Next year marks the OutDoor trade fair’s 25th anniversary. Messe Friedrichshafen is celebrating with a Retail First Initiative – new measures to support outdoor retailers and the industry. The 25th European outdoor trade show takes place in Friedrichshafen from 17 to 20 June 2018.

The new Retail First Initiative places outdoor retail right at the heart of the show’s overall concept. Programme content, accreditation and tickets and accommodation have all been overhauled to allow retailers to benefit from a number of advantages during their visit to the OutDoor show, including the popular ERIBA City caravans directly on the showground and just a short distance from the halls.

Strengthening links with retailers

In future, the OutDoor team is reserving a large number of caravans exclusively for retailers and their employees, which can also be booked for one night only. “We’ve expanded the ERIBA City to offer more affordable accommodation that fits the outdoor atmosphere. And we’re giving retailers first priority,” explained Stefan Reisinger, Head of OutDoor.

The show’s outdoor visitor invitation system and entry prices are also being revamped. “By inviting specialist retailers centrally via the OutDoor team, we plan to strengthen links to our most important group of customers and encourage attendance by directly offering free tickets specifically to individual retailers. In addition, we will be adjusting prices upwards for all other trade visitors outside of this core target audience,”commented Stefan Reisinger, while outlining the new approach.

Improving programme

In future, the OutDoor intends to further improve its programme of content for retailers. For example, the new OutDoor Plus themes – Lifestyle Collection, HangOut, Water Sports and Running, which all proved very popular in 2017. Messe Friedrichshafen is going to extend these areas and provide more in-depth information in 2018.

“We want to go deeper and further explore each of these OutDoor Plus segments to offer visitors significant additional added benefit and value, on top of their core outdoor business,” said OutDoor Project Manager, Dirk Heidrich commenting on next year’s objectives.

The running sector in particular is developing fast. At the last OutDoor fair in June 2017, the Run&Trail Summit proved very popular with industry experts. Taking up the baton for next year, the OutDoor team plans to build on this success to offer a wider range of running-related events and workshops.

With its OutDoor Plus themes, OutDoor 2017 once again attracted over 21,000 visitors from 90 countries and was well received by customers. The new June show date – one month earlier – met with widespread approval and provided a solid platform for the coming business year. “Together with our partner, the EOG, we adopted the right course and plan to continue to follow this successfully,” stressed Klaus Wellmann, CEO Messe Friedrichshafen, looking forward to OutDoor 2018.

Right direction

In addition, the European Outdoor Group (EOG), the trade show’s partner is convinced that the trade fair is heading in the right direction and covering the right topics for its visitors. General Secretary, Mark Held, feels that the OutDoor offers a lot of great content for the industry and that the 2018 edition of the fair must continue to build on this. “We really liked the creative addition of these new events and attractions during the show,” he commented, while summing up the event.

The OutDoor’s tried and tested programme highlights also continue to go down well: The OutDoor Industry Award once again demonstrated the high level of innovation among outdoor companies, the OutDoor Conferences with top international speakers were well attended, and will be extended for OutDoor 2018 to include the latest trends and issues.

Meanwhile, training events, from tours for trainees, meet-and-greet tours for bloggers, to microadventure experiences around Lake Constance got an enthusiastic reception and will continue to remain on offer in 2018, according to organisers.

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