A significant majority of vendors and retailers appear to favor keeping the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City, according to at least one thread of comments being posted in an online forum site established by the trade show.
Outdoor Retailer (OR) and Outdoor Industry Association launched the Collective Voice forum online in early May to solicit input on the future of the show, noting that the summer edition of the twice-a-year show is rapidly outgrowing Salt Lake City. Invitations to participate in the Collective Voice website were emailed to outdoor industry members who have registered for or attended OR trade shows as an exhibitor, sales rep, retailer or distributor in the last three years.
Nielsen Expositions, which owns OR, sold a record 456,508 net square feet of exhibition space for OR Summer Market 2011. To accommodate 150 new exhibitors for that show, Nielsen erected a 53,000-square foot New Exhibitor Pavilion (NEP) tent across the street from the Salt Palace. This year, OR is adding a second tent to double the size of the NEP so it can accommodate 300 new exhibitors. Complaints about a shortage of hotel rooms have also been increasing.
Yet 58 of 108 comments posted under the “Where’s the Best Place for Outdoor Retailer?” thread on Collective Voice favor keeping the show in Salt Lake City rather than moving it to larger facilities. This group emphasized Salt Lake City’s unmatched proximity to outdoor recreation and its relatively low hotel and restaurant costs as big advantages over alternative venues in Anaheim, CA., Las Vegas, Denver, CO or Orlando. Many Salt Lake City boosters urged OR to continue to work with city officials to expand into other downtown buildings or even restrict growth of the show to keep it in Salt Lake City.
“Vegas has the hotels, Colorado has the venue, but SLC has the vibe,” wrote New York Retailer Brett Kennedy of Kenko Co. Ltd. in one of the more succinct posts on the discussion board.
Some in this group argued OR should exclude certain vendors, restrict booth sizes or encourage more exhibitors to go to double-decker booths in an effort to create room in the Salt Palace for new exhibitors. The average footprint of a booth on the main floor of the Salt Palace will be 679 square feet this year, up 50 feet from 2008.
Others Salt Lake City fans, however, conceded that space limitations could end up stunting growth.
“The main problem is that there is no decent space for new exhibitors,” wrote Alv Elvestad, of Pakboats in Enfield, NH. “Serving several years in purgatory waiting to get into the main hall is expensive and unrewarding. Considering that much of the innovation in the industry comes from new companies, the obstacles that are put in their way by the lack of space, are a problem for both the show and the industry. There may be ways to resolve the problem within the Salt Palace. Failing that, a move to a larger facility is needed.”
Twenty-two participants in the same thread wrote that they favor relocating OR to accommodate the show’s growth. Several in this group expressed frustration with having to book rooms in Salt Lake City nine months in advance only to pay $180 a night for room’s that normally rent for $70. Others are fed up after years of failing to get their booths on to the main floor. Many favored moving the show to Las Vegas or Denver in that order.
“I arrive at SLC around 11 pm every show and two of the last four shows had my reservations lost due to overbooking,” wrote David Talsky, a co-owner of Mammoth Mountaineer Supply in Mammoth Lakes, CA. “Obviously there is a shortage of rooms Las Vegas, though not an outdoor town, would accommodate business much better.”
About a half dozen people recommended keeping the winter show in Salt Lake City and moving the summer show to another location, or even rotating it among multiple venues.
Regardless, the conversation occurring at Collective Voice marks a threshold for the show and perhaps the larger outdoor industry. After decades of rapid growth, more exhibitors and retailers are saying the show and the industry need to pause and ask a few fundamental questions.
“The bigger question for me is, what are the long-term goals of the show? asked Yahn Lebo, a product line manager with Wolverine World Wide, in a post on the forum. “By this I mean, the show is starting to look less like “Outdoor” Retailer and more like Magic or Super Show with many vendors having no direct connection to outdoors. If the goal is pure growth, a venue like Las Vegas will allow for current and future growth, as well as, ease of travel. If instead, the goal is to remain based in the outdoors, requiring vendors to have a certain percent of their line consist of outdoor products would limit the size of the show and make Salt Lake City or Denver viable options. In the end, my vote would be Salt Lake City and a focus on vetting the vendors allowed to show.”
Outdoor Retailer will be rolling out an online survey in mid-late June to gather further input from former show attendees, who can also continue to comment at the Collective Voice website. Former attendees who would like to participate in either the survey or the online discussion should send a request to CollectiveVoiceOR@gmail.com.
