How to Make the Most of Your Time at Outdoor Retailer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year—Outdoor Retailer Winter Market! The Wasatch is covered in a blanket of snow, the attendees are sporting knit hats and plaid shirts, and all the newest winter gear is on display.
Whether this will be your first or your fifth #ORshow, it can all get a bit overwhelming. Luckily, we’ve come up with a cheat sheet to help you make the most of your week.
Schedule Meetings in Advance
Start conversations with the companies you’d like to speak to a few months before the show. It can be as casual as a tweet or as formal as an email. As the show gets closer, reach out again to plan an actual meeting. If you missed this step, don’t worry! You can usually drop by their booth or bump into reps on the showroom floor.
Read the OR Daily
Flip through the magazine you find inside (not outside) Salt Palace every morning to see what events, sales, and freebies are happening that day. You can also download the Outdoor Retailer app for push notifications regarding upcoming events.
Greg Witt showing some of his favorite trails
Map It Out
Take a few moments at the beginning of the week to sit with the exhibitor list and map and plot your course through the showroom. Speaking from experience, it’s easy to get turned around or lost in the rows and rows of tantalizing booths. And wear comfortable shoes—it’s not uncommon to log 5-10 miles walking everywhere!
Follow the Hashtag
Social stalking #ORshow on Twitter and Instagram can quickly show you the coolest booths and new products to check out. A lot of brands will post giveaways and sales on their social profiles too. Plus, you can use the hashtag yourself to…
Make Friends
Strike up conversations, offer to meet people at happy hours, attend parties—the show is way less intimidating with familiar faces.
Snowshoeing in Big Cottonwood Canyon
Will you be at OR next week? Stop by and visit Wilderness Press at booth #32058!
