The usual post Interbike bike porn euphoria has deteriorated into a bunch of grumping. Like waiting until the morning before you send an angry email, maybe everybody should wait until they are no longer hungover before they write their post-Interbike wrap-up:
Snarky blog posts aside, we heard this same lament and it was summarized by insider quotes:
- This is the why am I here show?
- Same old shit now sold with Social Media
- Can't wait for the next NAHBS.
Here's the thing—trade shows are a dying business. We've been attending shows in the outdoor and technology space for more than two decades and while they served a purpose in the pre-Internet days, flying across the country to see product that was announced weeks earlier online just doesn't make sense. For the media, shows have turned from being a critical part of our job to a necessary evil—it's now about catching up with old friends instead of covering new products.
But trade shows could be booming business. And they could be great for the industries they cover, if they took a page from the bike companies themselves.
Over the last few years the major manufacturers have turned toward off-show and off-off-show events for their dealers. Like a Jonestown tabernacle, minus (usually) the Kool-Aid, the companies can talk to the dealers while they are showing their wares in the environments in which they most make sense. Mountain bike shop owners head off to the trails, roadies head uphill. Everyone drinks, everyone eats, everyone has a good time and massive amounts of orders are places.
Contrast this with Interbike -- you've got dealers flying across the country to speak with maybe a dozen of their manufacturers and then spending the rest of the time getting fall-down drunk. On the surface it seems like a great idea, but really it's just a union-rules convention center with expensive food, underneath a fake canal system, with expensive food.
Forget the show floor. The Dirt Demo is the right idea, but really who wants to test a road bike when it's 105 degrees out and the arid desert has sucked the life out of us northerners?
Meanwhile, the individual dealer shows run by Trek, Specialized, Giant and the like aren't as great as they could be because they're so exclusive
Do you see where we're going? Interbike needs to turn into a massive dealer-based festival of the bike. It needs to forget the trade hall and move to a venue where people can ride bikes without dying from heat stroke. Get Trek and Cannondale and Giant to come together to buy space at a massive park, give free space to the small niche manufacturers and let people spend days just riding their bikes. And then open it up to the public
You want to see a resurgence in cycling? Put Interbike somewhere where people can ride their bikes. Rent a farm in Sonoma and spend a week there, with dealer days and public days. Have bands, parties and celebrate the sport. Don't stick it into a small convention center with outrageous room prices. Let cycling do what it does best, bring people together
This was, in fact, the genesis of the Mobile Social -- we started them years ago as an alternative to the trade show in another industry. We got so sick of being cooped up in a hall for a week that we got everyone together on their bikes and had a great time. The end result was that more business came out of the meetings on the bikes then they did in the hall.
I think that everyone (aside from the convention center sales staff) agrees that trade shows are a life-sucking experience. Even if you're having fun at craps you still have to get up in the morning, walk forty minutes to the hall and wander around trying to figure out where the hell booth 5312 is. (Note to tradeshow folks, put up booth numbers, not just row numbers.
This year the Interbike folks are opening up the east coast On Dirt Demo to the public and tying it in with 'Cross races. Great idea. Let's see more of that, more things like the Mobile Social and less of the Sands Expo Center.
In any case, we're just reflecting on a lot of what we heard at the show. We know that the event is still crucial to the businesses of many of the manufacturers and the dealers despite the costs and hassles. We'll have a proper show wrap up article after we hit the east coast Dirt Demo, which we're looking forward to as it involves much less Sands Expo Center.
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