ASR Blog

Child Care at OR: What Do You Think?

Those of you who are SNEWS subscribers may have noticed this story last week, entitled "Women's Issues: Why is there no childcare at Outdoor Retailer trade shows?":

Kristin Carpenter-Ogden has a dilemma. As a working mom running a business in Durango, Colo., her schedule is jam-packed. Add a well traveled, professional rock climber/photographer husband and a lack of relatives living locally into the mix, and she comes up with a definite childcare challenge. Especially when traveling to the Outdoor Retailer trade shows. How does she deal with it all?

Click for link (sorry non-subbers!)

The article also points out that private options exist for nursing mothers at this year's show, and gives OR's number (949 226 5722) that interested parties can call for more info.

Our own Show Director Kenji Haroutunian had this to say later in the article:

As for day care, Haroutunian said it is not out of the question for future shows. "We contracted with an outside vendor before and gave them the space, which is now the show office. As the Salt Palace got more packed and fewer and fewer people seemed to need it, it was (discontinued)," he said. "But if there was enough of a call for it, it's not out of the question at all. The question for us is, 'Where would we do it?'"

How do you think OR can better serve parents at the show? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

OR Party/Concert/Screening Updates

Make sure to check back here daily as the OR Winter Market takes over SLC. We will be bringing you updates on parties, concerts, film screenings, and other special events happening at and around the convention.

Click here for a full list of official events.

Got a hot tip on an event happening this week? Perhaps in your own booth? Drop us a line in the comments section.

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SATURDAY, Jan. 26th:

7 p.m. - midnight. Avalaunch Festival OR Closing Party! At the Depot.

"Michael Franti & Spearhead and others will rock for three nights to kick off the Avalaunch Festival Project at OR Winter Market 2008. Avalaunch plans to tour nationally celebrating music, film and snow while promoting avalanche awareness and environmental stewardship in the backcountry."

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. Pink Floyd 3D Laser Spectacular! (!!!) at Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah.

Also, there's this, which has been quietly going on in Park City all week.

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FRIDAY, Jan. 25th:

9 a.m. Start your day with Yoga at the Prana Rejuvenation Room. Section D, MR 254C

11 a.m. (and 2 p.m.) 4th Annual Winter Market Fashion Show. Apparel from over 80 exhibitors! Room: MR 251D

2 p.m. Jennifer Lowe-Anker will be signing galleys for her upcoming memoir Forget Me Not.

"High in the Himalaya a world-class adventurer dies, leaving a wife, three small sons and a best friend to cope with their grief and, ultimately, find healing in the creation of a new family." At the Mountaineers Books booth.

6 p.m. OIWC (Outdoor Industries Women's Coalition) Gathering.

"Paige Boucher and Angela Hassan will receive their Pioneering Woman and First Ascent Awards during the annual winter OIWC Gathering on January 25th. The event, held at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, UT, from 6 – 8pm, will include great food, drinks, networking opportunities, and a silent auction with outdoor gear donated by OIWC’s sponsors. The awards presentation will begin at 7pm."

7 p.m. Avalaunch Festival, Day Two. The Depot.

"Michael Franti & Spearhead and others will rock for three nights to kick off the Avalaunch Festival Project at OR Winter Market 2008. Avalaunch plans to tour nationally celebrating music, film and snow while promoting avalanche awareness and environmental stewardship in the backcountry."

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This is just a sampling of what's going on at OR. Click here for a full list of events.

Going Green While Staying In the Black

From Inside Bay Area:

CAN A BUSINESS go green and stay in the black? Yvon Chouinard has built the model.

"Business has been accused of despoiling the environment, but it can enrich our lives and make a profit without losing its soul," Chouinard, owner of Ventura-based Patagonia outdoor gear and clothing company, told a standing-room-only crowd at his store here Tuesday.

Click for more...

OIWC to Present Pioneering Woman, First Ascent Awards at OR

From Paddling Instructor:

(OIWC) announces today that Paige Boucher has been chosen as the 2008 recipient of the Pioneering Woman Award, and Angela Hassan has been selected as the recipient of the First Ascent Award. Both awards, specific to the outdoor industry, will be presented during OIWC's Gathering, Friday, January 25 from 6-8pm, during the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City, UT.
...
Paige Boucher, who is a long time member and friend of the industry, has held notable design and marketing positions with leading companies such as The North Face, Sierra Designs, and, most recently, Mountain Hardwear. Today, Boucher manages the publicity department for Mountain Hardwear as their highly respected Public Relations Director.
...
[Angela Hassan] made her way into the outdoor industry by working first as an Executive Assistant at Marker Ltd for the Salt Lake Olympics, then moving from an Office Manager to a Rep with a local sales firm. Now at Backcountry.com as the Youth Merchandise Division Manager, Angie is responsible for managing and developing the product lines and brand representation in the youth division.

Click for more...

Who Are You?

With the Winter Market just around the corner, we'd love to know who's reading this blog!

Are you a sales rep, outfitter, retailer, fellow blogger, or simply an outdoor enthusiast with a taste for trend-focused outdoor news and attractive hyperlinks?

OR Insider reader, make yourself known in the comments section! Light spamming/shameless self-promotion welcome.

Outdoor Innovator and Ambassador Award Finalists Announced

From OIA:

Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) today announced the finalists for the 2008 Outdoor Industry Ambassador Award and Outdoor Industry Innovator Award, as nominated by the outdoor industry and then selected by OIA’s Board of Directors. The award winners will be announced at the Industry Breakfast on Wednesday, January 23, 2008, which kicks off the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City, Utah.
...
The Outdoor Industry Innovator Award recognizes a business achievement by an outdoor company who has made significant contributions toward the continued innovation and growth of the outdoor industry. Those contributions can be either through a dynamic business initiative or the creation and development of a new business tool or process. The finalists are Half Moon Outfitters, High Sierra Sport, Horny Toad, Timberland, and Untraditional Marketing.

Click here to see the Ambassador Award finalists...

Fiber, Yarn, Apparel Makers Unite at Seamless Village

From Fibre2Fashion:

This is the first time that fiber, yarn, and apparel manufacturers have joined forces to create a collective display for the seamless market at OR. The effort was championed by Santoni, seamless machinery innovator and a sponsor of the 2008 OR Winter Market.

"The Seamless Village offers OR participants a convenient place to meet the experts in this exciting apparel field," says Molly Kremidas, Nilit’s U.S. Marketing Director. "Seamless apparel is an important segment for Nilit. We were pioneers in the development of microfiber yarns for the seamless category and, as a result, our products are used by the leading makers of seamless legwear, intimates, bodywear, and activewear."

Click for more...

A New Naturalist's Bible

From the Washington Post:

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- He took his first hike into the Sierra Nevada, the landscape of his obsession, while still in the womb. His parents named him John Muir Laws. He once spent a week searching for a single perfect orchid to paint. He says, "I am constantly amazed by things." Such as? "The diversity of chipmunks." He is not joking. He cares about newts. If asked, he does an excellent imitation of a startled vole. He has opinions about beetles.

This fall, he published "The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada." It is 366 pages long and contains 2,800 illustrations, each painted by Laws. The new field guide, already praised by outdoor connoisseurs as a naturalist's bible, begins with "Small Fungi Growing on Wood" (specifically, Calocera cornea, the staghorn jelly fungus) and ends with stars (the night sky at winter solstice, Dec. 22).

Click for full story...

X-Dance Action Sports Film Fest in SLC Offers Discounts for OR Attendees

Your trip to SLC just got a whole lot more exciting!

The X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival is in town the same week as OR, and they are offering special discounts to all Winter Market attendees. See below for more info on the films and parties.

"For one insane week each winter, the world’s top action sport filmmakers and athletes, along with cutting-edge bands and DJs and key figures from the entertainment industry, gather in Park City, Utah, to celebrate action sports culture at the annual X-DANCE Action Sports Film Festival. Launched in 2001 and coinciding each year with the Sundance Film Festival, X-DANCE showcases the year's top action sport films, followed by post-screening Q&A's with filmmakers and athletes. X-DANCE also features open forum panels with athletes, filmmakers, industry figures and icons from the action sports world, plus special screenings, privately sponsored parties and a legendary Closing Party/Awards Ceremony. With roots in both the core industry as well as the mainstream, no other event on earth harnesses the creative energy of adrenaline culture and brings it together under one roof like the X-DANCE Action Sports Film Festival."

From X-Dance:

Screenings are $5 per film, but X-Dance is offering a $10 daypass for screenings to anyone with an O.R. badge and a $5 discount on the tickets to the final party/award ceremony at The Depot.
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Running side-by-side with the Sundance Film Festival, the 8th X-Dance Festival will be held in Salt Lake City on January 19-23, 2008. The festival headquarters and screening room are located at the Off-Broadway Theater (272 South Main Street) with VIP parties occurring at The Broadway Bistro and the Award Ceremony/Closing Party at The Depot on Wednesday, January 23, in conjunction with the opening of Outdoor Retailer Convention.

Screenings open to the Public of top action sports films from industry stalwarts like Matchstick, Studio 411, VAS, Teton Gravity Research, Transworld, Fleshwound Films & Rush Sports, Absinthe Films, Globe, Tony Hawk’s 900 Films, Alterna Films, and Whyte House Productions, as well as noteworthy work by emerging talent and world premieres.

Screenings run Saturday, January 19 thru Tuesday, January 22, from noon to 10:00 p.m., then again on Wednesday, January 23 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Off-Broadway Theater (272 South Main St.) located across from the Gallivan Trax stop. Street parking or use the Wells Fargo and Tower lots. The X-Dance film schedule is listed on the website: www.x-dance.com

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X-Dance Awards Ceremony and Closing Party at THE DEPOT will be held on Wednesday, January 23 and hosted by Olympic commentator Pat Parnell. Industry stars and celebrities join bands and DJs to celebrate the best in action sports filmmaking, while the extraordinary VJ, Brien Pullman, transforms the enormous room into a mesmerizing, wall-to-wall montage of action sports imagery. Musical performances by Oakland hip hop masters Souls of Mischief, a feisty foursome band of microphone marauders and beat plunderers, along with the Villains, a funky up-beat DJ trio from LA whose dance floor-destroyers tracks are all backed by turntablism talent. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. $35 day of event. $30 for O.R. attendees. (13 N 400 West, Salt Lake City; 801-456-2800) or online: www.depotslc.com

Ed Hillary, First Atop Mt. Everest, 1919-2008

From the SF Gate:

Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers, died Friday. He was 88.

The gangling New Zealander devoted much of his life to aiding the mountain people of Nepal and took his fame in stride, preferring to be called Ed and considering himself an "ordinary person with ordinary qualities."

Click for full story...

Check out this tribute page to see what political figures and climbers have to say about Hillary's life.

Listen to this 1953 press conference given by Hillary after his history-making ascent (via NPR.org).

What does Ed Hillary's passing mean for the sport?