Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another Essary Meetup. I'm super excited about today's call because we are gonna have with us No other than Steelwater Campbell. He's the editor-in-chief of Boat International magazine It's one of the leading magazines in the super yacht industry and we are clearly approaching No other than the for latter international boat show So super thrilled about everything that goes around this fantastic week where some of the best yachts in the world We'll be here and for that we want to have Steelwater to tell us all about what they've been doing with their incredible magazine There he is, what's going on Steelwater? Hey, how are you?
I'm doing fantastic. Are you ready for some nice weather here in South Florida? Yeah, I'm bringing lots of sun cream with me. I'm looking forward to some sun It's getting cold here in the UK, so it'd be nice to make a change What a perfect timing right?
Because you guys are wearing windmill in London? Yeah, head offices in Wimbledon, but we also have an office in Fort Lauderdale, not far from you Exactly, and this is what we want to see you especially for the really not exciting for another day of international boat show Which is one of the largest in the world, so it's gonna be a lot of things happening, huh? Yeah, we're very excited. I mean the Fort Lauderdale for us is a great opportunity Because it is Monaco has lots of beautiful yachts, but it's an entirely super yach focus show Obviously has a lovely tenders as well But Fort Lauderdale has the entire sweep of yachts from smallest to biggest So it's an exciting opportunity to touch parts of the market that we don't usually see so I love the show to great show Right, you guys are the perfect fit for this because you guys have one of the leading magazines when it comes to yachty And you tell everything about the latest news and you guys the lifestyle events So tell us a little bit about Port International magazine Well, it's very international has been around 40 years and it's become the kind of leading authority On super yachty in the super your lifestyle.
It's very hard one We've got great relationships with the owner community Which is kind of the USP of our magazine, but it's not just magazines of course We have some great print products We also do fantastic events with owners with captains via parties and monocode for Port Lauderdale Miami Grand Prix So throughout the year really it's a great events as well and obviously digital websites huge We have a market intelligence platform as well. So we tried so My watch is making funny noise apologies, but we try and think about the market holistically So events digital data print the works Are you seeing like any upcoming trends that you're trying to jump on when it comes to the magazine? I mean, yeah I mean always upcoming There's lots of change changing trends in the CPU industry that we try and track and keep in touch with the whole time really Lots of them will be on show at the full Lornail event like it with print is a slightly slow moving But he doesn't tend to change but we try to be pretty dynamic with our products But digitally obviously on the market intelligence front we're changing all the time which is which is interesting for us So how do you get all these latest news? Are you always seeking on what's going on or they come directly to you?
You're traveling like how do you get these amazing news stories of all the yachts that are coming to the market and so on? Well, we're quite big team. We have a great team and they're traveling constantly. So we're very lucky with our content suppliers here There's a lot of people in the team.
So you know monocode with a big team at Fort Laura We have 30 40 people I think something crazy at Monaco. What's people for Lord of the Miami and Palm Beach Both chairs next year as well. So we are traveling constantly Which is the only way to keep in touch with everything that's happening in this industry got you What's been something that you've seen recently that your audience feels that wow and you've seen the most engagement? Well, I mean what we're very lucky because we are able to access some of the most inaccessible super yachts in the world And we do that and we are able to do that because we have this kind of 40 year authority and history and credibility So through the magazine through the website we're able to bring stories that would never otherwise be told No, I think that's fantastic and definitely I gotta say are you also creating like a you big on YouTube?
We could be bigger on YouTube. We are growing YouTube, but we when we do video we try to make it more a bit more involved in long form We don't tend to do kind of walk through videos. We're much more we're much better on social for that We've got a great social media team who again will be out in Fort Laura bringing it off to your content to our audience Tell me a little bit about the event because you're also hosting events and doing these amazing experiences So what is it about? Well, the biggest event we do is called the World Super Awards and that's happening in Istanbul in May 2023 so the world's kind of like the Oscars and super yachts So they are judged by super your owners We have a panel of 25 super your owners and they visit 60 or 70 nominated boats They then have a meeting where they sit together for a day and a half kind of deliberating discussing debating sometimes fighting about which boats They want they think are the best in their particular category And then the boats are awarded Neptune trophies which is kind of our Oscar at the world super awards every year and they really matter these awards because No other award program in your team or super your team is judged by super your owners So it's a clear judge process and why which is why I really matters So your life and about you because you're the editor in chief you obviously oversee the whole you know components of information that it's put out there So what's your day look like?
Well, that's a great joy of the strawberry. There is no there is no ordinary day And so I'm asking this question the other day. I honestly couldn't tell them what a normal day was like about international It's changing all the time, you know, we we've got a great team here I'm so lucky to work with some amazing professionals And so I kind of interact with like the events team the commercial team the content team, you know It might be flying to the south of France to present an event and then go see a boat or have London owner or work on a new event strategy I mean it is a whole yeah, it's a constantly moving fluid picture, which is why I find it so interesting What's been the hardest part you'll say for yourself and the business and what did you learn from it? It's a really good question I mean the hardest part in the last couple of years is obviously covid when a big part of your business is running events And then obviously in 2020 there are no events.
It was a real challenging Couple of years for everyone in our industry except, you know, the media and the event side So we had to change quite dramatically be very Creative in 2021 to overcome the challenges of over how to run virtual events and still maintain a revenue whilst you can't do physical events But we're very lucky again to have a brilliant team and we did overcome those challenges and we brought new content We invented new things we started doing podcast we started doing different kind of video interviews and things like that We got much more active on social studies a lot more Instagram lives. So there's a whole we just try to rethink how we engage with our audience So no well done. I mean, I'm a big fan But you've been doing this phenomenon and definitely I look forward to seeing more of that evolving now Why to ask you about the word luxury, right? You're always looking at these beautiful yards and the lifestyle that it offers But why is really luxury to you?
Luxury to me and to a lot of the people that I interact with through the magazine is simply time and space I mean particularly for the owners of the boats I mean they are the busiest people in the world that are the most in demand people in the world They're getting thousands of emails phone calls every once a piece of them So if they are able to take themselves and their families away from the craziness and the madness even for a short space It's not a handbag. It's not a car. It's not a private jet. Although those are very nice They're lovely parts of the lifestyle but simply having the time to spend away from Maybe sometimes technology or the phone or the emails and just having that raw pure family experience on a super yacht is genuine Unadulterated luxury So that's the new luxury right now.
I love that now with your career and all the things that you've been working on What would you say has been the biggest lesson that you've learned? Well, the biggest lesson I've learned is consistency and quality making sure you have a forensic eye for detail never Second guessing or you know, I think particularly the super world making sure you know as many of the end users and the owners as possible Because only then can you really know their wants and needs and what they want from a media brand and events and things like that So in this particular space, it's networking networking networking networking meeting as many of the owners who possibly can getting your brand in front of people And really getting that kind of feedback so you Understand them and their lives because before getting to the super world you can guess at what they want and until you actually get to know them And realize they're just normal people who simply just want a bit family time as well That's you know, it's really not any more complicated than that And so get really understanding that and being able to live a continent really needs the suits them is a big learning I love that, you know the consistency the networking they're getting out there because that's really how you brand yourself You were able to put your this company from not being well known Well, the sign would be one of the leading authorities when it comes to the guiding industry And that's through consistency and a lot of work, but also by getting out there. So There's no way every I like to say every way you'll find a super you'll find both international and you know It's a massive investment on the behalf of the company. We've got to have people everywhere There's any super activities the only way you can maintain that consistency of quality and have that feedback that I was talking about and Understanding what you know these and a new generation of owners to there's lots of new people coming out into our industry Because they want lots of different things and you have to you have to find out from the source or else you're lost Absolutely, what's next for boy international?
Well, well, we're in 2023 is going to be huge I mean we're doing more events in 2023 than we've ever done before that's very exciting in that we've got a couple of events We close out 2022 then in February 2023. We're up in Cortina in Italy in the mountains at a big design Working event you'd love it. I'll be very welcome to come and experience it. Yeah Then we have a couple of other we do ocean conservation events in June We have a lot of secret awards in May, which is huge We have a big party in the Hamptons in the summer And then obviously then you roll into boat show season it goes crazy again So it's actually a little bit sketchy at the digital schedule.
It's it's a very demanding of your time But I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it right now again It's about creating a business that fuels your passion if you have passion for what you're doing that means that you're in the right direction So I love everything I'm here because it seems like you know You keep on evolving and events also It's just a way of bringing the right people to you rather than you having to go to where the people are which is a very genius way And you're already attracting the best of the best because of the credibility that you built over the years and the exposure that you bring as well Which is fantastic attention is one of the strongest currencies everybody wants adaptation that you generate so well done. Thank you Thank you. We have a brilliant event team here in fact it we've got They're the hardest to reach people in the world but also the most like I said in demand But that's not that's not the only way the design is the shipyards the CEO is always people You know every five minutes matters So when you're able to bring that quality of people to an event and entertain them and to see them smile and enjoy themselves and networking freely And having a good time that is that is a real joy for us and being able to provide that platform is Isn't true Absolutely well listen I get to say story is that congratulations what you've done is amazing and your team as well So all I can see is the successes that are still gonna come your way with everything that you have lined up ahead And I cannot wait to see you in a couple weeks here in the show obviously you're more than welcome to come to our event That we're hosting on the 26th and it's gonna be a lot of fun and definitely more international needs to be part of this It's very kind of I'm looking forward to it. I did the boat you're hosting online very well I'm looking forward to meeting your person and yeah and learning as well.
I mean I think it'll be a great way to kick off the boat Sure, absolutely. Well, thank you so much new word enjoy the chilly weather. You okay? We wait for you here in the sunshine state with open arms.
Thanks. I'm already. I will see you very very soon And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it And remember embrace it's beautiful success in life.
My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time