This article in Bike Europe about Interbike 2007 has some interesting tidbits about the show and the future of Interbike:
- Attendance: 22,515 unique badge-holders, of whom 11,054 were buyers. This is up from 21,682 and 10,378 respectively in 2006. 3,787 unique businesses (retailers) represented at the show, up from last year’s 3,239.
- Vegas sucks? On a possible change of location after 2008, the Interbike team will gather research and feedback in the coming months and put forward proposals to the industry at the Bicycle Leadership Conference in January.
- Public days: Officially a trade-only event, Interbike is clearly infiltrated every year by many enthusiasts, begging the question of instituting public days. “We’re moving towards a majority that wants this,” said show director Lance Camisasca, “but retailers are still resistant to the idea.”
Tim Grahl addresses the question of Vegas in his Crooked Cog blog, in which he notes that “just like the women, Las Vegas is cheap and easy. The major airport is five miles from the event and the hotels/flights are to expensive. The city is built around large events and large amounts of people.” Interbike uses 600,000 square feet of floor space and draws over 20,000 attendees.
While several people want to move Interbike to Colorado, the Colorado Convention Center in Denver has a 500,000 square foot exhibition area and can only provide about 10,000 hotel rooms in the immediate area around downtown Denver. Other contenders might be Interbike’s previous home in Anaheim, or Chicago, which boasts the largest convention center in the world. The Morial Convention Center in New Orleans might be worth consideration with its million square feet of exhibit space.
Some more worthwhile Interbike wrap ups are available at Quickrelease.TV, Masiguy, Bicycling Boulder Report, Guitar Ted, BRaIN and WIRED magazine.
I don’t know if this has made the national news yet, but three motorists on U.S. Highway 101 in the San Francisco Bay Area have been shot this week.
