March 13, 2002 – When government officials go off to attend tourism-related conferences and meetings such as the 18th annual Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention in Miami Beach this week, they typically take advantage of the opportunity to show off what the territory has to offer in a trade show setting — in competition with all of the other represented destinations that are doing the same thing.
The Port Authority, the Tourism Department and The West Indian Co. are co-sponsoring Booth No. 485 at the Miami Beach Convention Center this week.
Seatrade, Denise Humphrey points out, is a massive gathering "that deals with all aspects of the cruise ship industry, from the engines to food, to uniforms and destinations. Representatives from all over the world are there, corporate and government."
Humphrey, the assistant technical director at the Reichhold Center for the Arts, is knowledgeable about the conference because she's been there a few times — in a technical capacity.
A booth and what gets displayed in it at a trade show are obviously not the sort of things one packs into one's luggage for the flight from here to there. That's where Humphrey and Jimmy Magras and Alan Richardson and some of the student crew at the Reichhold Center for the Arts come in.
"I've been the designer of their Seatrade booth for the past three years," Humphrey says. For the current show, "I built the booth here at the Reichhold Center, sort of as a training exercise for my crew to learn about scenic design, carpentry techniques and application." They worked in conjunction with Magras, "who acted as chief carpenter and demonstrator for this project."
"My crew appreciated the workshop, the project and the tool tips and pointers Mr. Magras gave them," Humphrey says.
Sections of the booth were shipped up to Miami Beach ahead of time, and she and Richardson flew up last week to make sure that the pieces were "put together correctly and decorated accordingly."
Local businesses and individuals "have contributed their products and services to help make this year's convention a success," a Port Authority release noted. In addition to Humphrey, Richardson and the Reichhold crew, it acknowledged Alain M. Brin, Caribbean Rum Balls, Carnival Gift Shop, Amy Dempsey, Down Island Traders, Louis Ible Jr., Premier Wines & Spirits, Sassy Souvenirs, TOPS, Tropical Shipping and The Viking Corp.
Humphrey was in Miami Beach only for the set-up, and is now back on St. Thomas. "Seatrade technically doesn't allow even me to assemble the set up there," she said. "I supervise their trades workers." Those workers will take the booth down after the conference closes on Friday, she said, and then it will be "stored up there in Florida until the next conference the following year."
The last booth she built was used for the previous two years. A part of that booth "is coming back to St. Thomas and will be utilized over on St. Croix, and the rest of it will be dismantled," she said.
According to the Port Authority release, more than a thousand companies from about a hundred nations are participating and exhibiting at this year's Seatrade. The gathering, it said, provides V.I. representatives an opportunity "to network with influential leaders in the cruise and shipping industry worldwide and to entice them to increase their calls to our ports. It is also the perfect opportunity to promote and market the islands to an international audience."
Humphrey said Port Authority personnel took photographs of the process of building the booth at the Reichhold Center. A call to the authority on Wednesday asking about the pictures elicited the response that only public information officer Monifa Marrero and executive director Gordon Finch would have information about that, and there would be no way to contact them until they return from the conference next week.
