The ICOMIA World Marinas Conference 2025 (IWMC 2025) took place from 15-17 October in Venice, Italy, at the iconic Arsenale di Venezia. Originally a Byzantine shipyard, the construction of which started around 1104, the facility produced one vessel per day in its heyday. This October, the prestigious location proved to be the ideal venue for this biennial gathering of the international marina industry.
Having started with evening drinks in the famous Piazza San Marco, the programme was jam-packed with contributions from industry heavy hitters such as the CEO of Safe Harbor Marinas, Baxter Underwood; the CEO of MarineMax, Brett McGill; the CEO of SF Marina, Michael Sigvardsson; and the CEO of Marinetek, Santeri Suoranta. It was particularly pleasing to see an enormous breadth of global representation featured in the programme, with representatives from the USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Croatia, Slovenia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia, to name but a few, taking to the stage to share their expertise.
The second day was dedicated to a north and south tour of several marinas, including Certosa Island Marina, Darsena Mosella and Porto Turistico di Jesolo. A particularly valuable addition to the programme, these two tours gave delegates the opportunity to see for themselves the range of facilities around the city, bridging the gap between the theory of the conference and the practice of real life.
A close-knit village of dedicated professionals
IWMC 2025 was an outstanding gathering of global marina professionals defined by lively discussion, close networking and a profound sense of community. While the international marina industry is by its very nature spread out across dozens of countries on every continent, IWMC 2025 succeeded in making the sector seem like a close-knit village of dedicated professionals. Above all, however, the event was, quite simply, fantastic fun.
A number of people came up to me during the event to say that this iteration of IWMC was the largest ever, especially in terms of exhibitor numbers. This being my first IWMC, I do not have any personal reference point in this regard. However, Joe Lynch, Frank Hugelmeyer and Alberto Sonino must be congratulated for setting a high bar for the organisers of IWMC 2027, taking place in Shanghai, China.
Marina World looks forward to partnering with ICOMIA once again for what promises to be an essential international meeting in the marina industry calendar.
