Archive for the 'Industry Experts' Category

Chip
Jan 23rd, 2008

A Beautiful Day at the OR Base Camp

It’s been a busy week for SOAR and Interbike staff. Last weekend, David and Maura attended the Bicycle Leadership Conference (see David’s posts below) and yesterday I went up to the Outdoor Retailer Backcountry Base Camp outdoor demo at the Snowbasin ski resort and walked the exhibit area with Rich Kelly of Interbike fame.

As of a few months ago, Rich’s job has became a lot busier. He now oversees marketing communications for not just Interbike, but also Nielsen’s Outdoor Retailer (OR), Action Sports Retailer (ASR), FlyFishing Retailer and Health+Fitness Business (HFB) trade shows. Rich has been really busy getting ready for last weekend’s BLC, the OR show that started yesterday and the ASR show that starts Thursday. He even had a chance to write a post about his exploits on InterbikeTimes yesterday in Snowbasin lodge.

Rich Kelly Interbike

Similar to Interbike’s OutDoor Demo, the OR Backcountry Base Camp gives retailers a chance to try out upcoming products. There were more than 50 exhibitors there. The majority of the products there were more for backcountry use rather than resort skiing, but Snowbasin was a perfect venue. Retailers could ride the lifts up to try out telemark skis and boots, head up into the hills on snowshoes or cross country skis and even slide down the hill on sleds.

 OR Backcountry Base Camp

I don’t know how Rich finds the time to blog, but he does. As I‘m writing this the indoor portion of the show is going on and I need to get over there (It’s at the Salt Lake City Convention Center, about 5 miles from my house). One of our other clients, Delta 7 Sports has a couple of its Arantix IsoTruss carbon fiber mountain bikes in the Miōn Footwear booth connected to generators that when pedaled generate electricity for the booth, making Miōn’s booth the first human-powered booth in the history of the OR show.

Stay tuned for more pictures.

Chip

Poppa P
Aug 3rd, 2007

What industry are we in anyway?

Paul Zane Pilzer, keynote speaker at Health+Fitness Business Expo & Conference, raised an interesting question during his address. What industry are we in today?

Is it the exercise industry? The fitness industry? The health industry? The weight loss industry?

With the graying of America and the increasing living standards (both here in the U.S. and abroad), Pilzer suggested that, in fact, the companies, organizations and individuals attending H+FB were now in the “Wellness Industry.”

The Wellness Industry touches all things concerned with keeping people “well,” as opposed to the medical industry which is focused on getting people “better” when they get sick.

Pilzer claims that the Wellness industry already generates more than $500 billion in revenues per year and is on its way to topping $1 trillion annually in the near future.

I think this was a new concept for most listeners in attendance.

And although I wish he would have used a PowerPoint presentation to support his speech, I thought Pilzer was spot-on with this concept.

Often the most important thing an executive can do from time to time is to objectively analyze one’s industry, company, product/service mix, positioning, branding, messaging, etc. and ask reflectively, “Are we still on point?” In other words, “Has anything changed in the marketplace that we need to be aware of and make adjustments for?”

Pilzer’s presentation gave me great food for thought about the entire “Wellness Industry” in all of its various aspects, something I hope the other attendees experienced as well.