SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. (BRAIN) — This year's Interbike Awards will focus on excellence in product, retail, and advocacy and will no longer include awards to athletes and supplier performance.
The Thursday night awards gala and dinner held for several years has been eliminated. Instead, recipients will be recognized on the show floor, in print and at the show's traditional industry breakfast.
"Current market conditions being what they are, we realized that we needed to evolve the awards into something different and more economical than what we had done in the past," said Pat Hus, the vice president of Interbike. "We definitely believe in the value of the IB awards, and feel strongly that this new approach will enable us to continue to celebrate all of the great innovations that our industry creates each and every year."
A total of 19 product innovation awards will now be distributed across mountain, road, electric and triathlon categories. The most notable change will be that the products recognized will now be for the upcoming 2018 sales season instead of looking back at 2017 cycle. Only brands that are participating at Interbike or Outdoor Demo will be considered and all submissions must be made by no later than July 15th, 2017.
Interbike will once again partner with Hi-Torque Publications to evaluate and select the winners in mountain, road and electric. New for this year, all triathlon product award recipients will be selected by LAVA Magazine.
Ten Retailer Innovation Award winners will be chosen via a submission process for shops that have implemented innovative ideas and strategies to their business with positive results over the past 12 months. Retailers that submit will automatically be entered to win a host of prizes, including round-trip travel and accommodations to this year's show, a press release template for use with announcing their award to local media, a store profile in Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (BRAIN), an opportunity to present their innovative idea in an exciting TedX format presentation at Interbike, and more. A panel of executives from BRAIN, The Mann Group and Interbike will choose the winners after the submission process ends in July.
PeopleForBikes returns to lead the new Advocacy Innovation Awards, that will recognize three exhibiting Interbike brands or attending independent bicycle retailers that have worked tirelessly in the pursuit of creating safer places to ride on a local, regional or national level.
Interbike is adding a new awards category for the 2017 edition, designed to recognize booth innovation and design. Interbike's management team will walk the show floor on Wednesday, Sept. 20 and award three winners based on booth size (up to 300 sq. feet, 400-900 sq. feet and more than 1000 sq. feet).
A complete list of the award categories and criteria for submissions can be found on the Interbike website.
