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Interbike announces move to Reno-Tahoe for 2018, Outdoor demo heads to Northstar Resort

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Interbike has a new home for 2018, and for a number of retailers and exhibitors it will feel a bit familiar. Today, Interbike announced the destination of their highly anticipated move – Reno, NV. While the show itself will be held at the Reno-Sparks Convention center, the Outdoor demo (and Consumer Demo) will be held near Lake Tahoe at Northstar Resort. For the past two years, Quality Bicycle Products has held their own mini trade show at Northstar, SaddleDrive, which is ironically where I’m headed home from as we speak.

According to Interbike, the week long festival will kick off Saturday, September 15th with the “Interbike Marketweek 2018 experience.” A two day consumer demo and festival will continue into Sunday the 16th, transitioning to an industry only Outdoor Demo at 2pm. Outdoor Demo then continues Monday the 17th, with gondola access for attendees. From there, the show moves about 45 minutes North East, to the Reno-Sparks Convention Center and will conclude after three days of trade show on Thursday the 20th at 4pm.

Interbike claims the move results in lower cost for exhibitors, a better experience for show-goers and consumers, and better weather and scenery than Las Vegas. Will this be the change Interbike needs to survive? Time will tell…

From Interbike:

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif.August 3, 2017 – America’s leading cycling trade show – Interbike – is pleased to announce it has selected Reno-Tahoe as the new home for the Interbike trade show and the site of the newly-created Interbike Marketweek.  Interbike Marketweek will begin with a weekend consumer festival at epic Northstar California Resort, will segue into the trade-focused OutDoor Demo, also at Northstar, and transition to the Interbike trade show at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center beginning in 2018 and continuing through 2022.

“We’re extremely excited about this move for a multitude of reasons,” said Pat Hus, Vice President of Interbike. “For the first time in a very long time, we’ve been able to hit the reset button on Interbike and OutDoor Demo and give the industry something new and fresh that we couldn’t do in our previous locations. With the support and investment from the city of Reno we are going to be able to truly create a one-of-a-kind, week-long celebration and experience around cycling. We also recognize that this is a critical time in our industry and that we need to provide a more cost-effective approach to exhibiting at the show, and we are now able to provide that.”

Interbike, which is part of Emerald Expositions, remains at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in 2017 with the OutDoor Demo in Boulder City, NV.

“Las Vegas has been a great home and we appreciate their partnership over the years,” said Hus.  “However, Reno-Tahoe gives us an unmatched blend of world-class venue for a consumer festival and the OutDoor Demo, state of the art convention center, fantastic hotel choices, robust nightlife and a more intimate environment of welcome and celebration. Cycling will be the center of attention for the Reno-Tahoe area for the entire week. The Reno-Tahoe experience will be personable, affordable and picturesque for all attendees.”

Interbike Marketweek 2018: New Format, Days, Times
The Interbike Marketweek 2018 experience will begin with a consumer festival on Saturday, September 15th, at the Northstar California Resort, located near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Northstar is home to Northern California’s largest bike park with countless downhill runs, cross country trails and is accessible by gondola and chair lifts, offering an epic experience for consumers to test products from the most innovative brands in the bicycle industry. The area also boasts some of the most inspiring road rides in the world and has played host to a number of major events including the Tour of California. Racing, music, craft beer and more are planned for the two-day festival. The consumer demo will continue Sunday, September 16th through mid-day, but will transition to OutDoor Demo that afternoon and will be open only to the trade after 2 pm. OutDoor Demo will continue Monday, September 17th and will run from 8 am to 6 pm with free gondola access to all attendees.

Interbike Trade Show Opens Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Following the demo experience, the Interbike International Trade Show will take place from Tuesday, September 18th through Thursday September 20th at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center (RSCC) just south of downtown Reno. The new Tuesday through Thursday format will allow retailers and exhibitors to travel home in time for the weekend. Expo hours on Tuesday and Wednesday will be 10 am-6 pm, with Thursday being 10 am-4 pm.

The new hours will allow attendees to take part in educational content before the show opens, lessening conflict with valuable time on the show floor. Interbike will be making significant additional investments in education both in morning sessions and on the trade show floor itself.  All meeting room space is adjacent to the main halls which will make participation even easier.

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23 Comments
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mudrock
mudrock
6 years ago

Flying to Reno will be a b*tch compared to Vegas, and cost more. What’s more important to IB: nicer environment or attendance by the shops? Not a good move.

James.
James.
6 years ago
Reply to  mudrock

You can fly to Sacramento, SFO, Oakland or Reno with relative ease. There will always be complaints, and more so from bike shops (did you know the internet is a thing where people make purchases????). They hate Vegas for being Vegas, and already Reno is a problem because flights are more expensive. Have you even priced it out yet? Even if it costs the same when you pay less for lodging and food, you get to ride in a better place and not be in Vegas.

Either way, +1 for being the first person to complain.

Chase
Chase
6 years ago
Reply to  mudrock

Have you been to the outdoor demo recently? The amount of bike companies pulling out of the demo last year was crazy. All because Vegas charges those companies ten’s of thousands of dollars to set up a tent on a gravel lot on top of their indoor booth. It’s about the bigger picture, if companies can’t afford to have a booth then who would come anyway? Make the attendees spend an extra hundred or two on flights, and save hundreds of thousands on expo rental space??? Seems logical to me. Oh, and North Star will blow away Boulder City.

Other Aaron
Other Aaron
6 years ago

Really excited about this, It is a reasonable trip for me, and I can talk my family into taking a “vacation” to tahoe pretty easily

Greg
Greg
6 years ago

the fact that you were leaving there is coincidental, not ironic.

Matt
Matt
6 years ago
Reply to  Greg

Greg: fun at parties.

Seraph
Seraph
6 years ago

Hmm, only a 26-hour bike ride from me to Reno…might have to arrange that.

comrad
comrad
6 years ago

Stoked for this. I feel like myself and many other bikers would rather hang out in beautiful Reno than slimey Vegas

bikereplife
bikereplife
6 years ago

If one can not afford to spend 2-3K every other year on Interbike as an investment into their business, then they should strongly consider closing their doors. And if you are are rep who is b*tching about this, then please move along and quit, there are plenty of other reps who want your lines!

I have flown from BOS to LAS and stayed at the Luxor or Mandalay Bay, had dinner and drinks (several drinks) every year for the past 3 years and never spent more than $1300 each year.

Interbike, like college, is an investment in your future.

lop
lop
6 years ago
Reply to  bikereplife

Oh god, that was the most annoying thing I’ve read all day.

Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
6 years ago
Reply to  lop

Typical. Sales rep=snake oil salesman. Perfect occasion to queue up The Outlaw Josey Wales spitting on the suit during the ferry crossing.

Best Interbike sales rep instance was when Unnamed Big Co. hired an outside rep group one year and had them get spray on bike tan lines to “fit in”. That was really special.

TheKaiser
6 years ago

OK, now you really have to name the “Unnamed Big Co.”. That is the most outrageously funny thing I have heard in a while.

dontcoast
dontcoast
6 years ago
Reply to  bikereplife

Think of all the other things you could spend that money on. Not to mention you aren’t factoring in booth space and yadda yadda.

Probably close more sales spending that on a facebook ad campaign or some SEO (or just drivin’ around) than interbike the way attendance has been going TBH

Maxx
Maxx
6 years ago

Been to Interbike twice. Been to Reno on an extended business trip too.

I’m not so sure about the direction which Interbike is moving on this though. It seems to be looking inward as convention rather than international. Vegas is really a whole lot more convenient to fly into then Reno. There isn’t too much of a difference when flying into Reno within the States. But its a big difference when flying into the city internationally.

There are plenty of direct international connections into Vegas from Asia side or from Europe. There’s practically zero to Reno. Except maybe if you’re flying in from Canada. If you have traveled internationally into the US, you won’t like the idea of transitioning from a flight hub to get to Reno. I certainly didn’t when I had to do it via LAX.

If I were to have a say, would think doing it in a city that’s more internationally friendly would be better for Interbike’s long term international growth. A city that’s both an international flight hub as well as great place to demo bikes. Not too familiar with the convention center support/costs scene so, if that’s not considered, would think somewhere like Seattle or Denver might be more attractive for international visitors. Maybe even San Frans if a suitable convention place may be found , again not considering costs.

Woody
Woody
6 years ago

This show was already dead. A change of venue won’t save it.

Larry Falk
Larry Falk
6 years ago

People should remember that Eurobike does very well in Friedricshafen, a place much more limited than Reno (except for the train, which is a big difference).
http://www.messe-friedrichshafen.com/mfn-en/location/travel.php

Woody
Woody
6 years ago
Reply to  Larry Falk

But Eurobike steadily draws more people year-on-year. Interbike has been tracking the opposite way for a while now

messy
messy
6 years ago

@Chase said: “All because Vegas charges those companies ten’s of thousands of dollars to set up a tent on a gravel lot on top of their indoor booth.”

Not disagreeing, but the underlying issue has/had more to do with inflated costs due to unions that dominate the various trades in Vegas. When I was involved with a small company that exhibited at both the indoor and outdoor demos, we had to use union laborers to setup awnings at the outdoor venue as well as to unload/load our materials from our truck. While I understand the need for professionals, we had to hire one a licensed, union electrician, that billed at a very expensive flat rate with 1-hour minimum, simply to run/plug in an extension cord into an electrical outlet behind our booth!

dontcoast
dontcoast
6 years ago
Reply to  messy

Preposterous. Unions are hurting themselves and their workers by positioning themselves as blackmailing scammers instead of leveraging solidarity to protect workers and improve work/living conditions.

I say this as someone who appreciates the concept and history of unions tremendously.

If people associate unions with being ripped off like that instead of bringing us the 8h workday, there not much hope for them.

MikeFranke67
MikeFranke67
6 years ago
Reply to  messy

Full Disclosure; I’m in an unrelated, but similar, field.

As a regular at SEMA in Las Vegas, I can attest to the union labor costs being a factor.

The union costs have been the #1 factor in our decision to continue to downsize our booth at what is arguably the largest expo on my industry. I track those costs, and over the last ten years, the only cost that has steadily increased, at this particular event, has been the subcontracted union labor. You might be surprised to learn that lodging, travel and food costs have actually decreased for us since 2005, when we first started to display there.

And, although nobody likes talking about it, we actually budget $500 per year for a ‘gift’ budget, and that is cash money that gets palmed into union workers’ hands to get further forward in line for booth setup and removal. It’s either that, or I have people sitting in the booth until well into the night on teardown day. It’s cheaper to just bribe the workers, right or wrong.

Just as a comparison, we also display at the (similar to our industry), PRI show in Indianapolis about a month afterward, and the convention center, like that in Reno, is non-union, and those costs have actually decreased.

sal
sal
6 years ago

It’s not apples-to-apples to compare Unions in general with the Vegas type of Union. Corruption and graft can happen anywhere, but they flourish in certain areas for certain reasons…

BrianJRA
BrianJRA
6 years ago

I don’t mind paying extra to not have to go to Las Vegas. I stopped going as a result of my disdain for that location. I hope more bike companies will start attending again. I’m looking forward to going, for once.

CMG
CMG
6 years ago

Interbike sent out a survey, to ask it’s customers what it wanted, im sure their responses were like this comment list-a mixed bag. They can’t win haha.
Personally glad it’s out of Vegas, might actually bring our brand back there.

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