Cooperation, risk and the Denver Media Show
In the waning hours of last week's Denver Media Show, one of the invited media folk wandered up to the table and tossed me a softball of a question as he fondled the coozies and merino socks on the table between us. “So … what’s your big takeaway from all this?”
The answer came surprisingly quickly.
“That the desire of people in the outdoor industry to gather is still really strong.”
The Denver Media Show, held Sept. 28-29 at the Outdoor Market Alliance (OMA), drove this point home, as around 150 members of the outdoor industry gathered for a first-of-a-kind, targeted, cooperative event concept. The final stat line for the show was solid: 9 public relations agencies touring 37 editorial media through the spring 2023 collections of 26 leading outdoor industry brands.
The concept for the event came out of the brain of Dave Simpson (Verde), and took hold with the help of OMA members Leta Kalfas (MtnStuff), Steve Copeland (Granite Marketing) and Axel Geittmann (Superfluent & president of the OMA board).
Dave started calling an initial list of PR agencies in June to see if there might be any traction around the idea, which at the time was still pretty vague. But by early August, he had heard enough positive feedback to engage an event planner (Evan Dudley, Exact Change) and send out an email inviting agencies to join in on “a community driven and community led event, something created by the participants for the participants.” A few dozen emails and group Zoom calls later, the game was on.
While Dave was the clear driving force, the key to the success of the event was without a doubt the OMA venue itself. A sleek and modern showroom shared by 25 Rocky Mountain sales rep groups, the OMA looks and feels a little bit like a small trade show of its own. Each agency has their own closed-door space, each filled with a full selection of next season’s product lineup, and each stylishly merchandized and presented with the utmost care and branding. Thanks to the willingness of the OMA sales reps to share their personal spaces, that trade-show-like space provided the backdrop for a trade-show-like event with back-to-back scheduled trade-show-like meetings, all capped off with a lengthy happy hour and live music (as well as a special guest appearance by Conor Hall, Colorado’s state outdoor recreation director).
While the finished product of the Denver Media Show looked from the outside to be a clear success, the process required to get there took some serious coordination and sharing of things that PR people typically don’t share with their direct competitors. And yet, they did. Because while the elements of any successful event are well known (right place, right time, right people) an ingredient that’s often overlooked is the willingness to go outside of one’s comfort zone and accept a level of risk and uncertainty. And the Denver Media Show did exactly that. ###
