Eurobike bait-and-switch
Is it just me or did this whole Euro-portland thing seem sketchy? I'm starting to wonder if their plan all along was to announce doing the show just to gauge the reaction from both Interbike and the bike industry at large.
Knowing a bit about what goes into putting on large events (I used to work for a company that put on 10 - 15 conferences a year), the idea that they could put together an Interbike type show in 11 months was pretty ludicrous. Now we see that they are partnering with Sea Otter and forgoing the September show. I think this (or something similar) was their plan all along.
It makes sense from a shady-business point of view... announce the show then sit back and keep their eyes on cycling news wires and blogs to catch the reaction. All of the feedback we gave here and other places allow them to plan their real moves.
It'll be interesting to see their future decisions. Will they stick with Sea Otter? Maybe do a show on the East Coast instead? Or actually have the gumption to do a September show in the West as direct competition?
Either way I'm gonna remember these latest moves by the Eurobike crew. They are either a) incredibly dimwitted in thinking doing another show in September in Portland was a good idea and then retracted it after the blowback or b) trying to be very shrewd in getting information by getting everybody all riled up.
My guess is 'b' and it definitely puts a bad taste in my mouth for future stuff they try to do.
What do you think? Were they serious with the original release or just testing the waters? And what's your view of them now?
Tim Grahl
Quasi Kool-Aid Dispenser
Posted by Tim Grahl at 4:28 AM
5 Comments
Vaporware?
Sure is suspicious. At this point still very little is known. The Sea Otter connection is still undefined. It's still all very much up in the air.
I was speaking to somebody else in the industry today who agreed that it just seems like they are doing everything wrong so far and are just being very sloppy. It really seems uncharecteristic for such a great organization, but certainly shows their desperation to enter the US market- for whatever reason or motive.
"announce the show then sit back and keep their eyes on cycling news wires and blogs to catch the reaction. All of the feedback we gave here and other places allow them to plan their real moves."
Hey, with all the free advice from self-appointd experts and other armchair quarterbacks, they'd be stupid not to.
None of us claim to be experts, but we do offer free advice. Well, some of us charge, but my rates are really, really cheap.
Thanks for stopping by!
I just interviewed Frank Yohannan from Sea Otter. Here's a link to listen to the interview.
http://thebossreport.blogspot.com/2006/12/interview-with-frank-yohannan.html
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