The crème de la crème of the European snowboard industry met last week at Boardsport Source’s annual European Snowboarding Industry Forum. The conference began on April 28 with snow industry leaders on hand for informative presentations, brainstorming workshops, invaluable networking opportunities and the annual European Snow Ball and Industry Awards.
The forum was held on the shores of Lake Annecy, France, with a welcome dinner and an introductory speech by Chris Stiepock, VP of Sales, Content and Marketing for ESPN Productions who spelled out the values and philosophy behind the X Games.
The conference continued on Thursday with a day of seminars including the highly anticipated presentation of the 2009/10 sales numbers by SIA’s Dave Wray and EuroSIMA’s Remi Forsans. One of the biggest values of the European Industry Conference is that this is the only place in the world where these two presentations are made live with industry members able to immediately discuss the results in an open forum.
We’ll have a story later this week about the state of the European market.
Thursday’s activities ended with the European Snow Ball and Snowboard Industry Awards. 2010 recipients include:
Breakthrough Brand of the Year: Yes Snowboards.
Product Innovation of the Year: K2 Fastplant snowboard.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Henry Nidecker, managing director of the Swiss company Nidecker, for his significant contribution in the development of snowboarding, its industry and its culture in Europe.
The conference continued on Friday with another round of seminars and workshops and was scheduled to conclude Saturday, May 1 with an industry shreddown at Chamonix’s Les Grands Montets ski area.
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