The show is on from the 16-25 September in Southampton, no less. Advance tickets are very reasonable. See here.
Just interested in seeing if other travellers would like to attend as I’d love to make the trip down maybe for one of the weekend days.
Bringing this back into the realm of the day job: I went to the London Boat Show earlier this year and I was struck by one thing: how few of the traders and chandleries in the exhibition stands were prepared for taking payments other than cash. I’d see this sort of market ripe for companies like AirPOS to provide mobile points of sale turning netbooks, tablets and even phones into a point of sale for small businesses.
The first business show that I exhibited at really drilled home the concept:
Don’t give me your business card, give me your credit card.
For smaller items, you just want to buy, for larger items you want it to be shipping to your house just after you get home (or waiting in your office). Having a connected Point of Sale with an online store can make all of the difference. It pains me that so few companies take this on board.