No TBI attendees checking ST? Or, is it just a boring meeting with nothing new?

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

They provide periodic conference updates from their Twitter account.

David,

I saw this news item on the BRAIN web-site today - http://bit.ly/1uyaL9I

Good summary on participation.

It's the first time that I have seen significant parties acknowledge that in North America we are into a period of no or flat growth growth in the sport of triathlon. And that perhaps some new thinking and new strategies need to be looked at, to get people excited and into the sport.

It can be confusing, because I saw another press-release coming out of TBI that said triathlon is currently undergoing "exponential growth" - which is certainly NOT the case, from what I can tell.

Indeed, here in Ontario, which has one of the largest and most active triathlon populations and communities in North America, there was an informal gathering last fall, of key events, retailers, coaches, sports administrators to address the issue that there is no growth, and in fact in Ontario, numbers may actually be down slightly!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

A boring 3 day conference would be insurance industry related, going cross eyed while the dusted off home office types drone on!

TBI, for me, had not one moment of boredom, a stellar cast, and plenty of advanced and actionable ideas.

Met some folks that I had only read about in the past, legends in our industry. Highly recommended!

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http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com

Please share a couple of the actionable ideas.

Thanks,

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

triathlon is flat in the U.S. i think youth is up, but adult is flat or down. which i've been writing here for the last year and a half. but, you're right, finally it's getting acknowledged. i believe our peak year was 2012.

further, road bike sales are down. not just tri bike sales.

but, yes, triathlon is booming. just, not here. the largest growth region is latin america. it's booming there, and in east asia, the middle east, eastern europe, the UK, mediterranean europe.

triathlon is never booming worldwide, everywhere at once. it's also, knock on wood, ever had a permanent bust anywhere. triathlon, like running and cycling, needs to inject energy into itself during its difficult times, rather than its race producers coasting during bull markets, as they are wont to do.

i'll write more about the TBI conference on the front page.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Just an amazing conference, amazing venue, host hotel, TBI staff and vendors, sponsors and all. We walked away with so much opportunity, connections, renewed friendships and new friends, insider information, partners, sponsors and all it was just mind blowing. I HATE the sit-n-get meeting more than most but left with 8 pages of notes.

The part that just is even more amazing is we where nearly the only company from the MidEast. Ha! The other companies just flat out are now behind the curve. Thanks for staying home and giving AMS bigger market share in the NEAR future.

Peace

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STIndiana
America Multi-Sport, Inc.
America's Half June 10, 2017
USAT RD Century Club
http://www.americamultisport.com

Long distance has collapsed this season in NZ. I haven't run numbers on Oz. Just had two years of strong growth and it's not uncommon for us to follow your market by 2 years (or 10 in the case of bike fit).

here david, i'll share my rough notes below on what i took away as an actionable idea, i'm cleaning this up yet, but just back and working on this and a few other ideas I need to implement.
I think it super important to work at the grass roots level to bring new people into the sport, convert those introduced via other iterations of endurance sport, so i'm throwing it out here...pardon the rough draft, this is a partial take away from one of dan's panels:
_________________________________________________________________________________________
ROUGH DRAFT
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*example*

Hi [Garret Moore, Attorney at Law)], I've just returned from a conference in LA - Triathlon
Business International - where leaders in the industry presented a number of ideas on how to
leverage sponsorships to best serve our most loyal supporters, and add value to your existing Pat
Griskus Tri Series partnership.

More specifically, tying in with your Corporate Wellness program to encourage participation in the
races, both teams and invididuals.

Sprint Triathlons are easily accessible to most, the training is quite reasonable and whithin
reach. Even just a few within the company taking on the challenge creates a buzz within your
organization. It creates comraderie and support for those taking on the challenge. You may be
surprised at how much excitement that kind of commitment can generate within an organization, with
even a small handful rising to the challenge.

Special event registration discounts would be applied for employees for their commitment, a custom
registration code will be created for your company.

A complimentary Sprint Triathlon training plan will also be offered up for your committed
employees, with the option to personalize the plan at their option.

We have also partnered with XTERRA Wetsuits who will offer another layer of discount to help break
through that barrier of the swim being a major fear and hurdle. AND, the Pat Griskus Tri Series
will once again offer a number of opportunities pre race to practice Open Water Swimming at the
Quassapaug Sailing Club, a VERY unique offering!

In addition, in gratitude for your many years of supprt of the Griskus Triathlons, I would be happy
to arrange a time to come in and speak to a group of interested employees on the subject. A little
encouragement goes a long way!

I think we all remember our first time, and it is a very powerful experience... an experience that
is easy to enthusiastically convey, an experience once shared, can help motivate others to take the
action to commit to, and embark upon, a potential lifestyle change - leading to far healthier and
happier employees.

And that should be a big part of what you expect to get out of your continued support of the Pat
Griskus Triathlon Series: Healthy, energetic and motivated Employees with a heightened sense of
self worth, realizing their potential, eager to take on new challenges in the future.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
notes:

Xterra wetsuits providing wetsuits at special reduced rates.

Cappi - Cannondale bikes - drawing again at BMW for bike?

Timex - health and wellness fair again?

BMW of Watertown/ O&G INdustries / Timex / Ion Bank / Cannondale / Thule / Garret Moore / Quassy?
The Gym / THRIVE Sports and fitness / Physical Therapy and Sports medicine, waterbury.


Sponsor Team bike racks in transition?
Fast Track timing, segment corp results?

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http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com

Thank you so much for taking time to write a response. Obviously, your response is from your perspective and your interest, but that is fine and is helpful.

Interestingly, one notion that you bring up is corporate wellness. I have often wondered whether there is a way for the multisport community to transcend our boundaries to help the over all populous move toward a healthy, fitness lifestyle. Certainly this is not my area of expertise(obviously), But I wonder if there is a way for triathlon to solidify its future through helping the communication and efforts of the broader audience.

When you look at the overall health and fitness of our communities, and particularly young people, we have an unlimited market out there. I try to reflect back on the notion of "doing well while doing good." So, I wonder how as a community triathletes can broaden their scope of influence. Right here on Slowtwitch we have a mini army that if we could deploy in one direction (herding cats?) Perhaps we could have a greater impact while enhancing and preserving our sport as well.

Again, I really don't know and this is not my area of expertise. It just gets me thinking and wondering.

Thanks again for sharing.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

Very nice approach.

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com

Thanks for the detail, some really good ideas!

The Tri market is doing pretty well here in the UK, I've had maybe half a dozen friends approach me either in person or through Facebook to say that they're interested in giving it a go and would like some help with buying a bike or how to train.

These are the two biggest barrier and misconception that I feel are keeping people out of the sport, based on conversations that I have had with family, friends, and work colleagues:

"Triathlons are only for super fit people"
Perhaps we are a victim of our own success and marketing on this one. It might be a bit dramatic to say that the word "triathlon" sparks fear into the average person, but many think of a triathlon (of any distance) as a Herculean task.
This is why I think we need to drop the "acheivement of a lifetime - blood, sweat and tears" hyperbole (I'm looking at you WTC) and start a public conversation about how enjoyable and fun the sport can be.

I agree that we need to popularise the sprint distance due to it's achievability for the majority. Long distance racing will still reel in the same numbers of people who are already fit and looking for a different challenge, but we'll also get more Average Joes involved.

High start up costs
I probably should have put this first, because it's such an elephant in the room.
Lots of people are willing to take a chance on the £50 cost of a pair of trainers to find out if they like running, the same can be said of some goggles and a swim suit, or even an entry level road bike.
However, spending £1k or more before you even get to the start line in a sport that you might not even enjoy is a pretty big leap for most people.
Short of fixing the world economy, the only direct way around this as far as I can see are more advertisment and interest free finance options of the "starter packs" (entry level road bike, wetsuit etc) that you can get from some shops. That's a movement that has to come from the stores themselves.

The other option is by creating more links between single discipline clubs. If a local cyling club partnered up with a local swim club or run club then cross participation would rise and the costs of new equipment would be felt across a period of time rather than all at once, triathlons may be a logical next step for many people who are already active in two of the three disciplines.




Just my (long, and probably off topic) £0.02

"doing well while doing good", I like it.
And I do think we can all serve the sport by approaching wellness and fitness in a broader sense.

So many i've talked to that have done color-foam-mudders dont even train for them, totally social. fine, but how do we now convert them?

thanks for the input david.

tku too, dkennison.

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http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com

Quite on point in my opion Liaman, particularly the high cost of entry.

Something we've done in the past with the Waterbury CT YMCA is a "gear swap". Technically, it's not a true gear swap, but I used the tri dbase to ask triathletes to scour the closets for old gear they can part with, donate that gear to the YMCA , the Y will price it quite reasonably and hold a one day sale, proceeds staying with the YMCA.

Last time we did it a few years back it was a huge success and I witnessed First Timers walking out with enough equipment to get them started for super cheap. We even did an indoor tri on that same day, super informal, but a lot of fun.

It's been 5 years since the last one and many people have checked in with gear to donate, so we'll do it again this year, late March date TBD.

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http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com