I gave my thoughts on the 2007 Interbike experience, but now I’d like to address another subject… opening up Interbike the last day of the show to the general public.

Eurobike does it, why can’t we?

I’ll break it down real nice for ya…

Crowd

Interbike is already a tight fit a lot of times. Booths get full, lines are long and at peak times the show feels like mildly controled chaos. And that’s just the industry folks.

Theft

Every year there are reports of stuff getting stolen at Interbike. Both on and off the floor. And again, that’s just the industry people. Once you open it up to the general public you’re playing in a whole different ballgame. Currently at Interbike very few things are locked down. You can go into a booth and pick up the products, look closely at them, feel the weight, etc etc. That all changes if you open the doors wide and the attendance triples. Everything starts getting locked down with bolts and behind glass.

Are we missing the point?

Interbike exists so manufacturers can sell their wares to retailers. Anything else should come second to that and anything that inhibits that should be removed. As a member of the media, I know my place on the food chain. I always take a step back when a retailers enters a booth and allow my conversation to be interrupted. I only have a job if the industry keeps growing and it’ll only keep growing when retailers are moving products. I’ve even wondered at times if the media’s role should be scaled back. Sure, we’re there to cover the products and it definitely adds a ton to the exhibitors return on investment if they get some press on the stuff they’re pushing, however with 450+ members of the media at Interbike this year, there has to be times when we get in the way.

Now… add to that a mass of people that come through the doors and triples (or worse) the attendance? There is no way you can do business in that enviroment and I think the majority of retailers would hit the door for that last ‘public day’, which begs the question “Are we missing the point?” There’s already a general sense that the show is just to big to cover in three days, so why would you add stress to that?

There’s gotta be an upside

And there is. The general public, which actually ponys up in the end for these products, get to see a whole lot of stuff first hand. Products their retailer may not carry so it could potentially create some public demand that wasn’t there before.

But this isn’t a good enough reason in my mind. The mass of people would be to much of a disruption to the main goal of the show and this is where the media’s job steps in. It’s our job to cover the show in a way to assimilate as much information as possible to the general public.

In the end…

There is no way the final day of Interbike should be opened to the general public. Way to many disruptions to the system for reasons that, frankly, aren’t good enough.

The only way I see a ‘public day’ working is if you extend the show to Saturday and make that day open.

But good luck getting the exhibitors to signon for a longer week…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 9:06 am and is filed under Crooked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.