Tech meets Outdoor on the trail, and at the show
The OIA Rendezvous happened earlier this month in San Diego, and featured a suite of presentations that focused on the application and importance to businesses of Social Media.  The day before the 'vous, an impromptu ad-hoc event surreptitiously called the 'Un-conference' happened as a live gathering of less than two dozen who were discussing similar issues in an open source format with more than two dozen who followed on skype and streaming webcast.   These are not the days of road miles and phone tag... these are the days of many options for up-to-the-minute updates, conversations, sharing of information and decision-making.  Well except for that pesky pre-season or

the OI and Indonesia
Surprisingly I have not seen anything from the industry on providing assistance for the Quake/Tsunami victims in Indonesia.  Maybe the OI press isn't covering it, or maybe it's too soon (?), or maybe we were all busy crafting the future of our market at Rendezvous.... but there is an opportunity in front of us to do good, maybe clear some older inventory, show the greater watersports businesses how we roll and join the world community of advocates and businesses pitching in to save lives in Indo. The area hardest hit (Padang City, up to Malaysia and even Samoa) is a haven for surfers and adventure travelers.  This is not at all a peripheral event to our interests.Â

Tsunami victim relief; need for gear esp shelters, sleeping bags, stoves and lanterns and sanitation
While we were all at Rendezvous (well 350 or so of us) in San Diego, a massive deep-sea earthquake egistering  7.6 sent a tsunami wave through and over Indonesia, a major surfing destination.  Included in the terrible and tragic human suffering are the islands of Samoa, American Samoa and particularly the densely populated city of Padang (popul. 900,000). 'In sprawling, low-lying Padang, the shaking was so intense that people crouched or sat on the street to avoid falling. Children screamed as thousands of people tried to get away from the coast in cars and on motorbikes, honking horns. The quake occurred a day after a killer tsunami hit islands in the South P

Guest blogpost #2 - Alison Osius
The All-Star Jam>> By Alison Osius>>>> I have been going to trade shows longer than I care to remember. The >> ski show in Las Vegas: casinos, and dawn bouldering at Calico Basin. >> The one in Reno; casinos, Donner Summit. The current show iteration, >> the Outdoor Retailer Summer/Winter Market, is in Salt Lake City, >> with 100-degree sidewalks and Little Cottonwood Canyon.>>>> Each year, semiannually, as we drive the seven hours to Utah, my >> coworkers and I mull over the old chestnuts and the disasters, some >> tragic, that have happened to us or others at the sh

The show, is it really over?
The thought has been running through my head for the past 3 weeks, going on 4... why haven't I done my own show synopsis?  Why haven't I blogged the living daylights out of the incredible experiences of people, product and politics that whirled incessantly for 5 days (including the Open Air Demo) in SLC last month?  What is my problem?Only here, on my last day of vacation, do I realize the hard truth.  Just because my team has done it's post-con meeting, videos fina