Throughout the year since the arrival of the virus and the onset of a pandemic, I’ve been saying, maybe next quarter things will start to settle down and we can plan for the future. Everyone was thrilled at the prospect of a vaccine or several vaccines, with markets and governments giving everyone a boost in the economic arm. Then this week we came across announcements about a mutation in the virus and therefore other blockages, some imposed travel bans and other frustrations created by this invisible enemy.
In the coming days, we will all start to slow down and try to enjoy the end of the year with our friends or families, celebrating any religious holiday that arrives and we look forward to this last hour of 2021. As the clock strikes twelve o’clock myriad of time zones, from the Pacific, I am sure everyone on the planet is looking forward to the start of a new year. The bottles will appear all over the world, with toasts to loved ones, the lost and the simple fact that most of us have managed to get to the end of 2021 and we are thinking about what 2021 has in store for us.
It is likely to start with distractions similar to the previous year; the virus burden continues to weigh heavily on the world and it is clear that we need to be patient while dealing with the influx of patients and the high risk members of Mother Earth receiving the dose of hope from the various pharmaceutical groups. Having been bored, reading the various analogies of historical pandemics, the worst-case scenarios, astronomical infection rates, and other negative reports of positive cases, I decided to look ahead and realize that we are the lucky ones.
Yes, 2021 was incredibly difficult and challenging, but it has taught me a lot about my team, our portfolio, our industry and me, so much so that I feel like we will be in a much better position for the future.
As you may have noticed, we have not been able to bring our industry together for our forums throughout the year, we have had to merge two issues of The Superyacht Report while the industry went ahead with its marketing sales and we have been prudent and careful with our various investments in product development and projects. So when we start 2021 and what we call the New Year, or New Year, we look forward to using 2021 as a trigger for various initiatives and ideas that will help our clients and partners strengthen their strengths and strategies.
We have simply decided that by 2021, The Superyacht Report and SuperyachtNews.com are stable commodities that don’t need too much development or innovation; they do exactly what they were supposed to do, they provide the market with reliable and current information, opinions, intelligence and information, written by some of the most respected. industry journalists. There are some initiatives, but these will emerge during the first quarter.
We’ve explored innovations with The Superyacht Forum, but due to the pandemic, all of these innovations are on hold, but as soon as we can travel again, we know we’ll be offering a unique, fun and inspiring platform throughout the year. Take a look at this space, as we plan to launch it all formally in January.
The most exciting and dynamic change coming for The Superyacht Group in 2021 is the evolution of our service proposal in the focused form of our Superyacht agency division. The reason I refer to 2021 as the brand new year is very simple because we are seeing a wide range of customers using this last quarter and the first half of 2021 to understand exactly what the market thinks, feels and understands. It has really been shown to become a time for reflection, review and rethinking in order to renew and energize a wide range of brand proposals or strategies for the future.
As I mentioned earlier and in a recent internal note, we have focused on doing what we do well and published phenomenal numbers from the Superyacht Report, we have constantly reported smart stories about market activities through Superyachtnews. as and while we wait for freedom of movement to offer an innovative version of the Superyacht Forum, we have been incredibly busy over the last few months and will be for the next few months. Having signed a wide range of confidentiality and NDA clauses, for some of the most interesting companies and brands on the market, we remain busy, but under the radar.
With energy and confidence, I look forward to the second half of 2021, when many of the industry can be reunited, in what promises to be an evolved and energetic Monaco Boat Show. I’m excited to get back on stage during METSTRADE and the Amsterdam Superyacht Forum. But until then, my team and I will be working hard behind the scenes on truly valuable intelligence, strategic research and market analysis to help some of the big brands emerge from this pandemic with clarity and confidence for the future. It has been a difficult time for everyone, but as the wonderful Charles Darwin has often been quoted: “It is not the strongest of the surviving species, nor the smartest that survives. It is the one that adapts the most to change ”.
Over the next few weeks and months of 2021, we are excited to help help some of the most interesting and exciting companies adapt and change in this new year.
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