The opening day of Outdoor and Social has received great praise from brands attending the event.
Outdoor and Social is a three-day outdoor learning event which started on Tuesday, March 12, at Newfold Farm, Edale, in the Peak District.
It is an outdoor trade event providing workshops and practical sessions designed to increase knowledge and confidence in outdoor products and skills through experience.
Delivered under the guidance of brands, experts, and professionals it is completely free of charge to all retail staff and aims to help all retailers and their staff deliver better information to the consumer.
Jaye Thornhill, from Montane, was full of praise for the inaugural outdoor learning event.
He said: “It’s a great opportunity to meet loads of retailers all in one space. And the vision of the whole event is to get retailers and brands all together and help build that community amongst the industry, which is something that’s really important for us.
“And it’s that kind of great opportunity to go and support things like this, especially in that first year, it’s really important, because if people don’t get behind things, they’re never going to get off the ground, people are never going to try and experiment with new things.
“So it’s a really great opportunity for us to kind of support this and get to meet loads of the brands and also I’ve already met retailers today that I’ve never met. It’s an opportunity to kind of speak to some of them and introduce them to the brand and what we’re doing.
“And because of our location, we can actually bring out our demo fleet out, our brand new rucksack, running vests and other equipment.
“At this event people can actually go and use them out in the conditions there are supposed to operate in. I spent the last decade as a store manager and it makes such a difference when you can talk to a customer rather than just going, Oh, I know the specs of this. Well, I’ve actually used that and tested that. It gives them so much more confidence. And when you can hear that kind of passion it just really helps put customers at ease with what they’re looking for.
“They know they can trust the advice they’re getting from you. And it just helps the whole process and then you get that loyal customer who is going to come back to you as well. Which makes a big difference.”
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