History of IFBSO

The organisation that would later become the International Federation of Boat Show Organisers was the brainchild of Jose Maria Maso, who in 1962 was the exclusive distributor of Evinrude outboard motors in Spain.

Following a successful Barcelona International Trade Fair in June 1962, Maso (left) and a number of other exhibitors in the marine sector came together to launch a specialist Spanish boat show. The first Barcelona Boat Show took place in June 1963 under the presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch, a Spanish banker and industrialist who would later succeed Lord Killanin as President of the International Olympic Committee. Maso persuaded Samaranch to host a meeting of Presidents of other established boat shows in Europe, the idea being to discuss the formation of an international body that would promote the different interests of boat shows around the world.

The meeting was attended by representatives of London, Paris, Milan and Amsterdam boat shows, whose support for Maso's idea was enthusiastic enough to take the plan a stage further. They decided to invite all known European boat show organisers to an inaugural meeting in London in September 1963.

The London meeting was attended by 30 delegates, who welcomed the Maso initiative and considered a draft constitution prepared by the Barcelona Boat Show's legal adviser. They also discussed the criteria for recognising a boat show as "international" and establishing a timetable of international boat shows that would try to avoid the dates of member shows conflicting with one another.

By the time the second meeting, or Congress, took place in Paris in January 1964, the fledgling organisation was ready to agree on a name - the International Federation of Boat Show Organisers, which is still the official title today. Gerard de Vries Lentsch of HISWA was elected President, while Tom Webb of London Boat Show was appointed Secretary-General and his colleague John Millard Treasurer. Tom Webb (right) was to remain Secretary-General for 17 years, piloting the federation through its formation and growth.

The Constitution was finally agreed and formally adopted at the third Congress in Genoa in October 1964. The fourth Congress, in Amsterdam in October 1965, saw the membership expand across the Atlantic for the first time, with Bill Mackerer and Peter Wilson attending as representatives of the New York Boat Show.

A little known fact is that it was IFBSO that fathered what is now the International Council of Marine Industry Associations, ICOMIA. Issues relating to water safety had been discussed at Amsterdam, but it was felt that such matters were the concern of the boating industry rather than show organisers. However, at the sixth Congress in Barcelona members decided that, in view of the close relationship between the industry and the organisers, IFBSO should form an international federation of boating trades. Five months later, in October 1966, IFBSO's Boating Trades Steering Committee met to draw up plans for the formation of ICOMIA.

The links between the two organisations remain strong, and IFBSO and ICOMIA still come together for their annual Congress, which takes place in a different city each year.