plum spent the last few days in Salt Lake City at Outdoor
Retailer Winter Market. Three days
of meetings, events, seminars, and a few hours of strolling the floor checking
out product.
Some highlights from our time in SLC:
The OIWC Executive Roundtable
This is an invite only luncheon involving top level women
within the Outdoor Industry. plum’s very own Betsy, Chair of the OIWC’s
professional development committee, organized the event sponsored by W.L.
Gore. Moderated by leadership
guru, Pollyanna Pixton, the topic was collaborative leadership and creating a
culture of trust in your organization. Click here to learn more about
Pollyanna.
Sharon Leicham’s Merchandising Tour
That’s right! We walked the floor with THE merchandising
maven herself! The tours are designed to help retailers improve in-store flow
and increase profitability with fall/winter product lines. You are probably
wondering why we would be interested in this, since we don’t have retail stores.
You are right – we are recruiters and probably won’t have a retail shop ever!
But, guess what, we recruit merchandisers. We recruit in-store marketing and
consumer experience designers all the time. It is always great to learn from
the best on why some concepts work, and why others fail. For instance, Sharon loved how
Columbia Sportswear created a ‘winter feel’ with the use of blue lighting. Yet, Sorel had blue light directed on
product – which made a certain display of boots all look blue. She said, “Be
aware that light can change the color of product.”
Meeting The GearCaster
Do you read this product blog – www.thegearcaster.com?
It
is dedicated to profiling emerging companies and technologies in the outdoor
sports industry. And we were lucky enough to walk the floor with Amy Jurries to
hear what she thought was cool and innovative. Amy introduced us to the team at
Klymit. The Klymit technology allows users to adjust the amount of insulation
in their product at the touch of a button. Klymit is applying its technology to
a number of different products ranging from ski jackets and boots to military
uniforms and camping equipment. Totally innovative, and we want their
vests…STAT!
Bowling in the Big Lebowski Bowl-A-Rama sponsored by
Ex-Officio and Manzella
On lucky lane #13, plum’s team “Split Ends” rolled next
to team Manzella and HaikuBag’s “Gutter Gals.” plum’s team consisted of Lori
and Betsy, and two strike queens – Julie Harris, aka Wanda, from REI; and Tina Lassen, aka T-Bird, a copy/business/article/"you name it" writer based out of Hood River, Oregon.
We were in disbelief when we ranked in
the top four teams and got to roll a second game! While our team didn’t win the grand prize, finishing 2nd
felt great. We had fun, and all
proceeds benefited the Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition.
OIWC’s Gathering and Awards Ceremony
This event is one of our favorites at the
tradeshows. We get to see old
friends and make new friends.
Kelly Blake, Account Director at OutsidePR, can always make us
laugh. This time, Kelly presented
her co-worker Devon Sibole, with the OIWC First Ascent Award. The Pioneering
Woman Award was presented to Wink Jackson of Zeal Optics. Wink was nominated by
Angie Hassan, who just so happens to be a First Ascent winner from 2008.
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