Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!

Eurobike Portland Dead?

Well, the perceived inevitable has been confirmed today that Eurobike is at least temporarily pulling the plug on their proposed new US tradeshow in Portland.

Many of us in the industry have felt this was the likely outcome due to the silence and damned near disappearance of Eurobike after their initial announcement of the new-show-to-be. At face value, this would seem to indicate that Sea Otter will be one hell of a race and expo next year.

I still believe that Portland is a fantastic city for such a tradeshow, in one format or another (industry only or industry and consumer), but maintain that having that show during the same month as so many other events is not going to actually help the industry. If helping the growth of the industry is truly what Eurobike is seeking, then maybe they simply read enough of the concerns being voiced and decided to yield to trying to perfect the scheduling. Maybe...

Many of us complain in one way or another about Interbike and Las Vegas, but truth be told, it ends up serving us (the industry) really well. We get a great location for the Dirt Demo, we get a big Expo venue and tons of supporting infrastructure. Yes, the Teamsters and the Sands Convention Center can leave a bad taste in your mouth. The casinos and massive doses of cigarette smoke are really pretty gross. The city is not exactly bike friendly and riding each day can be a lot like pointing a loaded gun to your head. Still, all of those things considered, the show goes off each year and we all get to celebrate what our industry is all about; great products, great people and great fun. Would I prefer the show to be somewhere else? Yeah, probably I would, but even if the show stays where it is and stays how it is, I'm going to keep going and celebrating the industry I love so much. Let's face it, Anaheim sucked and we were pretty happy to get out of there. Hell, I live just two hours from Anaheim and I prefer Las Vegas. Would somewhere in Colorado be cool? Hell yes! But when and where? Weather can get ugly quick and where would you have the Expo? I honestly don't know the answers to that one. How about a rotating show location? That might be cool, but then you can't get good contracts for the expo hall. They like multi-year deals, so one year deals would mean higher costs and make it harder to get the venue when you rotate back through.

There are so many things to consider, outside of our emotional favorites. The business of a major tradeshow is very complicated. I welcome what Eurobike says they want to do and I believe more than one major tradeshow can exist here. We'll see if it gets worked out for 2008 I guess.

Tim Jackson
Chief Kool-Aid Dispenser

Posted by Tim Jackson at 9:35 PM