Outdoor Retailer will leave Utah (but it will take time)
17/02/2017
Prominent exhibitors, including Patagonia, Arc’teryx and Polartec have formally announced that they will not return to the show while it is held at its long-standing venue, Salt Lake City. The move is in protest against a change Utah’s governor, Gary Herbert, wants to make to the status of public lands, popular with walkers, climbers, campers, cyclists and other outdoor enthusiasts, in the south of the state.
On February 6, officials from Outdoor Retailer, the Outdoor Industry Association, Patagonia, The North Face and REI held a conference call with Governor Herbert but no solution emerged from it. Event organiser, Emerald Expositions, said after the call: “Outdoor Retailer will not include the state of Utah in the request-for-proposal process for future show locations.”
Show director, Marisa Nicholson, commented: “We are doing the work necessary to procure an alternative location for Outdoor Retailer. Though we may wish it different, this is far from a snap-of-the-fingers thing to make happen. Convention centres and hotels are not sitting idle. In every instance, at every potential venue, there are hurdles that have to be cleared and that simply cannot be done overnight. We expect that our current proposal process, which we initiated before any of the company withdrawal announcements last week, will take between 60 and 90 days. Salt Lake City has been hospitable to Outdoor Retailer and our industry for the past 20 years, but we are in lockstep with the outdoor community and are working on finding our new home.”
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