The scene - Wow. We hosted by the ASCI Whitewater Center. This artificial river sits atop a mountain in Maryland and overlooks some amazing scenery, a ski hill and a grand amount of population. It also sits in the midst of some classic whitewater rivers… Upper Yough etc. The place operates much like a ski hill. Folks show up in a parking lot at the top (different) of the run, sign in, pay a bit of cash, change in a locker room and climb into the water via a nice beachy type setting. Off they go. Run the river, play, drop, slide on neat cement toys and get down the river… then they simply slide up onto a conveyor belt and get lifted back to the top. You need to know, that once on the river, you’re on a river. I have a ton to say about this facility. It can definitely be a part of blowing away the myths surrounding kayaking, it can expose casual observers to our sport (many people just hanging and walking along the shore watching us play) and it gives many more opportunities for folks to get in to the sport in a safe environment!

The symposium
Kent Ford, Bruce Lessels, Bob Campbell and the gang at ASCI were all the architects and builders of this weekend. Bob and the ASCI staff (Nancy, Matt were killer!) made sure that anything logistically was well taken care of. But the key were the subjects and the discussions! This event represents a kind of thinktank and attracts many of our industry’s leaders… and, more importantly, many who want a future in our industry. The end result was a great combination of experience and youthful excitement. If you want to figure out your path in this sport, you need to be here next year!

Rounding out the discussion groups as presenters the forums were hosted by the likes of Ken Whiting, Eric Jackson, Eugene Buchanan, Bruce Lessels, Anna Levesque, AW’s Mark Singleton, ACA’s Jeremy Oyen, Joe Jacobe, Dave Hughes, Mary
DeRiemer, Sam Fowlkes and some new faces like Robert Kauffman. Subject matters varied from instructional approach to growing the industry, to marketing and best business practice.

The conversations that stuck most in my mind included some great chatter about ‘making money in the industry’ a open discussion lead by Anna Levesque and with EJ, Ken Whiting and a few others chiming in. The discussion turned to repping, saw EJ’s top 10 ways to make money, listened to Ken’s thoughts on better business practice and a challenge to get more young and up ‘n comers to the summit next year to learn from all this. Bruce Lessels of Zoar Outdoors was another stand out with, not only his involvement as an organizer, but held a large, collective workshop on the future of kayaking… what we all thought it would look like in 2020. We split off in groups and each group took an area of our industry (Image, gear, community…) and wrote down what we would dream of seeing in 2020. Then shared it all in a series of presentations. I don’t remember laughing so hard in a while… but the end result was a very neat snap shot of what things can be… again, super positive! Robert Kauffman was the surprise of the weekend with a talk about how today’s youth and cultural direction are pointing away from outdoors, and our sport. Internet (oops), video games, perceptions of what Nature is etc. are all going to effect our industry. This was an eye opener for sure. Eugene Buchanan lead a discussion on media. My first thought after exiting that meeting was… If you are hoping to market a new product to our industry, you needed to be in that meeting.

World Kayak was there for our first appearance. Colin and I joined in as many conversations as we could and came away with an absolutely positive experience. We talked about our programs at length and saw many nodding heads and got all sides of feedback… the good and bad. Thankfully many of the things we presented were encouraged… especially from some of the folks there we have respected for a long time. We have a long way to go, but if this was any indication of the appreciation we will be getting in the future… we’ll definitely stay motivated!

The conversations were all about growth. The common denominator for all at the seminars and round tables is enthusiasm… and it is enthusiasm with which you leave the WW symposium with! I strongly recommend this program for all those hoping to participate in the industry in any way… this is for you! It is your opportunity to share with some of the best and clearly see where the future is and how you can tap into it. It is learning, it is teaching and it’s important that as many minds participate as possible!

www.wwsymposium.com