PHILADELPHIA (BRAIN) — Organizers of the Philadelphia Bicycle Expo have hired O2 Active as communications consultant for the 2016 event, which will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Nov. 5-6.
O2 Active is led by cycling communications veteran Paul Skilbeck, who has previously worked with cycling events including the Olympics, World Championships, and World Cups, as well as shows such as NAHBS.
Show founder Bina Bilenky said, "We have had six years of solid growth, the show is now in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and over the two days we have more than 4,000 attendee ticket sales. The way forward with this show is getting the cycling media to report on what's happening there, and Paul Skilbeck is one of the best in the business to help with that."
Skilbeck said, "The Philly Bike Expo is the show that the industry has been requesting for quite a while, I'm just not sure everybody knows it's there. Look at what it is, though: The expo puts a spotlight on cycling in a major urban center, it's a consumer show in an outstanding, naturally-lit venue, companies can have face-to-face contact with their end-users, and all of this takes place amid a rich array of cycling demonstrations, rides, seminars, workshops, artisan demonstrations and cultural events. To me, the formula for the Philly expo seems spot-on. For example, this year EuroBike is stepping up to two public days spanning a weekend, but this is what Philly has been doing for the past six years. Of course it's a much smaller show, but Philly really gets it: It's a joyous immersion in the world of bikes, and it gets people thinking about cycling, and how it can be further incorporated into their lives."
"I'd like to see the U.S. cycling industry really getting behind this event to help scale it up from 170 to around a thousand exhibitors. And there's probably not a better city for the purpose: Philadelphia is strongly pro-cycling with a very strong resident cycling population, plus it has the largest 150-mile catchment population of any city in the U.S., of around 40 million. Bina Bilenky has shown over the past six years that she can organize a good event, now it's just a matter of getting more media and industry backing to fuel the growth."
