Day One at the Show

Day One has been great for NOLS. The NOLS Bus is parked right by the door at the Show’s southeast entrance and thanks to a dedicated team of NOLS shovelers a beautiful igloo is right beside it. It was very busy at the bus during the morning, but things slowed down in the afternoon when the wind picked up, the temperature dropped and it snowed a bit.

We had a number of very productive meetings. The first of the day was with Paul Kirwin of 3point5. Paul’s group is developing an online training website for outdoor retail store staff. Paul reported that he has a number of the industry’s top brands on board now and many of the top retailers are using his service. We are looking at providing NOLS branded educational content on the site to provide a deeper experience for the retailers. Paul is fun to work with and is a long time pro in the industry.

At noon we met with New Balance Performance Outerwear. This is a new venture for New Balance, a giant in the running show business. In fall of this year they will be launching a very innovative line of technical outdoor clothing. As we met both NOLS and NBPO saw great synergies with both organizations being authentic, core and super high quality. I think we’ll be looking for ways to collaborate on a few initiatives in the near future.

The afternoon was filled with NOLS book signings. John Gookin and Buck Tilton signed copies of NOLS Winter Camping next to the NOLS igloo and Jen Lamb and Glenn Goodrich signed copies of NOLS Wilderness Ethics at the booth of Stackpole Publishing. These new books are among the latest in our expanding library of NOLS titles.

NOLS executive director John Gans is at the show for a special guest appearance. The whole crew is very psyched to have dinner with tonight at Baci’s, an excellent Salt Lake City restaurant. Speaking of which, gotta go!

More from the show soon!

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director