Emerald Expositions Cancels Interbike for 2019
Emerald issued a press release today announcing that the Interbike show scheduled for September 2019 was a no go. Here’s the press release. I excluded the part at the end describing who Interbike and Emerald Expositions are.
Interbike to Research Alternatives; Announces Show Will Not Take Place in 2019
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif., – December 6, 2018 – Interbike owner, Emerald Expositions, announced today that the Interbike trade show will not take place in September 2019 in Reno as previously scheduled. Instead, the company will research alternative plans for 2020 and beyond, including the opportunity to launch events featuring bicycling and bike-related components within or alongside its various successful, multi-sport trade show franchises.
“While there were distinct advantages to Reno and Tahoe as venues for Interbike and the Free Ride Festival, respectively, overall travel time and cost proved challenging for attendees and exhibitors,” said Darrell Denny, Executive Vice President of Emerald Expositions’ Sports Group. “Further, the past four years have been difficult for the U.S. bicycle market. The substantial increase in tariffs on bike related imports during 2018, and announced for 2019, is compounding these challenges. As a result, we are rethinking how to best serve the cycling industry and will conduct a review of the possible timing, locations and formats with dealers, brands, distributors, reps, designers and media over the coming months. Our goal is to develop and deliver thoughtful solutions which provide strong returns on investment for all industry participants.”
As a result of the decision announced today, Justin Gottlieb, show director, Andria Klinger, sales director, Andy Buckner, art director, and Jack Morrisey, marketing director, will leave the company, effective December 31, 2018.
“Justin, Andria, Andy and Jack have dedicated themselves to the cycling space and worked long and hard,” Denny said. “We will miss them greatly and wish them the best in their future endeavors.”
I’m guessing the release came out after the stock market closed, because the stock was up 2% today. Here’s a link to the article I published this past Monday on their quarterly results and circumstances.
It sounds like they are going to consider attaching bikes to one of their other “…multi-sport trade show franchises.” But not before 2020. I wonder if Surf Expo is a candidate. Talking about Interbike, they note that “…overall travel time and cost proved challenging for attendees and exhibitors…” As they suggest, it may have something to do with the Reno location, but isn’t that basically the problem that most trade shows face these days? The cost benefit analysis is just out of whack.
Long time attendee of the show, since the late 80’s, I missed about 8 in all those years. The show model has been broken for many years and they did not listen to us-the customers-the brands. Warning after warning after warning. I pulled our brand out in 2016, which was still too late. High costs to display, and lower and lower ROI. If costs came down, we would have supported, but they
DID
NOT
LISTEN.
We proudly attend numerous bike festivals, race events, demos and meet the people that buy our products OR are interested-some of these events have dealers (Sea Otter Festival) too. We are a small equipment brand, and we also started hosting sales events at our HQ, much like the large bicycle brands started doing years ago when they bailed on the shows.
Good riddance really, they never really cared about us, our brands, or the dealers, greed killed what was once a great get together.
Hi Salty,
Too many shows that are too long and cost too much. And Emerald, as it says, is about business to business shows. While some form of gathering for business to business face time is important, it just doesn’t have to be the traditional trade show format any more. More consumer focused? More…what? Still figuring that out. Sounds like you’ve figured out lots of ways to meet your customers and other businesses you work with. I think that’s the trend. It is incredibly hard for a company, faced with a massive change in it’s competitive situation and business model, to identify and make big, required changes on a timely basis. My experience with turnarounds is that the changes usually don’t happen until the pressure builds up to the “no choice” point. Often, it’s then too late, both financially and competitively, to do what needs to be done. Assuming you can identify it.
Thanks for the comment.
J.