Our first time at Seatrade 2017
So, we have heard all about Seatrade but now let’s chat about Getslash’s history at this momentous event.
Our first time attending the event was back in 2017 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale. This was the first time ever that Getslash was introduced at a public event. We had a small 10×10 ft tabletop booth and wanted to make the most out of it. Typical of any first event, we were planning right up to the launch. From scrambling around finding furniture on site, to carrying hundreds of branded pens in our carry-on luggage on the flight, it is safe to say we learned a lot from our first public exposure. But it was great! We received a very warm welcome by the cruise line community. For the first time in our history, we had obtained international exposure for our company. We made a ton of friends, new partners and were genuinely inspired by what we found there. We saw the immediate value of Seatrade from the moment the tradeshow doors opened.
We came back stronger in 2018
So, we were hooked…
We knew that we had to come back bigger, better, and stronger.
When 2018 rolled around, we had booked a space twice the size of the previous year. We had even managed to come across slightly more professional than we did in 2017, but we still had a lot to learn. Alongside our pens, we introduced our Getslash Ducks as a promotional giveaway for potential new partners and customers. Our duckies were quite a hit! However, we still had to find our final direction for the company’s overall branding. We knew that we had to put up some extra effort to make the big splash that we wanted. Regardless, it was another great year, making many contacts and finding new partners. For the second time, Seatrade had proved its worth. We were definitely inspired to push harder for 2019.
Back at Seatrade 2019 with a new branding
By 2019 we had finally finished and perfected the Getslash brand. It was time to showcase it to the world. We committed to the same size stand of 20×10, but this year’s focus was to show off our new professional look with all new shapes, logos, colors, and overall feel. For the first time in our history, we ran a customer event (Delano Miami) which was a complete success. We had a mixture of old customers, potential new customers, and partners, and it was everything we wanted it to be. 2019 Seatrade was by far our best year yet. We had presented ourselves professionally, hosted a great event and shown significant development. But we knew we wanted to go even bigger in the future.
2020 COVID-19 struck
For 2020, we decided to increase the size of our booth to 20×20 ft. We had lots of new products to show and were very excited to be back in Miami soon again, but then Covid-19 struck, and we all know the rest..
Despite Seatrade being back on in 2021, we unfortunately, cannot attend due to the current travel restrictions in place in the US. However, we plan to see everyone on the digital platform, and wish everyone a great welcome back to the best trade show of the year. Moreover, our Florida-based colleague Mike will be onsite and happy to meet with you.
We will be back at Seatrade 2022
As of this moment, we are ready to go and have some exciting things to share with you. We hope to see you all in April 2022. We will then have even more exciting products in the pipeline to help drive innovation within the cruise industry.
One important thing to remember about every trade fair, and a lesson we have learned the hard way, is that despite all the months of planning and preparation, many teams will still be working late into the night and working exceptionally hard on the days leading up to the event and through the event itself. This year’s event will be no different, but the big family-like atmosphere, connections, and the great community of our industry in general, make all the hard work worthwhile.
