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Sep
17
CrossVegas Start Lists
Filed Under Attendee News, Cycling, Events, Exhibitor News, Interbike, Racing | 6 Comments
Back from the Denver trip so I can focus on Interbike now (like the rest for the bike industry). Just had a nice chat with the guys at CrossVegas wrapping up a few loose ends. Also asked about who we could expect to see racing this year. I was mostly interested in the industry “Wheelers and Dealers” race, but there have been some rumors online about some other guy who might need to put some competitive miles in his legs between now and next summer possibly showing up. Looks like talks have taken place, but he’s got a busy schedule so it’s still up in the air.
Regardless, you should take a peak at the start list for the industry race that was recently posted here. There are some strong names in there. A few notable racers stand out to me: Dave Lawrence of Shimano (actually, Shimano has a pretty big representation in this race), Thomas Prehn of Cateye and Boulder Sports Research, Gary Erickson the founder of Clif Bar, and Andrew Juskaitis of Giant. Mark McCormack of Fuji is definitely no slouch when it come to cross and if it’s the same John McKone (of Northwave) that I think he is, I raced with him briefly way back in the day on the old Smarfuel-GMBC team and he’s a fast and tough masters racer. And, finally, you’ve got to love anyone that signs himself up as “Mike “The Hebrew Hammer” Weis” from team Michelob Ultra/Big Shark racing. Though with that name, the team should really be sponsored by these guys (yes it’s for real – and tasty). L’Chaim!
Should be an awesome race to watch and a great party to boot. Look for the free shuttles from the Sands on Wednesday.
Sep
15
Twitter Redux and Email Outage
Filed Under Attendee News, Events, Exhibitor News, Interbike | 2 Comments
So it looks like the news about our Twitter feed for Interbike event updates and news hit the BRAIN newswire this morning. I’m curious to see the industry’s reaction and willingness to give it a try. Twitter’s got a silly name and won’t be the answer to war and hinger in the world, but I have found it to be a really easy way to stay in touch with people.
If you get enough people Twittering at an event like Interbike, you can get a really interesting view on how people spend theie time at the show and learn about stuff that’s going on that’s not necessarily on the calendars. It’s been huge at tech industry events like South By Southwest.
But, as with everything new, there are the detractors. Now, I don’t think I’m forcing this Twitter thing on anyone, am I? Heck, it’s why I chose the platform in the first place to help people stay on top of what’s going on at the show – it’s free, totally opt-in and you can turn it off anytime. Some people see this as another intrusion of technology in their lives and would prefer to tune out. I see it as another way to easily connect with and communicate with my peers in the bike industry during our biggest gathering. And beyond. I’m hoping that people will enjoy the experience and the new online community that we created will be a positive thing for industry. Who knows. Just have with and let’s see what happens. I’ll post a list of some notable bike industry Twitters to add to your list shortly.
On a totally separate note, if you’ve been trying to email anyone at IB (or anyone at our offices in San Juan Capistrano) over the weekend or this morning, don’t hold your breath for a reply. I don’t have details since I’m in Denver for our FlyFishing Retailer Expo and it’s early on Monday morning, but it appears that our email servers are down and the web servers have been spotty – possibly as a result of hurricane activity. Can’t wait till the home office opens so I can call to find out what’s up. All I can say is be patient if you’re waiting for an email from us.
Sep
10
Interbike 2008 News & Updates Via Twitter
Filed Under Attendee News, Blogging, Events, Exhibitor News, Interbike | 4 Comments
So, do you Twitter?
Without going too deep into an explanation of the Twitter concept, it’s basically like a group instant messaging system. Once you have your Twitter account set up, you select the people whose posts (“Tweets”) you chose to follow. Others will do the same and some will even choose to follow your stream of tweets. Each time you post in the system, each of your “followers” will receive it in their Twitter home page. Likewise, your home page will show all the posts from the people you have chosen to follow. Simple, no?
Twitter suggests that you answer the question “What are you doing?” as the topic of your tweets, but as long as it fits within the 140 character limit that they impose on each posting, anything goes. One of the basic ideas of Twitter’s micro-blogging platform is to give people a better insight into your day to day life – things that may not appear in a more profound blog posting. (You do blog, don’t you?) Take a look at Common Craft’s “Twitter in Plain English” for a simple overview of Twitter.
Twitter is another in the line of social media technologies that provide a way for people to connect and stay in touch with what others are up to. That last item is where this post comes into play. I’m not here to evangelize Twitter, but it has allowed us to do something that we’ve tried to set up in the past through cell phone text messaging: For 2008, we will be using Twitter to send out Interbike 2008 event reminders, updates and news throughout the show. The reason we’re using Twitter? 1. It’s free for you and us, 2. you can sign up to receive tweets on your cell phone, 3. you won’t be giving us your cell phone number and 4. it’s fun.
Here’s the plan. We have set up a Twitter account called Interbike2008. If you don’t already have a Twitter account, go create one for free. Once you’re set up, search for “interbike2008″ or visit twitter.com/interbike2008 and click on the “Follow” button. That’s it. Oh, you can also set up your account to work with your cell phone so that you can receive tweets on your phone via SMS text messages. If you have an iPhone, you can just access it through Safari or any of the new Twitter apps that are out there. As a matter of fact, you really don’t even need to sign up for an account to read the updates.
For those of you that I Twitter with already under the “Interbike” username, why create a new separate account? Well, after talking it over with fellow Twitterer David from our PR firm, we felt it would be useful to keep the current voice of Interbike as me. For updates and news, that will come from the new account.
I’m really looking forward to participating in and reading the conversations that will go on during the show and I’ll use my current account to do that. I saw a few of these exchanges at our recent Outdoor Retailer show and we should see much more from the more connected and early-adopting bike industry. Twitter has become a very popular way for show attendees to communicate onsite at events in the tech industry. If enough of you choose to sign up for this, we might actually even end up with a nice little community online that will all be in touch post show, as well. Good for the industry, right?
Who else from the industry is on Twitter? You can take a look at the list of people I’m following on my Twitter page for a small idea. I’ve tried to limit the accounts that I follow to those related to the bike industry in some way. You’ll recognize a bunch of familiar names and logos there. VeloNews tweets news items. Pro teams Slipstream, Rock Racing and Type 1 post race updates. Jonathan Vaughters was even twittering from the team car at the Tour this summer. Obviously, the industry’s vibrant blogging community is active online. Talk of Lance’s comeback has been the topic of many posts over the last couple of days.
Give it a try – at the very least you’ll be able to stay on top of the events that are going on and know about any changes or updates during the show – whether you’re in Vegas or not.
Sep
9
Companies Still Avoiding Social Media Despite Benefits
Filed Under Attendee News, Blogging, Deep Thoughts, Events, Exhibitor News, Industry News, Interbike | 14 Comments
Courtesy of a Basecamp Communications Twitter post this morning, is this interesting article on a survey that was just released on the level of adoption of social media in the corporate world despite the documented benefits that it can provide a company (and its inevitable infiltration regardless of company policy).
The article is super timely since I’ve been working on our new seminar series at this year’s show that will focus on Web 2.0 and Social media for the bike industry. Actually had a great conference call (old-school, I know) yesterday with about half the panelists to get the conversation going (Mike Geraci from Basecamp is one of them, btw). This is going to be a great panel for everyone to attend whether you you think you know all about social media or whether you don’t know that you don’t know.
That last line is key, as we were discussing on the call yesterday: those that don’t know that they don’t know. I think that most us who have been using social media tools for their or their clients’ businesses for some time have seen what it can do whether it’s been a branding exercise, a customer service tool or has added new sales. Many, though, have had challenges in pitching social media to upper management as an important part of the official marketing strategy. Most companies in this day and age have a social media evangelist who “gets it” on the payroll. Maybe they’ve even launched some social media efforts on their own for the company – it’s “invading the workplace by stealth” as the article linked above describes it. Companies need to develop their social media strategies and how they fit into their company’s mission – and employees that get it need tools to help explain it and sell it to their management that may not. The article goes on to mention the ever present technological generation gap and how the next generation will be bringing social media with it to the workplace in a big way – regardless of how ready the company is.
Speaking of social media evangelists, long-time bike industry executive and consultant Rick Vosper, who will be on one of the panels, said he thinks they can be some of the best investments a company can make. I agree.
I’m going to be posting a complete list of the panelists in the next day or two, but they’re all accomplished members of the bike industry or of the social media world. I’m really excited to be working with all these great people and can’t wait to sit in on the talks. I’m really proud that Interbike, with the support of sponsors Sportgenic and our Nielsen BuzzMetrics colleagues, will be able to provide education on such a high tech and timely topic such as this. We’ve also got a survey out to the industry currently looking find out about the online and social media habits of the bike industry and will be presenting the results at the seminars.
The bike community at large has a truly large and vibrant online presence. The industry itself could use a little help in catching up. The seminars will be at 2:30 p.m on Wednesday Sept 24 and Thursday the 25th in Casanova room 601.
Going back to the original topic of the article that I mentioned at the top, how many of your companies have formal social media strategies or policies in place? Is your company’s social media presence by way of the “stealth” mode?