Interbike Cancels 2019 Event

I am not sure how I missed the news of Emerald Expositions canceling Interbike 2019, but in December 2018 the owners of Interbike canceled their upcoming 2019 Interbike show. This came as a bit of a shocker.

Interbike Cancels Show

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. – December 6, 2018 – Interbike owner, Emerald Expositions, announced today that the Interbike tradeshow will not take place in September 2019 in Reno as previously scheduled. Instead, the company will research alternative plans for 2020 and beyond, including the opportunity to launch events featuring bicycling and bike-related components within or alongside its various successful, multi-sport trade show franchises.

“The past four years have been difficult for the U.S. bicycle market,” said Darrell Denny, Executive Vice President of Emerald Expositions’ Sports Group. “The substantial increase in tariffs on bike related imports during 2018, and announced for 2019, is compounding these challenges. As a result, we are rethinking how to best serve the cycling industry and will conduct a review of the possible timing, locations and formats with dealers, brands, distributors, reps, designers and media over the coming months. Our goal is to develop and deliver thoughtful solutions which provide strong returns on investment for all industry participants.”

As a result of this decision, Justin Gottlieb, Show Director, Andria Klinger, Sales Director, Andy Buckner, Art Director and Jack Morrissey, Marketing Manager, will be leaving the company, effective December 31, 2018.

“Justin, Andria, Andy, and Jack have dedicated themselves to the cycling space and worked long and hard,” Denny said. “We will miss them greatly and wish them the best on their future endeavors.”

Interbike 1982 – 2018

Interbike has been around since I was in high school (1982 – 2018) and always had a mystic feeling about it and seemed bigger than life. In the late 80’s early 90’s Interbike was one of those shows that every bike geek wanted to go, that is if you could get in. The friends that I knew who went, usually got there because they were affiliated with a bike shop, tri-shop or cycling-specific sports brand.

Interbike Las Vegas Nevada

Fast Forward to 2017 and I finally made it to Interbike 2017 going as a media representative of GearMashers.com. It represented one of my bucket list items that could now be checked. It’s a little-known secret that media, even people who own websites, usually can attend these type of events for free, well minus the airfare, food and lodging costs.

Interbike Moves To Reno

For the 2018 Interbike, the folks behind Interbike switched venues and moved the event from Vegas to Reno, Nevada. While this new location was very convenient once there, it proved to be problematic for those traveling from the East. With its small airport and limited flights most people couldn’t arrange direct flights, so they would waste almost a day traveling.

I thought that when Reno had been announced as the new venue location, it was a mistake. Having the event in a location like Denver with an International airport would have made much more sense and probably upped the attendance.

Network and Socialize

When I attended Interbike in 2018 it really became apparent that Interbike wasn’t just an event to showcase new products, it was also an event to really network and socialize among bike industry experts.

I met so many people at the event that were affiliated with brands I wanted to showcase including Pearl Izumi, Wahoo, Tacx (Soon To be Garmin), Kuat, various apparel brands and on and on.

I also met some very cool industry leaders on the social media side including Ray Maker (DC Rainmaker) and Shane Miller.

Improve My Craft

When attending shows like Interbike, it’s always a learning experience to improve your craft as a media source.

At last year’s Interbike, I certainly didn’t take enough B-Roll and was hoping that at 2019’s Interbike I could have made improvements.

With each new venue, you spend a lot of time trying to figure out where everything is. For 2019 I was looking forward to going back to Reno because I knew the layout and it would have been much easier to figure out where I needed to go.