Outdoor Insight

10 • Outdoor Insight • July 2021 outdoorinsightmag.com N E W S / A N A L Y S I S OUTDOOR EYE exhibitors to keep their booths simple and let their people and their product carry their brand's message. Our show is so much more lightweight. It's meant to fit into a modern marketing budget — and we believe it will fit. The Big Gear Show fills a need that the old model trade show just cannot achieve anymore. Our vision is that the big tradeshow stuff doesn't really add anything to the end result, anyway. A commercial location and big convention center is not why people come. They come to do business, learn, and to be inspired by their own community. Heck, that's all the important stuff, and we can do all of that stuff better outside anyway. We're the outdoor industry, after all. This is why both retailers and brands are excited about The Big Gear Show." One interesting element of The Big Gear Show is that it is curated on the retail and brand side and retailers are "paid to attend" – what can you share as far as how the business model for this works? "We don't want to give away our special recipe! What I can say is that along with saving brands money by cutting out the fancy conven- tion center, unions, nickel and dime fees, and the idea that each booth has to outdo the other, we are able to build in a little bit of retail and media subsidy cost into each brand's footprint. It's still so much cheaper than the old way of doing it — by, like, half or more. Honestly, so much of the money that brands spend on the old trade show model gets sucked out of our industry and flows straight to Wall Street. Not only is that not cool, but how is that pos- sibly helping anyone? That's why people are sour on it. And the times have changed too. A marketing director just can't justify the $30k, $50k, $200k investment in a single event for a single industry any more. Back in the day, that kind of investment on a trade show had value, it was justifiable; the return was there. Now, it's just not. So how do we change the model? I mean, honestly, the bike industry is a good example. They've got Sea Otter, and how the bike industry supported it really changed the game. Kudos to Frank [Yohannan, Sea Otter co-founder] and all the brands that built that 'race' into the industry event it is. They showed us that we need to gather, but we don't necessarily need to do it where kegs cost $800 with an extra $50 an hour for someone to pour your beer. We've taken this enthusiasm to gather out of doors and tweaked it to fill a need that's still there and wasn't being met. Sea Otter is a consumer event. Outerbike, which is just another twist on the model, is a consumer event. The Big Gear Show is a retailer-centric event." What are the key factors you take into account when deciding which retailers can get an invite to The Big Gear Show? "Something I didn't get into in the last ques- tion is that there's a finite amount of space, both with regards to the curated show experience we are creating and with regards to keeping people spread out and safe amidst the pandemic. So, how did we select? It's pretty simple — we're retailers ourselves, so we put together a list of who we thought were the very best gear shops in the country. These are our friends, in some cases our competitors, shops and people that we look up to, have served on boards and committees with, and have known for years. We didn't do it by size or number of doors or anything like that. We just invited who we thought were the best of the best. We also have some great partners in the NBDA and Grassroots and we are very excited to host their members at the event. Since our initial invitations went out, we've also been flooded with applications from other retailers who would like to attend on a space-available basis. For those, we review each application carefully and vet them through the lens of commitment to brick-and-mortar, Main Street USA-style retail with a high emphasis on customer service and product knowledge. We are filling up fast, so any retailers who would like to attend or that haven't yet confirmed their invitations need to do so ASAP." What will a typical day/schedule look like for attendees of The Big Gear Show? "We're really excited about the variety of opportunities that we're putting together. Obviously, the show is a demo, so you need to come prepared to hop in a boat, go for a ride, or hit the trails on foot. We're anticipat- ing most of the 'business' at this show will be done between buyers and brands on the water, trails, or chairlifts. Plus, the educational and networking opportunities I mentioned earlier. We're really trying hard to be creative too. We're working closely with the team at Verde Brand Communications to provide an exceptional and unexpected experience to the trade and consumer media, one that hopefully helps them deepen their connection to the products they cover and our commu- nity as a whole. We even want to give them, meaning these journalists and creators, the chance to take center stage. Honestly, though this is still too much in the works to really dive into details, nonetheless, I'm still super excited about the possibilities." l The demo experience is integral to The Big Gear Show.

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