers, investors and other stakeholders are looking for. It was also reassuring that the same issues and customer trends are shared by the inland waterways of the UK and the warmer waters of the Australian coast.”

Alberto Sonino of Marina Vento di Venezia in Italy said: “I extremely appreciated the GMI’s marina investment seminar. The event came out at a particularly crucial moment, as the whole marina industry is questioning about development, upscaling and relaunching.

“The seminar gave us the opportunity of sharing a methodology not only for the evaluation of the investment in marinas, but also to link the assets value to the management strategies. Both speakers and participants were representing the top of the actual marina industry, confirming the aim of collaboration between stakeholders for sustainable growth. “