Patricia Polzer

International Charter Expo (ICE’22) – largest and most influential B2B expo of the nautical industry took place from 7 – 9 of December 2022 at the Zagreb Fairgrounds. During these three days, 1524 participants from 521 companies participated from all over the world (Croatia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Thailand, Norway, France etc). Participants were as always separated in the three sectors: Fleet Operators, Brokers and Suppliers. Fleet Operators and suppliers came either as visitors or they had their own exhibiting booths. Brokers were only able to participate as visitors. Full list of participants is available here.

Exhibiting booths were dressed with DISPA – eco-friendly paper boards that ICE has been using for many years. DISPA boards allow the expo hall to look very attractive and uniformed. Apart from the booths, there were two lounge areas where participants could also arrange their meetings, along with a FULL open bar and the restaurant for lunch.

The total number of companies that participated for the first time at ICE was 151, which is the highest number of first-timers ever!

“I was first time on ICE. It was for my company and me so helpful, and everything was so well organized, meetings, booths, lounge corners, lunch..
I will 100 % come back next year and hope to have my own booth because I think that is the best way to have time to speak with all partners and meet your “old” partners and make new ones 🙂
So, from me and my company you have a big rating.”
– Andrea Šabić, Plan your journey

After 2 years of Covid and this being the first in-person event since, everyone was very excited to meet up. Using the custom-made matchmaking software Handshake, 10 836 meetings were pre-arranged, and even more unplanned meetings were held in person!

“I want to be among the first ones that will tell you how ICE became the best event for us!
We had over 40 successful meetings, sometimes even 2 together. We got ourselves the confirmation of implementation for over 2000 boats. We have 100% realization, which is absolutely incredible. Focus at ICE is completely business oriented.”
– Tom Logar, CEO Charter Manager App

Arranging meetings in advance is one of the best qualities that ICE as an event offers and the majority of the participants take advantage of it.

For the first time, the Crewed & Luxury sector was introduced at ICE’22. More info here. This novelty opened up the doors to a new niche of agents and fleet operators, 200+ super yachts from all around the world that are 15m – 50m in length with charter week prices from 20,000€ – 100,000€, to represent their businesses at ICE’22. The Crewed & Luxury sector became the first expo of that kind in the global charter industry. Some of the companies that exhibited this year as part of Crewed & Luxury were: Master Charter, Sanlorenzo Adria, Touch Adriatic, Otium Yachts, Feel Yachting, Signature Sailing Charter, Athenian Yachts, Sanda Yachting, FYLY Exlcusive Yachts, and others.

“It was a great pleasure to visit ICE’22 as after all the difficulties of 2020 the event finally took place offline. It was my 4th visiting ICE as a broker and I would like to mention that the event becomes better and better with the years. For sure it was a smart and strategic decision to add LUX sector this year. A lot of brokers just like me after mastering bareboat charters start doing crewed ones. So, it was nice opportunity to have new acquaintances and business contacts. And of course it was so warm and cozy to meet old friends. Thanks a lot for organization!”
– Julia Slivina, Classy Yachting

Fact that ICE always has been an event that participants want to come back to, was also confirmed this year because 95% of participants in the survey answered that they will come back to ICE’23.

“We admire the great job the ICE team is doing every year! Location was close to the city center, the organization was good, and Zagreb was magical. We had fruitful meetings with old and new partners, we had the chance to meet suppliers with eco-friendly solutions, and we were able to communicate with agents and other fleet operators up close after the Covid time. Keep up the good work 🙂 (we are already looking forward to ICE 23!)”
– Discovery yachting

“ICE’22 was truly an event to remember. With the large number of new companies which came to ICE for the first time and many of our repeating business clients, ICE became the most important business meeting point for our industry. I am very happy that my team and I organized this event for everyone and with the support of all, we know that future ICE events will be even more productive.” – Antonija Hajman, ICE Project manager

Thanks to all ICE’22 participants! We hope you had a great time and to see you next year!
Enjoy Holidays with your family and friends and we wish you a lot of health, happiness and business success for the next year! 🙂

ICE Team

PS: As all booth graphics are made from DISPA – eco-friendly paper boards for screen and digital printing. They are made of FSC® – certified paper and are 100% recyclable. 95% of all ICE’22 graphics are already recycled and 5% of them are reused. All 9000 m2 of carpet will be reused in a small city near Zagreb called Lekenik. All plastic collected from the expo went to recycling.

ICE is working in close collaboration with Charter Itinerary and would like to introduce them to the participants of ICE’22. 

Charter Itinerary is changing the world of yacht itinerary creation with its easy-to-navigate, fully interactive web-based platform. It is designed specifically with the yachting industry in mind, and with over 800 accounts, it has revolutionized how industry professionals plan, produce and present itineraries to charter guests.

Why did you decide to exhibit at ICE (digital and Zagreb)?

Our introduction to ICE was at last year’s online event in April which was a fantastic opportunity to showcase our platform, just prior to it being publicly released, during a time when yacht shows and events were either canceled and travel was very difficult for most. Not only did it introduce us to brokers from all over the world, using the fantastically efficient Handshake software, but it gave us great insight into the bareboat market as a whole, confirming to us that our platform was suited to both the superyacht and bareboat markets alike and that we could further develop it to the needs of both industries.

How did your participation at last ICE help CI grow?

We participated in the event knowing that not only were we introducing something new and exciting to the industry, but also knowing that we would get valuable feedback from the brokers we spoke with. We count most of those who we met with at ICE, as valuable customers now.

Can you please give us an example(s) of how your meetings at ICE benefited your product/service? Since you are a company with a platform designed for the superyacht industry, did meetings with the bareboat industry businesses help you create something designed for them?

Yes indeed. We had intentions of creating a platform to benefit both markets, and ICE confirmed our research that there was the need for itineraries for the bareboat industry too, albeit to be used in a different way to the large yacht industry. With the valuable feedback we received, it helped develop what we now call “Light Itineraries” along with options to include API feeds, embedding links and much more .

What do you expect from your meetings at ICE’22? What are you looking for and who do you want to meet?

Given the success born out of the online event, we couldn’t wait for the opportunity for an onsite event. Meeting, and showing off our platform, in person during a time where the industry is experiencing such rapid growth is a thrill.  We look forward to this as an opportunity to finally meet with some of our current customers, and to meet with future customers – all agencies, fleet operators, captains, brokers and potential partners.

3 top reasons you would tell someone to join ICE?

• It’s a fantastic gateway to a massive charter market and this year features the luxury and crewed area, perfect for both bareboat and crewed charters to come together to discover more about each other’s markets
• An efficient way to network with important industry players
• It is extremely efficient and well organized

Each week we will introduce companies that are coming at ICE for the first time. Arrange meetings with them through Handshake-matchmaking software & meet them at ICE’22.

Crewed and Luxury as a new sector at ICE will gather companies that offer luxury experiences for their clients. Patricia Van Steen, CEO of Anuras Charter Agency and Anuras Luxury Travel is excited to come to ICE’22 due to this reason.

“We from Anuras Luxury Travel are looking forward to meeting up with new companies who offer Luxury Crewed Sailing and Motoryachts. Our clients are looking for the extra experience of a Dolce Far Niente lifestyle and that is what we aim to deliver with our partners“.

Patricia recently decided to redirect her business and open Anuras Luxury Travel agency – a versatile company offering different travel experiences by providing the best service before, during, and after a luxury vacation. Clients are looking for „the all you imagine, and it will be there“ experience.  Anuras Luxury Travel offers these kinds of vacations with partners in Greece and Croatia, and is planning to expand to Italy due to the interest and high requests of clients.  

When it comes to the luxury sector, Patricia points out that it takes another approach to book these clients. A lot of money is involved in this sector, there are the MYBA contracts, APA etc.

“I know it seems like easy money in commission, but it is also in the interest of the company that they choose partners wisely, and it’s not always the agent with the most bookings or revenue that are suited for this niche of the charter industry“.

At Anuras Charter Agency, a personal approach and offering extra services were always the way of approaching clients. For Patricia that was the way she found her “Luxury Travel clients“ and a reason why she decided to expand and create a brand new website away from the bareboat and even skippered charters. A difference that she noticed from her previous experience is that:

“Clients who are looking for a 67ft-100ft or even 200ft yacht will not search in 5 or more clicks to find a yacht. They contact me directly, tell me their wishes and I find it. I even sometimes co-work with travel agencies because they have no clue how this works, and in all honesty; neither did I with my first booking, although I am a charter agent for more than 20 years. I was fortunate to have an amazing partner who I can also call a friend to help me out. His team was amazingly patient and helpful for my first 25.000€ booking with over 4000€ APA. So I took the leap of faith and it worked out. Word of mouth did the rest – and social media ;)“.

Since Patricia is new in the luxury sector, ICE and its new Crewed and Luxury sector are a very valuable expo where she will be able to find new partners, no matter if they have one yacht or ten yachts. “If I can find a common interest with a business, then I’m in as a partner“.

The crewed and luxury sector as a fresh addition to ICE’22 is an area where participants will be able to meet crewed and luxury fleet operators and central agents from Greece, Croatia, Turkey, Spain, Italy etc. all in one place. Companies that are wishing to expand their offers to clients, fleet operators that want to grow their business network and contacts, suppliers and booking systems which wish to make new business deals.

Exhibitors in the Crewed and Luxury are the fleet operators, central agents, and owners of sailing yachts, gulets, catamarans, mini cruisers, and motoryachts that are fully crewed and whose yachts fit the parameters: Vessel size: 15m -50m and with a weekly charter price: 20,000€ – 100,000€. Fleet operators with both bareboat and crewed departments can exhibit in both areas at ICE’22 (one booth in the Crewed and Luxury area, and a second booth in the bareboat area at a very special price).

ICE’22 will be the biggest B2B yacht charter event ever, spread over 10,000 sqm and two floors. To make your days more comfortable and pleasant, our team secured enough space for networking, relaxing and enjoying drinks and food. There won’t be any ‘bad’ location to exhibit because we secured that all participants get the best experience from each location in the hall.

Ground floor: Exhibitor booths, B2B lounge, Business corner, Dutch and Balearic corner and Tavern.

First floor: Exhibitor booths, Crewed & Luxury sector, Investors lounge, B2B lounge and Restaurant. 

The central part of the ground floor will host most premium booths, surrounded by double and single booths. In the corners of the ground floor, you will be able to find the Dutch and Balearic Corners as well as the new Business corner. The Business corner is a new addition to ICE’22 that will provide all visitors an area to leave their promo materials. As in the previous years, the Dutch and Balearic Corners will gather charter companies from specific regions. The ground floor will have two meeting areas: Lounge 1 where participants can enjoy free and unlimited water, tea, and coffee. The second lounge will be hosted by a local tavern where everyone can enjoy local Croatian products such as wine, seafood, and snacks.

The first floor will have a special dedicated area for the Crewed and Luxury sector, Investors lounge, one B2B lounge with a bar and a restaurant for lunch, and many exhibitor booths. The Crewed and Luxury sector is the newest addition to ICE’22, offering everyone the opportunity to meet new businesses in the yachting industry. The Investors lounge gathers international investors. Fleet operators will present their charter management programs, investors will get information from shipyards, have access to reviews of past booking statistics, and insights of all available yacht models. There will also be one lounge with unlimited refreshments such as water, coffee, and tea. We also took care of lunch, and you will have access to the indoor restaurant from 11:00-16:00 every day. 

Don’t forget to schedule a break of at least 30 minutes to rest and eat once Handshake matchmaking software opens. We suggest you use this layout to plan your meetings in the Handshake software efficiently. Avoid running from one end of the hall to another as this is the biggest hall yet so plan smart & use our layout to help you with time management.

Ps: Participants will be able to choose their booth location after their MyICE registrations are confirmed, so if you want to have a specific location be sure to react fast.

CLICK HERE for detailed guidelines. 

International Charter Expo is returning to its physical form, from December 7 to 9, 2022, on the Zagreb Fairgrounds. Growing in size to 10,000 sq meters and projected 500 participating companies, ICE will again be the center of the global yacht charter industry. 

ICE’22 will gather 200 Fleet Operators from Croatia, Greece, Turkey, the Caribbean, Italy, Spain, Thailand, Cuba and other worldwide destinations, 200 charter brokers and travel agencies, as well as 100 relevant suppliers to the industry, like shipyards, insurances and booking systems. A new addition to the expo is a sector of crewed-luxury fleets and mini cruisers. 

ICE’22 is the first trade show to announce full Covid-19 insurance, guaranteeing full refund for participants’ expenses on the expo, travel and accommodation. 

The proprietary Handshake matchmaking software will again allow businesses to schedule meetings in advance using company profiles, maximizing the efficiency of the event. 

ICE has partnered with Hilton Hotels to ensure quality accommodation at below market prices. Additionally, to add to the ICEperience, a Christmas village will be prepared by the Garden In Hilton, to host ICE participants. 

From the founder: 

“Zagreb will give us flexibility in this transitional year, after Covid, to ensure a long awaited, full-size, physical event, to the satisfaction and benefit of all participants. Our team is wholeheartedly looking forward to seeing you again.”  – Tino Prosenik

Registrations open May 23rd!