Join us for our amazing chat with the big boss of the Outdoor Adventure Show!!

It is Canada's largest showcase of outdoor gear, an annual pilgrimage for many of us with camping on our minds.

Fred Cox has an extremely detailed chat with us about how he started the show 25 years ago and continues to this year's fantastic offering.  His passion is obvious, and he also shares a couple of great stories along the way. Keep an ear open for the gigantic pool collapse. :-)

The Outdoor Adventure Show is hosted in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, & Montreal (in both official languages!)

You will find every manufacturer imaginable, including distributors, outfitters, guides, authors, destination vacation providers, content providers, and so much more.

One of the features that we're most looking forward to is the guest speakers/presenters.  It's a literal podcast wish list.  Such names as:
Kevin Callan
Les Stroud
Hap Wilson
Camper Christina
Dennis Rogers
Sean Rowley
David Bain
Brad & Leah Jennings

And the list goes on and on and on...Man! I can't wait!!

Join us at the show - we'll be at the Toronto show from February 24-26, 2023.

For tickets and info about the show, links are below.
Cheers,
Tim

Website - https://outdooradventureshow.ca/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/OAStoronto
Twitter - https://twitter.com/OutdoorAdvShow
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/outdooradv/
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.ca/outdooradvshow/

Show Notes:

Introduction:

• Today, a special guest, Fred Cox, will talk about the landmark 26th Outdoor Adventure Show at the International Center.

Main Themes:

• Outdoor Activities Galore: A range of outdoor activities including camping, canoeing, kayaking, and hiking.
• Community Spirit: Emphasis on the importance of community within the outdoor industry.
• Educational Opportunities: Expert presenters offer insights and knowledge on outdoor-related topics and showcase new products. Meet and greet notable outdoor community figures.
• Advancements in Gear: Discussion on the latest equipment for outdoor adventures, including new canoe materials, innovative clothing, pack technologies, solar panels, and GPS gadgets.
• Promoting Local and International Experiences: The show’s role is to celebrate and promote tourism in Ontario, with a particular focus on indigenous tourism.
• Inspirational Impact: The event’s ability to inspire and educate the camping and outdoor enthusiast community.

Call to Action:

• If you loved this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast for more outdoor adventures and stories.
• Leave us a review and share this episode with your fellow outdoor enthusiasts.

Transcript

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00:00 - 00:04
Hello, and good day, eh? Welcome to the Super Good Camping podcast. My name is Pamela.

00:04 - 00:05
I'm Tim.

00:05 - 00:09
And we are from supergoodcamping.com. We are here because we on a mission to inspire other families

00:10 - 00:15
to enjoy camping adventures such as we have with our kids. Today's guest is the president of

00:15 - 00:19
National Event Management Inc. You might be asking, well, what does that have to do with

00:19 - 00:24
camping? Well, National Event Management produces the Outdoor Adventure Show, which has

00:24 - 00:29
everything to do with camping, among many other activities. Please welcome the grand poohbah

00:29 - 00:34
of the Outdoor Adventure Show, Fred Cox.

00:34 - 00:34
Thank you very much, Pamela and Tim.

00:35 - 00:37
Thanks for being here. Yeah. Great to be

00:37 - 00:43
here. Yes. It's gonna be the highlight of my year going to the Outdoor Adventure Show. I'm pretty sure.

00:43 - 00:47
Oh, that's great. You will be celebrities there, so that's great. We'll try to

00:47 - 00:50
get extra security to, make sure you're okay walking down the aisle.

00:50 - 00:52
We'll bring

00:52 - 00:54
the bodyguards. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00:56 - 01:00
I'll bring Thomas. He's this big around. 6 foot 2, so he looks intimidating.

01:00 - 01:01
He's tall and strong. Yeah.

01:01 - 01:02
Oh, that's great.

01:02 - 01:09
Alright. Cool. So so I know what the Outdoor Adventure Show is. Can you give me sort

01:09 - 01:15
of a rough idea of what it is, how long it's been running, you know, the 4 things,

01:15 - 01:19
the where, what, all that sort of jazz. Just give me a a a sort of a paint a picture.

01:19 - 01:23
For sure. Yeah. A quick synopsis. So we've been running this now. We're actually

01:23 - 01:28
heading into our are 26th year of the event, so which is Amazing. Which is really something,

01:28 - 01:34
and it's, it's gonna be happening February 24th to 26th at the International Center on Airport

01:34 - 01:39
Road. And that's always been our venue, which we think is a terrific place for people sort

01:39 - 01:44
of coming from far and wide who are are adventurers, and, they've been a great partner of ours.

01:44 - 01:49
And the event is so this year, we'll have upwards of, be a completely packed house again,

01:49 - 01:54
which we'll get into some of that, but we're thrilled to have, you know, destinations and adventures

01:54 - 01:59
from all across, Canada and around other parts of the world, of course, that are gonna be showcasing

01:59 - 02:06
the best in all adventure activities and adventure travel. And so for people who

02:06 - 02:13
love to camp, love to get outside, be it in canoe, kayak, mountain bikes, hiking in general,

02:14 - 02:19
to share the outdoors, it's a place where and that's sort of what we've been so thrilled

02:19 - 02:24
to do is just continue to are expand the opportunities of what this show will offer people.

02:24 - 02:30
And but for people who who love to get outside and enjoy the outdoors, are Be with others and

02:30 - 02:36
have active vacations, or active activities to be able to do. There's no better place like this

02:36 - 02:41
are that you can find, this event, and we do it right across the country as well. So we couldn't

02:41 - 02:46
help ourselves with stopping at Toronto 25 years ago when we first launched it. Are we do it

02:46 - 02:51
also in Vancouver and Calgary and Montreal as I know you might have some some listeners across

02:51 - 02:55
Canada as well, and we've been thrilled to to bring it to adventure people all across Canada.

02:55 - 03:00
And each show kinda has its own different flavor, but it certainly all ties together at people

03:00 - 03:06
who love the outdoors, some aspect of the outdoors, are and love to, you know, share their experiences,

03:07 - 03:11
share the offerings that they have at the show, and and a lot of, you know, bringing to life

03:11 - 03:17
exactly what you're doing here are On this podcast in terms of, sharing information and

03:17 - 03:22
wanting a place where you can talk with others, feel comfortable with others, and, have are

03:22 - 03:28
like minded pursuits to be able to, to really sort of have a great day to talk about your passions

03:28 - 03:33
and get inspired about what might be next are for you, be it summer vacations you're

03:33 - 03:37
planning or even other winter adventures you could be planning. It's just such a great

03:37 - 03:42
place to get together. We're so thrilled. It's become a rite of passage for adventure

03:42 - 03:46
people to, put it on the calendar and, and go to it every year.

03:46 - 03:50
Okay. That's it. We're done. You just told me everything about

03:50 - 03:51
the show. That's amazing.

03:51 - 03:57
Well, I have to say that you look much too young to be doing anything for 26 years. Are

03:57 - 04:02
Well, it's yeah. It's, you know, it's, it's been a unique business. So we're we are in the in

04:02 - 04:09
the event business and, but this certainly started as a real kind of passion project

04:09 - 04:13
that right kind of coming out of actually, when I was still in university, I did my first, Well,

04:13 - 04:19
actually, even going back further, I have to almost give credit to, to some, some educational

04:19 - 04:25
and government things in terms of, are doing my outdoor adventure, outdoor education class

04:25 - 04:30
in high school, and those were the first true I didn't grow up in a hardcore camping

04:30 - 04:35
family at all. But those were the first true great camping trips that I took and canoe

04:35 - 04:41
trips that I took, with the outdoor education classes at my high school. And then I was

04:41 - 04:46
lucky enough to be chosen to get sent to, Bark Lake, you know, adventure camp, which

04:46 - 04:51
was a program where they had selected some people to send on excursions to learn about

04:51 - 04:57
the outdoors, and leadership, you know, opportunities that can be learned through

04:57 - 05:02
the outdoors. So I was exposed to a lot of it as a young person, and coming out of

05:02 - 05:07
university, I found and this was kind of one of the ways where we're so happy to bring all

05:07 - 05:13
these companies a chance to be at the show, to meet people, because it is so hard to find,

05:13 - 05:18
You know, who are you gonna talk to? And I think of the first I somehow got inspiration

05:18 - 05:22
during my 3rd year of university. After working for a few months, I said, okay. I gotta

05:22 - 05:27
take some time before I go back to school. And in the back of Outside Magazine, I found one

05:27 - 05:35
of those little 2 by 2 ads for a kayaking company in Camden, Maine. And, anyways, bottom

05:35 - 05:40
line, I convinced a buddy to get in a little Honda Civic with me and drive all the way out to

05:40 - 05:45
Nova Scotia where we saw a friend and got on a ferry from, Yarmouth to take it all the way across

05:45 - 05:51
to Bar Harbor and, headed down to Camden to Camden, Maine. And literally, these were

05:51 - 05:55
the days, you know, pre Internet where you couldn't do any research on this. It was just a phone

05:55 - 06:00
call to this guy who turned out to be a Vietnam veteran with one foot and, but had done these

06:00 - 06:06
awesome adventures all around the waters of Maine. And so we went on an incredible

06:06 - 06:11
5 day sea kayaking journey all through the, all into the ocean, and I'd never been in a sea

06:11 - 06:17
kayak before. And, because of some weather challenges, we ended up doing a night launch,

06:17 - 06:23
over to this island campsite, and there's seals and porpoises along the side of us.

06:23 - 06:29
And, so it's something that I kinda got hooked on early, and then, that was are in university,

06:29 - 06:34
and then this idea came together through a variety of things, which we can get into

06:34 - 06:39
if you want. But, we thought it was great to build out an event that could showcase

06:40 - 06:44
all kinds of different adventure pursuits for people to be able to get together and talk about their experiences.

06:45 - 06:50
That's amazing. Seasoned camping people that we've talked to have said,

06:50 - 06:55
like, you know, I go and I hear hear somebody else talk, and I hear something that I didn't

06:55 - 07:00
know before. I pick up a tidbit or a new hack that I can do when I'm camping or in the

07:00 - 07:04
backcountry, and it's like, wow. Like, I still I'm picking up new things from going to the

07:04 - 07:05
outdoor adventure show.

07:06 - 07:12
Yeah. That's cool. And to have a story like that, like, the adventures of

07:12 - 07:16
we had weather, so we had to do a night launch, and then seals and porpoises. That's

07:16 - 07:20
how many years later, and you still remember that. Like, that's the thing. Right?

07:20 - 07:20
It's amazing.

07:21 - 07:25
It it really is. Those are the life experiences that you really do, and that's kinda where it's

07:25 - 07:29
neat to join you to sort of relive some of those things, to think of some

07:29 - 07:34
of the things that do bring it back. And, yeah, we were very lucky to, you know, when with

07:34 - 07:39
these type of things that that you're talking about on your podcast and, you know, way back,

07:39 - 07:44
you know, getting into the actual nuts and bolts of starting the events. Back at

07:44 - 07:49
the time, there was a little event called Canoe Expo, which used to run at the Etobicoke

07:49 - 07:55
Olympian. Yep. Very sort of small and just sort of canoe people, and the granddaddy

07:55 - 07:59
of all events, are in our sort of game was The Sportsmen's Show, the National Sportsmen's Show,

07:59 - 08:05
which, you know, which sort of, had everything for the outdoors, but there are real

08:05 - 08:09
trends starting to happen of people who sort of said, hey, that's a lot of hunting and fishing,

08:09 - 08:14
which is certainly not what I was all about and what a lot of everything you see at the Outdoor

08:14 - 08:18
Adventure Show and and a lot of the people, you know, they we like to sort of obviously, we

08:18 - 08:22
like to eat the fish on some of those things, but more importantly, like to look at the fish,

08:22 - 08:28
and hunting is sort of not a thing for such a group of people. So, we took this

08:28 - 08:34
small Canoe Expo, which wasn't having enough funding to sort of keep going and said, we

08:34 - 08:38
think this outdoor adventure thing is gonna be a heck of a lot bigger and sort of had a bit

08:38 - 08:42
of a vision. And, my father was with me at the time, sort of in the company, and,

08:43 - 08:48
had a vision to be able to take that canoe theme and created the Outdoor Adventure

08:48 - 08:53
Show, which sort of offered not just, you know, and that's the reality of business as

08:53 - 08:57
you look at, you know, some small industries, but if you put a few things together, we said,

08:57 - 09:03
hey. What happens if we put canoe companies, but also offer all the the hiking and travel destinations?

09:03 - 09:09
Are offer, you know, create a a big enough place where we can, bring in destinations from all

09:09 - 09:15
across Canada who are gonna have all kinds of different showcases, and invite some

09:15 - 09:20
of the some of the, cycling travel companies. Invite some of the scuba diving destinations.

09:20 - 09:25
Get these people together because that's certainly the kind of adventure athlete I am

09:25 - 09:30
or person I am is I've really sort of crossed over into a whole number of different sports

09:30 - 09:35
and activities, and I don't just like to stick on one thing. And so it's really out of a

09:35 - 09:41
lot of that, lack of focus, if you will, that I think everybody also saw that these are our next

09:41 - 09:44
consumers. These are our next people who if they do like canoeing and kayaking, well, there's

09:44 - 09:48
a chance they may wanna get their scuba diving license. And there's a chance they might also

09:48 - 09:53
wanna get on a bicycle in a provincial park somewhere, and have a different way of

09:53 - 09:58
getting around, and enjoy creating experiences. And then as you would know as

09:58 - 10:03
well, as you start to bring your your kids into the fold as well, and as, we did, my wife and

10:03 - 10:09
I, with my family of of 3 kids. It's, you know, you start to get into different aspects

10:09 - 10:13
of the kind of camping that you like to do. From backcountry stuff to all of a sudden, you're

10:13 - 10:18
at the sandbanks, are Just trying to get through a weekend and cook marshmallows and get kids out

10:18 - 10:18
of your hair.

10:20 - 10:22
Yep. I can empathize there. You bet. Yeah.

10:22 - 10:27
That crossover sport thing became, very important to us to be able to get as many adventure

10:27 - 10:32
activities, but a place where everyone can say, wow. This is awesome. I didn't know that existed.

10:32 - 10:37
I didn't know that existed. And it can really help every business kinda thrive because that's

10:37 - 10:42
what everybody needs is new customers, new blood every year and a way to get introduced

10:42 - 10:46
to new people who who might also be inspired to get in the outdoors.

10:46 - 10:53
Introduced is is a perfect word for it too. It's certainly something I've been pretty

10:53 - 10:59
much a canoe guy. Yeah. We do obviously do front country. Hiking for me is putting

10:59 - 11:05
a canoe over my head and portaging, that sort of deal. But as we've been doing this

11:05 - 11:21
journey on the podcast and being being introduced to so many more people, there's that

11:21 - 11:28
weird season between canoeing and winter camping. So I ride, you know, fat tire bike for three

11:28 - 11:33
and a half months out of the year or whatever. It's, or we who we'd Kuehl Kuest. We did a

11:33 - 11:41
an interview with, a lovely couple out of Michigan that do a livestream. And and the husband,

11:41 - 11:48
Johnny, he's also a diver. So they're actually about to are embark on a trip down south to

11:48 - 11:53
to spend some time under well, one will be drinking mojitas, and one will be

11:53 - 11:58
under the water. Yes. But they were talking about overlanding too, which was a new thing for us.

11:58 - 12:02
Which is something. Yeah. You know, jumping in a 4 by 4, which they, you know, got skid plates

12:02 - 12:06
and they jacked it all up and, like, getting a camper built for himself. Like, how cool? It's just

12:06 - 12:12
Yeah. It's it's amazing. There's so much stuff to do. So, yeah, the introduction is neat.

12:12 - 12:18
It's a bit of a journey on its own. Okay. So many things I wanna know.

12:18 - 12:23
How do you put all the parts, how do you obviously, 26 years of experience, it's

12:23 - 12:28
a little bit easier now, and you probably have some more people in the fold to do it.

12:28 - 12:32
But where do you pull them from? How do you make it all come together?

12:32 - 12:34
How long does it take for starters?

12:34 - 12:40
Yeah. It it certainly I mean, it's a full year round adventure. Our show manager,

12:41 - 12:46
and group show manager, Crystal, who I've been very lucky to have with me for over 10 years.

12:46 - 12:52
Are she's amazing in leading our our team from the the sales side of things and really

12:52 - 12:57
heading up everything for the event. But we also have an incredible, operations team

12:57 - 13:02
and marketing team, who also work on this on a year round basis. But Crystal's dedicated to

13:02 - 13:08
it and another great team member, Monica as well. Dedicated team members and also a

13:08 - 13:14
team member in Quebec and and another one in Vancouver as well who works on the cycling

13:14 - 13:19
events, which have been added on to our our events in BC as well. So and they literally work

13:19 - 13:24
on these events year round. As soon as we're fortunate that we do have 4 events, so they

13:24 - 13:29
sort of end up taking about an almost 8 week process from when we start them to when

13:29 - 13:34
our last one finishes, which kind of leaves then a 10 month cycle to rebuild it all.

13:34 - 13:38
But it's, yeah. It's not something that, and that's something a lot of people do underestimate,

13:39 - 13:45
is kind of the planning that goes behind it to sort of create what we do and what

13:45 - 13:49
it takes for any kind are event, but that's something we certainly don't overlook and kind of

13:49 - 13:55
to have people dedicated to it is the secret to our success because they get to know so intricately,

13:56 - 14:02
the kind of content which is in the show, and to be able to invite new people and source

14:02 - 14:08
out new people. We are lucky to have an incredible rebook rate every year, of exhibitors,

14:09 - 14:14
because they've had good success at the event, and they've enjoyed seeing the type of people

14:14 - 14:20
that are attracted to the show. It's been able to be a great kickoff for their businesses

14:20 - 14:24
to help fill a lot of their summer adventures. But then a lot of it becomes, you know, and we

14:24 - 14:30
really have always believed that sort of adding to the show and finding new speakers, new presenters,

14:31 - 14:35
new companies who are gonna be out there is really, really important because we're also

14:35 - 14:41
fortunate to have, you know, customers, public attendees who come year after year, and we

14:41 - 14:46
want them to see something new. We want them to meet some new companies, and so it's very, very

14:46 - 14:51
important, and that's where it's been fantastic to have, the wonderful Internet around

14:51 - 14:57
too and all the latest in social media channels as well, like yourselves

14:57 - 15:02
and everything we find now on Instagram and TikTok of people starting new adventure companies

15:02 - 15:07
who are just some of their photography and and videography, and the way that they're communicating

15:07 - 15:13
with people is phenomenal, and they're creating followings of their own, as you are.

15:13 - 15:17
And we want those people. So we dedicate a lot of time to sort of picking who do we want and

15:17 - 15:21
who do we go after. And like everything, it's a sales process to get people out of

15:21 - 15:26
their, out of their out of in terms of what they've been doing so far and make sure that

15:26 - 15:30
they feel comfortable in terms of inviting them to the show and also inviting their

15:30 - 15:35
network to the show to come and to come and be welcomed, but to present their adventures,

15:35 - 15:40
because we really want new things being showcased at the event. And, yeah, something

15:40 - 15:45
like the, you know, our newest, of our stages that we have. We have 4 stages at

15:45 - 15:51
our Toronto, show, and, the Adventures in Paddling stage is one that we started, I think,

15:51 - 15:56
yeah, maybe 4 or 5 years ago now, and that was, you know, we were really lucky have a lot

15:56 - 16:01
of other content in our Best of Canada theater, in our International theater, in a Scuba and

16:01 - 16:06
Caribbean, but, it was even something where myself as a paddler and someone who's done

16:06 - 16:12
enough, adventure sort of I saw so many people and started to see more things online and

16:12 - 16:17
from some other events around the world where I said to have dedicated talks about paddling

16:17 - 16:22
where people can really come in and get deeper into some of the true paddling roots and into

16:22 - 16:27
some details and secrets and tips that they wanna share. We thought that was kind of a great

16:27 - 16:31
one. And this one, you know, I've just as I looked at our schedule that our teams put together

16:31 - 16:35
over the last few days, are It's amazing to see, you know, we're so lucky to have, you know,

16:35 - 16:40
guests of yours before, Kevin Callan, who's been such a great supporter. He just made some

16:40 - 16:46
great videos for us that we just saw today to invite people to the show, and someone

16:46 - 16:50
like Hap Wilson, who's, you know, a legendary paddler and been around, are right from day 1

16:50 - 16:55
of our show. And that's where when you have someone of the, you know, with their kind of

16:55 - 17:01
fortitude and, the kind of, integrity that those type of people have in the industry,

17:01 - 17:05
and I've now been able to sort of call them friends, and they trust us to be able to put

17:05 - 17:09
on a show that's gonna attract the right kind of people, but where they can come and share

17:09 - 17:13
their stories, we're really, really proud. And I look at someone like Camper Christina,

17:13 - 17:18
who's a, you know, a real sort of up and comer, I will call her, who has totally made

17:18 - 17:22
it, but I'm saying up and comer because she's only been with us for, whatever, 5 or 7 years

17:22 - 17:27
versus, you know, Hap and Kevin who have been around for 25, but she has, you know, built

17:27 - 17:31
such an incredible audience and is such an enthusiastic presenter.

17:31 - 17:32
She is that.

17:32 - 17:37
Yeah. So the things are just packed. So we've been been so happy to see people like that,

17:37 - 17:41
and then many other people who are now launching different channels, as I say, like yourselves

17:41 - 17:46
who are sharing information, who are now wanting to be a part of it and and share some new things.

17:46 - 17:50
So that's kind of always a, a key sort of stage that I like to look at to see who's presenting

17:50 - 17:56
this year and and just to know how much we are really touching the, the true heart of

17:56 - 18:01
each of our segments that we do try to reach with our independent content of our stages.

18:01 - 18:06
Cool. It's it. Yeah. I don't know if you've ever are seeing well, you've had Dennis on

18:06 - 18:08
your show before, Dennis Rogers?

18:08 - 18:09
Yes.

18:09 - 18:17
Yes. So, one of my most impressed about things is his chat and just

18:17 - 18:23
how everybody interacts and stuff on his show. If you take that and put it in person, are

18:23 - 18:29
it's at the Outdoor Adventure show. Kevin had a video last year where he popped

18:29 - 18:34
in and somehow, like, they just, like, just a whole slew of the YouTube celebrities

18:34 - 18:39
and all that sort of jazz, all the people that are part of that camping community. And

18:39 - 18:43
he did, you know, some crazy stuff with his camera, but there was

18:43 - 18:47
just so many of them, and they all just kinda like we they didn't call each other

18:47 - 18:51
and say, hey. I'm going at Saturday at 2:30 or whatever. They all just they were there. They

18:51 - 18:56
just showed up. So I think for me, I think that's an awesome thing. Like, we're gonna

18:56 - 19:01
spend the weekend at the show. I'm spending a day with Thomas. I'm spending a day with Pamela. I'm gonna

19:01 - 19:02
be there all weekend.

19:02 - 19:06
Yeah. We are gonna have exactly Dennis, I just looked. I noticed he is yeah. He's speaking on

19:06 - 19:11
the Saturday at the show. He's got a 2:45 presentation on being prepared for inclement weather

19:11 - 19:16
in the backcountry. And I know I did see a part of your talk with him where you

19:16 - 19:19
did talk about a lot of, you know, front country and backcountry stuff, which he's really

19:19 - 19:24
known for. So, you know, those are the kind of things that real, you know, audience

19:24 - 19:28
members of yours, I think, will know that they're gonna really get into the weeds

19:28 - 19:34
with that stuff and learn some things, which is, again, that's what we like about and and why

19:34 - 19:39
we sort of do stages like this. So it's not just a surface talk that you may get

19:39 - 19:43
on one of our other stages, but you know it's kind of paddlers and people who know their

19:43 - 19:47
stuff, and they're gonna ask some real questions and be able to are share that information about

19:47 - 19:53
hey. Yeah. How do we deal with weather? And I do remember even, one of our staffers who

19:53 - 19:57
was working the stage last year after seeing his are talks and, oh my god. The guy's incredible,

19:57 - 20:01
the wealth of information that he has. And so those are the stories that we just we love

20:01 - 20:02
to hear people share.

20:03 - 20:09
Yeah. Very cool. And I think it's a pretty neat deal to have all the the dealers there

20:09 - 20:15
as well. Like, I'm not gonna name names, but you can go and see new products that maybe

20:15 - 20:21
you're carrying around an old beater, super heavy one that somebody's come out with a nice lightweight,

20:21 - 20:27
you know, backpackable type are or Mhmm. Waterproof something that yours is is worn

20:27 - 20:32
for, and it's new. It's gonna last longer. It's more light. It does, you know,

20:32 - 20:36
all those things. I think that's a really cool thing too. Like, that's for me,

20:36 - 20:37
I'm going to

20:37 - 20:41
Upgrade it. My wallet at home for at least one of the days, but I'm gonna go yeah.

20:41 - 20:46
I'm gonna wander around. I'm gonna see what because I use what I use. And as much as I do spend

20:46 - 20:51
a decent amount of time checking things out Yeah. There's no way I'm gonna trip across it all,

20:51 - 20:56
and I'm not an expert. And if I can go talk to somebody who actually made it, who designed

20:56 - 21:01
it, who did all the things, I think that's a very cool are aspect to the show.

21:02 - 21:06
Oh, yeah. For sure. And you can, and you can bet kind of over. That's been something that's

21:06 - 21:11
been amazing for for me to watch. Are It's just kind of the development of of technology even

21:11 - 21:16
though we are, and we're here promoting things in in the outdoors and encouraging people

21:16 - 21:20
to get out and see things that have been around for, you know, to see the outdoors, which

21:20 - 21:26
is something that doesn't change very much by technology, but the way that we experience,

21:26 - 21:30
it certainly has changed, you know, in, of course, the imagery and everything that we

21:30 - 21:34
can share to inspire people to go there, but as you're mentioning, the hard products as well.

21:35 - 21:39
And so that's where it's been very, very important for us to, yeah, maintain that base and be

21:39 - 21:44
very that's why we do work so hard at kind of the promotion of the event and having all

21:44 - 21:48
the right things there because we want the right people there to see it. But you're right. The

21:48 - 21:53
differences in, in kind of the canoes from, you know, from feeling them over my head

21:53 - 21:59
back, you know, 25 years ago and having all the the cedar strips that weigh what they weigh,

21:59 - 22:05
versus all the Kevlar products that we have nowadays. And to have those at the event and

22:05 - 22:10
see those kind of as those got introduced and became more mainstream to see those, you

22:10 - 22:14
know, fly out the front doors was really, really cool, but to see real trippers actually put

22:14 - 22:18
them over their head and talk about them and see which which size is gonna be right for them

22:18 - 22:23
and what's gonna fit their type of paddling, but to see how much easier some of that

22:23 - 22:27
has become. And when we talk about, clothing and clothing technologies, we've been happy to

22:27 - 22:32
have a lot of partners as well who are, you know, just kind of showcase clothing, and,

22:32 - 22:37
hey, retailing has been, you know, it's not the easiest game to be in for these people who

22:37 - 22:42
do sell all kinds of hard goods as well as soft goods. And, so that's where, as I say,

22:42 - 22:47
we've been very, very grateful for all of our type of people, and we don't, we don't underestimate

22:47 - 22:50
the power of having them at the show and that we want them at the show and need them at the

22:50 - 22:53
show. And even, you know, I think of, yeah,

22:55 - 22:55
you know, Bill Ostrom

22:55 - 22:59
from Ostrom Outdoors who Yep. You know, who was one of our first supporters back

22:59 - 23:04
25 years ago, and I know he retired 3 or 4 years ago, and he might be even coming back with

23:04 - 23:08
some new technologies now. But, you know, I watched him evolve some of his pack technology,

23:08 - 23:15
which he always had such high quality, fantastic stuff, but then it evolved over the years

23:15 - 23:20
to become more lightweight, more waterproof, more durable, and even to see the technologies

23:20 - 23:25
that are getting people into the outdoors. Yeah. It's now getting to the next

23:25 - 23:30
generation even for me, where one of my son's friends, Jack Abrams has launched a company

23:30 - 23:35
called True Off Grid, which is has solar panels, you know, taking from the sun to be able to

23:35 - 23:39
charge your your items that you need to have charged to be able to

23:39 - 23:42
All your cameras and your GoPros and yep. Yep. Are

23:42 - 23:46
Yeah. All all of that. We used to see that technology come around where you used to have to

23:46 - 23:50
say, okay. How can you know, can I get enough batteries or this or that? Is this gonna last?

23:50 - 23:55
Well, now we're we're utilizing the sun and seeing some technology come in and,

23:55 - 24:01
obviously, some GPS technology to be able to, keep you on the right path as well as it has

24:01 - 24:05
been cool to watch come into the industry as well. So to have that sort of all evolve to make

24:05 - 24:11
things more accessible, I think that's been been really, really neat where, even, you know,

24:11 - 24:15
the world has gotten as it's gotten bigger, it's also gotten smaller where there are more connections

24:15 - 24:21
that people have, more access that people have to be able to, are to to travel to places and

24:21 - 24:25
communicate with other people to get the information that they need from from destinations,

24:25 - 24:30
you know, further afield, if you will. But, and that's also why we do try to get as big a cross

24:30 - 24:35
section of things, you know, internationally as well so that people can, yeah, talk to people

24:35 - 24:41
firsthand who has been there. Talk to people who have done these things before and learn about

24:41 - 24:45
them because there's nothing like that firsthand experience, that story

24:45 - 24:49
that you hear that's gonna inspire you to say, yeah. I'm gonna go. Excellent.

24:50 - 24:54
I will reference Dennis a million times just because I love his show. And, again, he pulls

24:54 - 24:59
so many people together. But there's a good one right there, destinations. He

24:59 - 25:06
was it the last show? I think it was the last show. He had, 2 fellows on from very far

25:06 - 25:11
away who came over and did a paddle through Algonquin park a pretty pretty substantial loop,

25:11 - 25:16
but it was a very cool, like, it because it was a destination thing. So and that was part of

25:16 - 25:21
what they did was they talked to people, were able to find out what the deal was. So, yeah, that

25:21 - 25:24
that's Yeah. That's cool.

25:25 - 25:29
Exactly. And just and introducing new people, like, we've been fortunate are in Destination

25:30 - 25:35
Ontario, you know, who used to be a former title sponsor of the event, Ontario Tourism for

25:35 - 25:40
years and years. They were such an awesome partner. And G Adventures is now our title sponsor

25:40 - 25:45
who kind of loves to meet all the people we have, who like to travel around the world. But Ontario,

25:45 - 25:49
yeah, and they're back in the fold again are cheer, which they've always supported the event,

25:49 - 25:55
but they're back back in line with space. And they've always, you know, been a been

25:55 - 26:00
a great partner in terms of are promoting what's going on in Ontario and getting

26:00 - 26:06
all the different type of destinations and places where people can go, but they've

26:06 - 26:10
really wanted to showcase this to new Canadians as well. And they've understood that as immigration

26:10 - 26:15
has come in as well and we've seen new Canadians, they've sort of put a special focus on saying,

26:15 - 26:19
how can we get new people? You know, when you talk about people from Scotland getting in a

26:19 - 26:23
canoe potentially for the first time in Ontario, well, we've had so many, you know,

26:23 - 26:28
such a shift in some of our, population demographics around Ontario, and it's important

26:28 - 26:33
to expose this to as many people as possible, you know, the great beauties that we have out

26:33 - 26:39
there. So they've always wanted to to have some focus, on kind of some new Canadians,

26:39 - 26:44
and we're thrilled to also have are some great talks on indigenous tourism, and indigenous tourism

26:44 - 26:49
Ontario also has a really big booth at the event this year and as, you know, giving people

26:49 - 26:54
some some great talks as well on all the different educational things you can learn about all

26:54 - 26:59
aspects of indigenous tourism and how we can, you know, go back in the past to learn,

26:59 - 27:03
yeah, what we still need to learn from some of those aspects and, which just exposes more to

27:03 - 27:05
people who who like the outdoors.

27:06 - 27:11
Awesome. You talked about all the planning that goes into putting together a show, but we're

27:11 - 27:16
just curious about was there some time that it didn't go off as planned? A speaker was

27:16 - 27:20
sick at the last moment. Something happened that was out of your control.

27:21 - 27:22
Well, COVID happened.

27:22 - 27:27
Yeah. I would assume that that would be a bit of wrench. Yes.

27:27 - 27:31
So that was, you know, that's kind of and so the last event that we did before COVID,

27:31 - 27:36
we were very fortunate. Yeah. Consider us fortunate though still. And, we're

27:36 - 27:41
all fortunate to be here and sharing these times still. But, we were able to do our Outdoor

27:41 - 27:46
Adventure Show in Toronto in February of 2020, and then we went on to Vancouver. So it's

27:46 - 27:51
usually a back to back for us, 1st weekend in Vancouver. And, Les Stroud, Survivorman, who's

27:51 - 27:56
gonna be back at the event this year and, who's a good friend as well

27:56 - 28:01
and got to know him. He's been such a great supporter of the show. You know, and he's a guy

28:01 - 28:05
as well. And when I reference people like Camper Christina, you know, I remember when Les just

28:05 - 28:10
started out as a kind of, hey, I'm out there making movies, and I'm out just shooting

28:10 - 28:16
myself living alone for for a year. But, and then and then to are Go on to see what this show

28:16 - 28:23
became was absolutely incredible. But, but I can vividly remember sitting in Vancouver, March

28:23 - 28:29
are 5, 6 of 2020. And this thing called COVID, we were literally just learning, or coronavirus,

28:29 - 28:32
we're probably still calling it at the time. And I remember sitting in the show office with

28:32 - 28:37
Les. It was a little more active in Vancouver even at the time, but I remember

28:37 - 28:41
with him saying, what should we do? Because he's a huge meet and greet guy, and he's a get in

28:41 - 28:45
there with the handshake. And he's like, what should we do? And I said, Les, it's totally

28:45 - 28:49
obviously, it's your call. You know, you do what you want, but I don't know how we're and we

28:49 - 28:53
were you know, that was still the times when we were like, wow. There's only 15 cases here,

28:53 - 28:57
and there's no way it's there. And this can't go on for long, but, anyways, he was he

28:57 - 29:01
was great. He said, okay. Just put some hand sanitizer beside me, and I'm gonna meet and greet

29:01 - 29:06
with absolutely everybody, which he did. And he did such an incredible performance for us, but

29:06 - 29:12
that became, are the last show that we did corporately, we missed our show that year

29:12 - 29:18
and had to cancel them in Calgary and in Montreal, unfortunately, but that was

29:18 - 29:24
a real sort of hard stop for it, which became, you know, obviously went on for a year

29:24 - 29:28
and a half before or 2 years before we were able to to get our events back on the rails. And

29:28 - 29:33
those became things where, you know, I think the industry knew we were there for them. We tried

29:33 - 29:38
to do some things virtually, which was great to share digital opportunities to connect our exhibitors

29:38 - 29:42
with our are our audience, and so we try to do some things to help our exhibitors and also to

29:42 - 29:48
keep our our attendees engaged and give them ideas, so we created some unique things. Are Yeah.

29:48 - 29:53
And, boy, in terms of, other event story. So that was the big one. But, you know, I remember

29:54 - 29:59
we have a 30,000 gallon pool at the show the Whitewater Wave Pool, which we've

29:59 - 30:04
had around for a while. And, I remember we were in Vancouver, actually, so this was a different

30:05 - 30:05


30:05 - 30:09
year in Vancouver, and it was fortunately during setup. I say fortunate because it wasn't when

30:09 - 30:24
the show was actually on. And this pool started to come down, and I remember my show manager,

30:24 - 30:28
Crystal, who I mentioned earlier, kind of grabbing one end of the pool and saying, Fred, I got

30:28 - 30:30
this one. I'll hold it up.

30:30 - 30:30


30:30 - 30:32
Put your finger in the dike.

30:32 - 30:38
And we're at the port of Vancouver where, where there's a whole bunch of, port equipment

30:38 - 30:44
down in the level below, which is very expensive equipment that kinda runs the whole

30:44 - 30:49
port system in terms of boats in and out of Vancouver. So that water started to flow from

30:49 - 30:55
the second floor down to the first floor, and it wasn't good. It wasn't good. So we've had,

30:56 - 31:00
yeah, we've had everything from that and that. So that pretty much soaked the whole show floor.

31:00 - 31:06
We somehow managed to fill it halfway up and convince the, health and safety people at

31:06 - 31:10
the facility the next day that we could jimmy something with some of our pool guys who were

31:10 - 31:14
there, and they were able to get a pool that was half full for us to do some demos in for

31:14 - 31:19
the weekend. But we certainly had lots of other things of, you know, being our dates at the

31:19 - 31:26
end of February, we've had lots are snowstorms, and, you know, weather incidents hit us

31:26 - 31:30
in different ways. And the one thing we've been thankful for is that we're dealing with outdoor

31:30 - 31:34
adventure customers and our exhibitors as well, but it's amazing how many people just

31:34 - 31:38
put their cars in 4 wheel drive and get there and get there because they love the show,

31:38 - 31:39
and it's something they want to do.

31:39 - 31:40


31:40 - 31:41
Unfazed by weather.

31:41 - 31:42
We're going anyhow.

31:42 - 31:46
Yep. Yeah. It's a really hearty audience. That's for sure. So we've been, we've been lucky to

31:46 - 31:50
have you know, it's been a great group to work with, and that's why we work so hard at trying

31:50 - 31:56
to, reach out to these people and inspire more people every year. And we're

31:56 - 32:00
really looking forward to seeing our campaign this year. We have such a dynamic campaign,

32:00 - 32:05
sort of using a lot more neat video from our presenters who are gonna be at the show to sort

32:05 - 32:09
of, get them out through various social media channels as well and show them more

32:09 - 32:13
of what's gonna go on at the show and just, you know, it's all about continuing to reach

32:13 - 32:19
a new audience and show people we can all, we can all, continue to to learn and, which

32:19 - 32:30
is what the show is all about, really learning and being inspired, and that's where tell

32:30 - 32:35
you how. I'm still looking forward to it. Alright. Well, I can't thank you enough.

32:35 - 32:40
That's amazing. I literally had to do nothing. Sit back here and drink some water because

32:40 - 32:46
I got a bit of a throat thing. Thanks for coming out, Fred. What a great visit.

32:46 - 32:51
Thank you for so much learning for about the show. Like, I knew it was a big

32:51 - 32:55
thing, but I didn't know what how the nuts and bolts would go together and stuff. So thanks

32:55 - 33:00
very much for explaining that, and thanks for putting it on. Like, thanks for for having

33:00 - 33:06
that inspiration for so many people and giving it a location for those people to

33:06 - 33:11
come to get that information, to get more of them out there. Or at the very least

33:11 - 33:17
to get no. To get more of them out there and to get more of them out there better with

33:17 - 33:22
more learning, with better equipment, all the things. Thanks for doing what you do, man.

33:22 - 33:28
Well, thank you very much. We appreciate, yeah, you helping, promote the event and being,

33:28 - 33:33
you know, it's again, passion like yours that's what kind of keeps us going. And,

33:33 - 33:37
because, yeah, it's certainly not an easy business, and you have to be hardy as you do endure

33:37 - 33:41
a lot of the things is that the questions you asked, Pamela. But, boy, it's worth it when

33:41 - 33:45
you see people out there and the smiles on their faces and the conversations just happening,

33:45 - 33:49
you know, from attendee to attendee, not only, you know, forget about the wonderful ones

33:49 - 33:54
between the exhibitors and the attendees, but it's there's so much to learn, and it's, but it

33:54 - 33:58
really does become worth it. It becomes something that's very inspirational to all of our

33:58 - 34:02
company to put this on. So we're proud to do it, and, yeah, we really appreciate your support too.

34:02 - 34:08
Thank you so much to our special guest, Fred Cox from National Event Management Inc, who is

34:08 - 34:13
the the organizer/presenter of the Outdoor Adventure show which we're very much looking forward

34:13 - 34:19
to it attending at the end of February here in Toronto. And that's it for us for today. I am Pamela.

34:19 - 34:20
I'm still Tim.

34:20 - 34:25
And we are from supergoodcamping.com. Please do reach out to us on all the social media and

34:25 - 34:30
follow us on YouTube. We would love to have more YouTube subscribers. Our email address is hi@supergoodcamping.com.

34:32 - 34:36
That's hi@supergoodcamping.com. We'll talk to you again soon.

34:36 - 34:37
Bye. Bye.