Sea Otter Classic keeps growing in attendance
Photo Credit: digiZūk / John Shafer #digiZuk https://www.digizuk.com/
Record Growth
The shift towards consumer-facing tradeshows and bike demo events continues with the growth of the iconic Sea Otter Classic event. This year saw about 650 booths and about 1000 corporate brands represented, up from 500 booths in 2018.
With the demise of Interbike, the Sea Otter Classic’s booth reservation line started ringing off the hook and staff had to go in to overdrive mode. Brands wanted in and existing exhibitors wanted bigger, more premium space as budgets and booth infrastructures opened up.
Photo Credit: digiZūk / John Shafer #digiZuk https://www.digizuk.com/
About 75,000 folks attended the 4-day event. This is broken down to include 9,000 athletes 400 media reps, 1,000 corporate brands and 8,500 campers, plus 6,500 student visits.
Exhibitor sales were up 30% back in March, with exhibitors from Europe, Australia, China and South Africa. And almost 40 e-bike companies attended as Sea Otter continues to embrace the growth of this category.
Sea Otter is also a key place for consumers to try out bikes. The total number of demo bikes numbers available was over 800. In the venue itself, it seems that more than half of the bikes going out for demo rides were ebikes.
Photo Credit: digiZūk / John Shafer #digiZuk https://www.digizuk.com/
The consumer-facing show is 30 next year and clearly has an increasingly important place in the biking calendar.
This year’s Sea Otter Classic, which concluded days ago, covered approximately 200,000 sq ft of display space, a significant figure above the 165,000 square feet of 2018.
Photo Credit: digiZūk / John Shafer #digiZuk https://www.digizuk.com/
Vital Statistics
Total Attendance – 75,000
Athletes – 9,000
Campers – 8,500
Media – 400
Corporate Brands – 1,000
Monterey County School Outreach Students visited – 6,500
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDQ_BF6z8Lc
This video captures the vibe well. We have no doubt it will continue to grow next year.
Sea Otter Classic returns to California over 16-19 2020. The Sea Otter Classic seems to have captured that coveted spot where the entire bike industry and media gather and see each other and connect each year.
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