Outdoor and Social 2026
We cannot stress enough how important your feedback is to continually develop and evolve the event going forward. This helps us look at all areas and improve how every aspect works for both you as a brand and the retailers to get the most of it.
Outdoor and Social is a platform for you to achieve your retail training goals in the most effective way. Providing access to highly knowledgeable brand staff, along with demo kit that can be talked through, loaned out and experienced in the environment it is designed for, is the most effective way to engage staff and help them become more knowledgeable, confident and competent sales staff so they are capable of not only selling the right product to the consumer, but adding advice, hints and tips from experience.
We wanted to recap the feedback points received and let you all know what we will be doing to move forward and address these.
- The most fed back point was about potentially splitting the day into two parts.
- One part, putting all the emphasis on the brand village so every attendee is on site, seeing brands and engaging in training.
- The second part, Closing the brand village and providing time for activity sessions where it becomes easier for brands to go with, the retailer to talk and train, on the move.
We are pleased to let you that at Outdoor and Social 2026 the plan is to open the Brand Village for 9am and close it at 2pm and afternoon activities for everyone taking place 2pm until 6pm.
This leads on to our next point,
Activities
- In the morning, each day there will be a yoga session 7-8am
- We will continue to offer trail runs.
- We will continue to offer hikes.
- There will also be Nature Walks and Orienteering added to the existing Hill Skills and Navigation that take place during hikes.
- There will be hikes in darker hours.
- All the hikes will be of differing levels, lengths, and accumulated elevation to form more accessible Easy, Intermediate and Advanced options.
- There will also be onsite activities available which may be organised by brands.
- Lastly, there will also be the addition of climbing with a local climbing wall.
Focussed Classes
- There will also be more focussed topical indoor and outdoor classroom talks available for brands to host
- Boot fitting, Tent pitching, Skills workshops, and Content creation just some of the subject’s feedback which could be covered
Booking
To achieve this, we have updated the booking form(s) so in advance we can gain more information from you and attendees. We ask you for the categories which you as a brand will cover at the event so it can be published along with your brand name on the website and at the event.
This ensures we can give more emphasis to the certification and inform you as brands and retail staff what to expect and how to approach recording progress.
We are asking for your list of demo kit well in advance so we can inform the retail staff so they can plan what they would like to loan and experience in advance.
Parking
We have secured more parking, enough for more cars on top of the current onsite parking as well as using the Village Car park for the event days.
Food
- Breakfast will have porridge available as an alternative to the hot sausage and bacon options.
- With all dietary information provided in advance we will also endeavour to offer another option to Vegans and Vegetarians.
- Lunch will see more variety and change across the days. The addition of a hot alternative to soup along side the salads and vegetables.
- Dinner will remain a wholesome high calory meal to round off the day and warm you into the night.
- A mixed variety of fruit will be available all day.
- We have worked with the site electrician to establish a safe way to operate all four of our tea urns to make sure hot water does not run out.
Retail Staff
We all would like more retail staff to attend. This makes it work even better for all of us. It increases engagement and ultimately increases the effectiveness of your time, reducing potential business costs.
In the immediate weeks after the event, we have already had confirmation from Tiso, Ellis Brigham and JD that they will send more staff. These retailers alone will account for an increase in members of retail staff.
We would all like more though, right?
Please from the impending Spring Summer sell-in use the event as part of your sales. Explain the increased benefit you can give the retailer by having them attend and take part in more in-depth experiential training, invite them to come.
- You’re existing and your prospects. It’s a great opportunity to have them understand your brand ahead of the buying season.
- Show them where to register to attend.
- Book them on as you would OTS or any other trade show.
- Owners, buyers, managers, store staff.
- It will benefit them all.
Leave a Reply