What a difference a year makes. That’s a sentence I heard a lot at SIA last week.
People used it when referring to the clean inventories of both retailers and manufacturers.
In the context of a little more economic stability on a macro level.
And of course, the abundant snow that fell around the world and drove sales.
The sentence was also used to describe the SIA show itself, and how the snow community has settled in to having the show in Denver. Last year, SIA left its previous, long-time home in Las Vegas and moved to its new location in Colorado.
SIA President Dave Ingemie. Shop-eat-surf file photo.SIA President Dave Ingemie said he had not heard any complaints at the show this year about leaving Vegas.
People seemed to have learned more about Denver, and had a better understanding of the restaurants and the hotels. The hotels helped by lowering their prices as well, he said.
Compared to last year, the trade show had a larger footprint, and attendance was up. SIA is still waiting for audited numbers, but Dave expected attendance to rise from 2% to 8%.
Some important retailers returned, and the Canadian contingent was stronger, he said, as plane ticket prices from Vancouver returned to normal levels now that the Olympics were over.
Another difference between this year and last was the greater number of events. Dave estimated there were at least three to four times more marketing events during the show as company budgets rebounded.
The industry also has some good momentum, he said, with alpine particularly hot.
“They’ve got some energy back,” he said. “And snowboarding is still hot. There’s just some good energy out there.”
And of course, lots of snow helped, he said.
“It snowed,” Dave said. “That’s why we all look better.”
Some retailers and manufacturers are very excited that’s there’s no inventory out there. While that’s great, Dave’s message to everyone is “easy.”
“I believe in averages,” he said. While this season was great, who knows if it will snow next season, and it’s better to not get carried away with either building or buying too much inventory, he said.
For next year’s show, SIA already has a lot of requests for more space, and 25 companies are on a waiting list to get in. One major company wants a very big space that is not even in the show yet, he said.
Check out our slide show above for more photos from the show floor.
