Industry leaders gear up for 2025 Elevate Summit
By David Gee
Inflation, interest rates, inventories, pricing problems, tariff s, lack of consumer confidence, decreased showroom traffic, and a continuing post-pandemic disruption are just a few of the challenges facing the recreational boating industry.
As we welcome in a new year, wouldn’t it be amazing to have some place to turn to where you could get help and gain new insights and information around those challenges and others? A place where you could also make valuable network connections and even have some NASCAR-themed fun?
Well, it turns out there is such a place. It’s called the Boating Industry Elevate Summit, and it’s happening January 20-22 in downtown Charlotte, N.C. And we’d love for you to be there!
Before the programming begins in earnest, we head to the NASCAR Hall of Fame for the Opening Night Welcome Reception. We’ll be joined by attendees from our co-located conferences, Powersports Business Accelerate Conference and OPE+ Power Forum as we take over the third and fourth floors of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, known as Inside NASCAR and Heritage Speedway.
You can explore NASCAR history while engaging with interactive content, such as the Pit Crew Challenge and NASCAR Racing Simulators. And don’t worry, you don’t need to be a hardcore NASCAR fan to enjoy it. You can eat, drink, play and repeat at your own pace. Sure to be a high-octane way to ignite your conference experience and connect with others from the outdoor recreation space.
Then on Tuesday morning, we’ll kick it off with Opening Keynote Speaker Jay Samit. He is the international bestselling author of Disrupt You! and Future Proofing You and is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on disruption and innovation, the future of brick and mortar, e-commerce and on and on. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for startups, sold companies to Fortune 500 fi rms, transformed entire industries, revamped government institutions, and for three decades continued to be at the forefront of global trends.
A former Vice Chairman of Deloitte, Samit helped grow pre-IPO companies such as LinkedIn, held senior management roles at EMI, Sony and Universal Studios, pioneered breakthrough advancements in mobile video, robotics, internet advertising, e-commerce, social networks, eBooks, and digital music that are used by billions of consumers every day. His presentation on how to create and embrace change will no doubt stay with us long after the conference ends.
You had the chance to meet this year’s Mover & Shaker of the Year, Dometic Marine president, Eric Fetchko, in the pages of Boating Industry magazine. Now you can meet him in person at the conference as we present his award officially. He recently celebrated his 38th year with the company, and he’s played a role in some of the company’s largest projects.
We are excited to welcome back Jack Ellis of Info-Link and Rob Grant of Lightspeed DMS for a session featuring their proprietary recreational boating market data. They not only have the numbers, but they can also tell you the conclusions, takeaways, trends and stories behind the metrics.
Speaking of stories, yours truly will have a few during my presentation on Better Business Communication. We are communicating more these days, and also more poorly. And when you have the headwinds the boating industry is facing today, every interaction counts, whether that’s with employees, prospects or customers. You’ll leave with tips, takeaways and tools you can use right away to boost productivity, employee morale, customer satisfaction, and sales!
The Boating Industry Top 100 Dealer Panel brings together some of the top boat dealers in the nation as they detail their best practices and lessons learned.
Then to wrap up our first day, we’ll feature prominent panelists representing the boating industry, powersports and outdoor power equipment talking about how we can all work together to make the outdoor space stronger.
Wednesday morning we’ll be treated to the highly engaging and entertaining economist Dr. Elliot Eisenberg, as he returns to Elevate Summit with a fun, fast-paced, relevant, and educational presentation on the economy. He’ll dissect interest rates, inflation, supply chains, strategic business development, tariffs and other current economic issues that will help your decision making in 2025.
And in what will be another first for our conference, we will conclude with a panel discussion featuring female leaders from the boating industry, outdoor power equipment and powersports. Among the topics being discussed will be their career arcs, what’s changed, what hasn’t and the role that mentoring played in their lives.
During the conference we will also recognize and celebrate the best boat dealers across North America with the invitation-only Top 100 Gala.
And there will be amply opportunities to meet with our sponsors and attendees from boating, powersports and outdoor power equipment.
Join us for a transformative journey of growth and inspiration at Elevate Summit 2025 in Charlotte, NC. The boating industry – and your business – will both be better for it!
Find the full agenda, learn more and register on the Boating Industry Elevate Summit website.
Source: https://boatingindustry.com/lead-news/2025/01/02/industry-leaders-gear-up-for-2025-elevate-summit/
