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for the love of bicycles
it's not a state of affairs exclusive to cycling, but many of us who adore our cycles and cycling in general, however that translates, harbour a secret desire to work in the industry in some way, even if it came down to popping bike boxes onto the open rear end of a truck (no disrespect intended to those who actually do this for a living; it's probably one of the more essential tasks for those of us eagerly awaiting a new velocipede). but, just as in other strains of life, there are a wide variety of facets visible and do-able in the cycle industry. but sometimes turning a serious hobby or pastime into a business comes unstuck; what was once a labour of love suddenly becomes a just labour because what was once an option, is now a necessity: other people are depending on you.
so what separates those who have an undying love of the world of bicycles and successfully turn this endearment into a successful business? how do these people find others who will love what they do just as much, and enough to buy into the philosophy? how does the branding and marketing succeed? and assuming this can be bottled, have they words of wisdom that can apply to others who too wish to get into the business, and is it translatable to other areas of commerce?
these questions are both theoretical and practical, but wouldn't it be nice if we, as an interested audience, could listen to the meaning of life, the universe and everything as it relates to the subject in hand? substance, progenitors of new communicators are in total agreement here, and in order to at least partially solve the problem, have organised a summit of minds in portland on october 29th. as fans of the oregon manifest and organisers of projects such as rideoregonride.com and belovedcycles.com they wanted to create an event that captures an amalgam of ideas into a comprehensive panel that would cover a wide area of ground. stephen landau of substance explained; "specifically, we wanted to create an event that brought different people who are involved in different aspects of cycling together to talk about how they communicate."
the illustrious panel who will hold court in the gerding theatre on nw eleventh avenue, portland consists of jonathan maus, founder and editor in chief of bikeportland.org, the inestimable mr slate olson, rapha's general manager in the north america, natalie ramsland, owner and builder at sweetpea bicycles, and heidi swift, newspaper columnist, photographer and bike racer. the motley crew will be moderated by david lowe-rogstad, co-founder of substance, a former bike racer and participator in this year's cross crusade.
stephen landau again; " we hope the event will help cycling-related businesses understand some of the different ways of marketing, branding and communicating with their audience, as well as giving people in general, different ideas on how they too can have similar conversations with clients/customers etc."
i find this a rather interesting concept, one that i'm surprised hasn't come to the fore previously, though much like the very best ideas, it seems startlingly obvious when someone else gets there first. maybe we should have more of this, but not confine it to portland, since i can think of a number of candidates for a similar seminar on this side of the atlantic. when in london a couple of years ago with my daughter, after she'd been dragged at least partially uwilling round a number of cycling related ports of call, at end of day remarked,"cycling people are really nice."
in this, she was right on the money: since big bucks are rarely a result of endeavour in the cycle industry, the majority of those involved are there for the love of bicycles and cycling. if we believe this to be true, it would seem almost criminal not to capitalise on this wealth of experience and enthusiasm, which won't necessarily reach the ears and eyes of civilians through regular commercial channels. but surely those in the cycle industry aren't so very different from those in other walks of life?
"i don't think that those involved in cycling communicate in a different way; it was more that each of those on the panel loves what they do and have figured out how to either build a business or be involved in cycling for work. I definitely think there are opportunities for non-cyclists to learn and extrapolate the ways these people communicate." stephen landau. "we debated if we should only have cycling-related people or just have one cycling person and pull other industries into the conversation, but in the end this was what we were really excited about so went with it.
"in the panel discussion, we're going to steer part of the conversation away from cycling-specific stuff and more into how people are using different technology and events to engage with people so non-cycling people get a better idea of how they can take these examples as inspiration."
west coast design icons, emigre, were propagators of the phrase - design is a good idea. seems that substance have deftly grafted the word bicycling in place of design.. here's hoping it doesn't stop at eleventh avenue.
the new communicators | substance | j'aime cyclisme t-shirt available from prendas ciclismo
posted friday 16 october 2009
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