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.
