Jun
22
I have so many memories of attending Interbike while I was in the industry from 1991 to 2000 that it’s hard to pick one. During those years I attended as a Shimano sales person at first, then as their trade show manager and toward the tail end of my bike industry insider career as a marketing communications manager for Specialized. In 2005, I had a chance again to attend Interbike as a marketing agency guy looking to drum up some business and ended up gaining Interbike’s business as its public relations agency of record. I’ve always liked going to Interbike. It can be hectic getting ready for it, but once there I get a feeling of camaraderie. It’s one of the few times the industry has a chance to get together to talk some business, catch up on the latest gossip and have some fun with friends.
Since our agency is helping Interbike with Interbiketimes.com, I felt I should be one of the first to post something and I had a hard time coming up with one specific event to write about. I thought about the time Schwinn staged a big Elvis parade (big Elvises small Elvises and Elvises of all nationalities) down the crowded aisles of the show in the early Interbike Vegas years. I thought about shaking the hand of my childhood hero, Evil Knievel at the show (I was Evil Knievel for Halloween when I was a kid and my mom made me a cool jacket, just like Evil’s, out of that tacky ’60s-era vinyl. After Halloween I wore the jacket when I rode my mini-bike down the horse trails behind our house). And I thought about the many passionate conversations I’ve had with people during the show about cycling, about what products were good and which were not so good.
One of the most significant memories for me was the year Lance was diagnosed with cancer. I was the tradeshow manager for Shimano and was in charge of the Dura-Ace Design Contest display that was traveling to the Anaheim and Philly Interbike shows. One of the Shimano employees suggested making a huge get well card for Lance (it was about 6′ high and 3′ wide) and placing it in the design contest booth for people to sign.
It turned out the card wasn’t big enough. By the time I had a chance to sign the card in Philadelphia, I could barely find a place to put my name. The card looked like a huge scribbling exercise by a bunch of kindergartners. It was covered with signatures. After the show the card was shipped to Lance in Austin and we heard he really appreciated it.
This memory probably comes to my mind the most, because the following year while I was setting up the Shimano booth at Anaheim I got a call from my future wife crying because she was just diagnosed with cervical cancer. Wow, what a way to start a trade show.
Every year during Anaheim Interbike Kozo Shimano put together a company team to play in the hockey tournament. That year he had all the team members sign his hockey jersey and he gave it to Debbie. She still has it hanging in our closet to this day.
I guess my point of sharing these thoughts is that my best memories of the show are the feelings of camaraderie I get when I go to Interbike. The bike industry’s filled with great people and I love being a part of it.
Chip Smith
President
SOAR Communications
Comments
7 Responses to “Interbike and Camaraderie”
The first Interbike I attended was in Philadelphia just after Lance’s diagnosis with cancer. I was working at a shop in Connecticut at the time. I signed that big card, too. I remember seeing it in the background of a photo of Lance in his office in a magazine shortly after that and feeling like a part of the bike industry community for the first time.
I wonder if he still has that card?
My Memorable Interbike Experience
About 17 years ago I attended my first Interbike in Reno. I was embarking on a nonprofit venture called Trips for Kids, a mountain biking program for inner city youth. I needed bikes but did not know where to go for donations or how to raise money to buy them. Someone suggested I check out Interbike. Although I decided to go, I was skeptical that I would have any luck. It was the first bike show I had attended and I was in awe at the number of booths and people that filled the convention center. Armed with a single piece of paper explaining my dreams to start a program, I was nervous about approaching anyone with my request. Incredibly, the first four manufacturers I approached were extremely receptive and almost offered me bikes on the spot. When I returned to the Bay Area I followed up with some phone calls. Dave Staub, who at the time worked for Schwinn, was the first to come through with 15 bikes and our program was off and running!
Since then, Trips for Kids has grown into a nationwide program with 45 chapters serving over 5,400 kids each year. During these years we have had the support of hundreds of companies in the bicycle industry who donate new items for our rides and outdated or overstocked items for our Re-Cyclery Bike Thrift Shop.
Each year I return to Interbike to personally thank our donors and ask for their continued support. But I will never forget my first Interbike and how amazed I was that the first four companies I approached offered to help. I love cycling, I love Interbike, and I love the bicycle industry for being so kind to us.
Marilyn Price
Director Trips for Kids
Most memorable for me has to be the Interbike event we had just 18 days after 911. We really did not know what to do immediately after that tragic day. Shimano American was instrumental in speaking with the nation’s retailers about whether the event should go on. We spoke to dozens and dozens of manufacturers and suppliers. In the end an overwhelming majority said the show must go on. I remember standing at the base of the elevator in Treasure Island at 6AM waiting to see if people were leaving for the OutDoor Demo, just to assure we made the right choice. When the show was over I was told repeatedly it was the best show to date and we received countless thanks from city officials, Vegas retail establishments and the convention center itself for having the guts to be the first back. I told them it had little to do with guts and everything to do with listening to the industry at large. It was a strange time….but very rewarding and gratifying.
Awesome story Lance. Thank you for sharing that.
I wish I had just one story about Interbike, but it is such a wonderful event for me (as I mentioned in an editorial I wrote in BR&IN before the show last year). I have loved Interbike since the very first one I attended in the early 90’s. I’ve been in the industry since I was 12 years old, but I never got the chance to go until much later, after I’d heard all the stories about the show- the products, the people, the parties, etc. By the time I got to the show for the first time, I was totally overwhelmed and over stimulated. Kind of like a kid in a candy store for the first time. I was only there for the day, in Anaheim, and was so bummed out when the show ended that day- loitering in the booths until I was finally told I had to leave. I was working in a small shop in San Diego at that time, so we only drove up for the day and then drove home. Unlike my coworkers, who’d already been to a few shows, I loaded up with every conceivable catalog, sticker and item of schwag I could possibly get my fingers on. I was probably carrying 40 pounds of crap around by the end of the day. I was in heaven.
Now I’m with my third company in the industry, as an exhibitor, and living out a dream as the Brand Manager of Masi Bicycles (yeah, you can read my blog for more details). I think this will be just my 8th Interbike as an exhibitor, combined with another 4 as a retailer, and I’m still just as excited. Last year, I got probably my 4th autograph from Eddy Merckx and still got lightheaded and sweaty when it was my turn. “Hi Eddy.” was all I could think to say. Again.
Interbike is the chance of a lifetime for a bike nerd like me to see people and products I’d never otherwise get to. How often am I going to get the chance to talk to Merckx, Tomac, Ritchey, Landis, Hamilton, Backstedt, Petachi, Fisher, Roll. So on and so on? How often will I get the chance to stare at bikes that I will never afford or ever touch? How often will Marco Pantani’s bike be right in front of me? Only Interbike provides that for me. Plus, and this is the biggest and bestest part; how often do I get to have a face to face conversation with my customers from all over the country in the span of a week? The show is such a wonderful social event, on top of the business opportunities that exist. Meetings with old and potential vendors. Conversations with friends and retailers. Meeting new friends and retailers. Interbike is great! Sure, the stress of getting there and set up and then standing for 10 hours a day and then tearing down and all of that can be a bit wearing on the body and mind, but it is so worth it to me.
Now, I hope to be able to blog from the booth and conduct some interviews for podcasting and possibly even a bit of video. This year will otherwise be like all the others; a great time.
Thank you for starting the blog. I hope that it proves to be a great success and I will be checking it every day to see what is new!
[...] This last year, on the last day, I ran into Tim who happened to be doing the same thing – 2 bike lovers looking at lots of great bike stuff. 2 kids in the proverbial candy store. He just posted a nice a comment on this blog about his experiences at IB. I recognized him from a BRAIN article about his new (at that time) blog. I introduced myself and then we walked the aisles and talked bike stuff for about an hour. The only specific topic I remember talking about was sloping road bike geometry. Other than the fit issues for a 6′3″ rider like myself, I said that I thought sloping bikes just looked slow compared to the level top tubes on “traditional” road bikes. Tim, from his perspective as product manager of an important brand of road bikes, was a little more thoughtful in his discussion of the issue. Whatever the outcome of that debate, it was a great hour spent talking bikes in the biggest bike shop in the world. Tim even generously gave me a Masi logo’d espresso cup when we ended up back at the Masi booth. Now that’s a cool piece of schwag. [...]
I have a few memorable moments to share from Interbike, not including the time Lance Camisasca almost stepped on a rattlesnake at Outdoor Demo (about 6 months after he almost ran into a bear with a golf cart — with me in the passenger seat).
My first “fond” memory was my first Interbike as publisher of Bicycling Magazine. I was verbally pummelled in my first 3 meetings (YOU GUYS KNOW WHO YOU ARE !!!). I guess it was a way of roughing up the new person in the industry, since I’m friends with those guys now. But after a morning of onslaught from people I’d never met before, I went back to our booth and there was a note waiting for me from Felix Magowan of Velo News — supposedly our competitor. At that point, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been a death threat. But the note was a very nice one, welcoming me to the bike industry and saying that Felix would stop by again to introduce himself — which he did. I was able to take a deep breath and know that every meeting wasn’t going to be like the first 3. You never know when something nice will really help someone out. In this case, it really came at the right time. So I’ll never forget that.
The second memory was the first Interbike I went to as part of the Interbike team (as Advocacy Director). I couldn’t believe how hard these people on the Interbike team worked, and how much work went on behind the scenes, putting on a Show. It immediately made me feel guilty for any times when I had given the Interbike staff a hard time. Despite long hours, it’s fun working the shows.
One final positive (and repeated) moment is any time Gary Sjoquist brings me a Diet Coke at the Show. I’d like to stay in the industry as long as possible, unless the convention centers start serving the wrong diet soda.