Happy Midwinter. What a winter we’re all having!I hope you had a successful Outdoor Retailer Snow Show. I had the opportunity to connect and chat with dozens of SIA members and despite the continued energy and the total volume of business conducted during the week, it’s quite evident that we are experiencing growing pains as the snow show continues to evolve. Throughout the show, I repeatedly heard from suppliers and retailers about the overall cost of the show, the need for a four-day show, the hurdles created by the two-day gap between the OR Snow Show and the SIA/WWSRA On-Snow Demo, and how finding the perfect show dates (that meet both the needs of hard and soft goods suppliers alike) remains elusive.
Rest assured, we are listening to your concerns and are in active discussions with OR on costs, as well as how can we become more efficient with everyone’s time. More to come on this soon.
But having said this, I have no doubt that the January OR Snow Show is the essential national gathering of our industry and the foremost B2B platform that we have. The OR Snow Show continues to be THE epicenter of the winter business, and a robust national show is critical to the health of our industry. Why? The sheer multitude of industry professionals in one location creates business opportunities like no other. It’s the only place where retailers have direct access to entire product lines, as well as product designers and brand executives themselves. It’s the only place where the industry can gather as a whole under one roof. The importance of coming together and having meaningful conversations amongst brands, retailers, athletes, nonprofits and the media about the current and future landscape of our industry is vital to the snow sports industry. The OR Snow Show is a significant industry asset and if we don’t actively cultivate and nurture it, we lose opportunities. I can’t underscore this enough.
Now, this is not to say that the regional shows and buying group shows are not necessary — quite the opposite. As I have always stressed, we have an intricate eco-system of regional and national shows, each having a distinct role. But this system is fragile, and we need the entire eco-system to work in sync for the industry to thrive. Imbalance only weakens us and makes us inefficient. This is an excellent example of where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Is our industry in balance? Not yet, but awareness and action are great places to start. We all need to be active participants in building a thriving and sustainable eco-system that works for the industry.
So, what exactly am I saying? Simply put: we all need to work together to make this industry flourish. All winter stakeholders need to be thinking about participation, advocacy, and most importantly, the future success of our industry and what that looks like. At SIA, we are taking a close look at these issues (and more) and putting programs, tools, and partnerships into action to support them, but we need your involvement. Think about how you can engage, what you can contribute, and how you can help create positive change. Collaboration and collective thinking are critical ingredients to our industry’s health and longevity.
I want to hear your feedback on the future of this industry and the positive changes you think are necessary to get us in balance and moving in the right direction. Contact me at nick.sargent@snowsports.org.
