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 ordering scenario that remains. This too shall change, though, if the pundits have any wisdom at all.
The OIA Rendezvous review is here
http://www.outdoorindustry.org/pdf/SmartPhonesWN102109.pdf
So what? Well, your profitability absolutely relies on it, that's what. Not only if you are a specialty shop, but whether you are a big brand, small or startup brand, athlete, advocacy group or any other part of the community of outdoor professionals, it's your job to know your stuff when it comes to ordinary tools applied to outdoor adventure. Yes, even you journalists out there! (I politely recuse myself from this grouping for now).
One impactful session at the Rendezvous was led by Paul Kirwin of Kirwin Communications fame and now Channel Signal. Like the Nielsen Online group I share offices with, Paul's group focuses in on the 'conversations' being had about a brand, and how that 'buzz' is moving the needle (literally) up or down to drive positive or negative brand impressions, nearly in real-time. He used examples from Mountain Hardwear and SIGG to illustrate how paying attention to internet chatter or buzz in chat rooms, blog comments, twitter posts and the dreaded 'mommy bloggers' can take a brand to its knees or elevate it beyond any paid advertising.
Other key factors in tech-meets-outdoor are the electronic and visual cues that cellphones and other modern handheld devices transmit to rescuers or nearby ordinary citizens http://news.cnet.com/Turning-cell-phones-into-lifelines/2100-1039_3-6140794.html(just one of 6400 results from a google search of 'mountain rescue cellphone visibility', not even counting water rescues). Soon the very lack of communication will be an early warning sign that someone's adventure has gone awry.
How does tech affect the show? I follow a few folks who consider this their sole mission in life, to report on events with cutting edge technology... interactive registration services all the way to RFID for real-time traffic analysis (ooohhh....expensive). In a nutshell, digital technology is going to absolutely transform the events industry to match the real needs of specialty markets. At OR, you've already seen some evidence of this with twitter feeds from the show you can follow (or post to via hashtag), modernized floorplan/exhibitor list/schedule planning tools online, and streaming live video from the gear testing demo and main event. Like I was saying in a previous post, the show isn't over when it's over anymore.
More on this topic will be coming at you as we reach into 2010 (!) and beyond, so stay tuned.
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