AMI Expo – energising and inspiring

Over 1,200 people gathered in the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the tail end of January to attend the annual Association of Marina Industries (AMI) Conference & Expo, an attendee increase of around 10% on the 2024 event.

Now in its twenty-third year (although formerly branded as the International Marina & Boatyard Conference), AMI Conference & Expo kick starts every calendar year with marina-specific networking and educational opportunities. The event offers different types of learning experiences complemented by the opportunity to talk to wide-ranging providers of equipment and services in the exhibition hall. Nearly 120 exhibiting companies took part for 2025.
“This year’s conference had some of the best content yet,” AMI chairman Rick Chapman CMM told Marina World. “I always leave the previous year wondering how we will outdo ourselves and somehow we always do. Chad Foster inspired us, Dr Rebecca Heiss energised us, and all the breakout sessions educated us.”
“The breakouts provided information on coping with extreme weather, advancements in environmentally-friendly shrink wrap solutions, preparing industry leaders for corporate change, and an energising women’s leadership panel.”
“We set the bar high in 2025, so we have our work cut out for us as we head to Daytona Beach next year. We are excited to be back in Daytona Beach where we had some excellent events in 2022 and 2023. The Ocean Center is really the perfect fit for our annual conference.”
The keynote presentations are always talking points for the duration of the conference, and delegates were truly inspired this year. Chad Foster’s ‘Blind Ambition’, a moving example of how to overcome adversity and actually turn adversity into advantage, drew on Foster’s personal experience of losing his sight in his early twenties. He discussed his time of despair and self-pity, and the excuses he made for not being able to do things, before becoming the first blind person to ever attend Harvard Business School, becoming a double black diamond snow skier, a sports enthusiast, avid reader, and progressing a brilliant career in software.
His message to the audience was to reach beyond the immediate circumstances and choose your response to adversity, breaking free from self-pity and deciding to opt for happiness. Foster provided suggestions for turning disability or adversity into strength. These included not accepting your own excuses for not being able to do things and rejecting others who reinforce that atmosphere and attitude. Courage is doing something despite the presence of fear.
His presentation was rewarded with a standing ovation.
Dr Rebecca Heiss took the floor for the keynote address on the second day with a talk entitled ‘Navigating the Rising Waters of Change’. As a stress physiologist, evolutionary biologist, entrepreneur and author, Heiss delivered a very interactive and dynamic session based upon not ignoring stress but instead facing it, taming it, and changing it.
Her message is that failure happens; but letting it control you is no good for the mind or the body. Having the courage and the wherewithal to keep pushing on and turning things around by positive thinking and positive actions not only gives you a more pleasant approach to life but a healthier one.
Heiss challenged everyone to do something amazing, fulfilling and scary. Being in control of yourself is the key to enjoyment and being in a good space, but failure to dare allows complacency and stress to overcome.
In addition to the much lauded keynotes, further highlights were the second annual Women’s Leadership panel, moderated by Michele Goldsmith of Soundings Trade Only, the marina and yard tour (visiting Pier 66, Las Olas Marina and Harbour Towne Marina), two pre-conference sessions and 25 break-out sessions. The latter were divided into five tracks: leadership; operations; design and engineering; people management; and future trends.