Super excited to be bringing the first-ever Outdoor Recreation (OREC) case competition to the industry. We are bringing in OREC directors from 8 different states to bring you the toughest problem facing their departments. Everyone in the room divides into teams and brainstorms solutions then present their solutions to the room. It’s a great way to crowdsource ideas from the sharpest minds in the outdoor industry and to get awesome prizes along the way!

Think globally, act locally. Outdoor enthusiasts who want to make a difference on climate change, water / land conservation, healthy forests and more need to be informed, engaged and active in their local communities — and local journalism connects them to these issues, each other, and a lot more. While the old ways of producing and sustaining local news are disappearing, a new wave of innovative, community-centered local news is emerging. Join Meghan Parker of the Society of Environmental Journalists, Melissa Davis of the Gates Family Foundation, and Linda Shapley of Colorado Community Media to learn how local, national and corporate philanthropy are helping to catalyze transformation in local journalism — and how you can partner with local reporters on powerful and mission-driven projects.

When the words “blog monetization” are mentioned, many minds immediately go to ad sales. Think again. These two speakers have figured out how to make a good living my running blogs that they are passionate about. Michael Lanza, founder of The Big Outside, has a different formula where ad sales plays a role, but not the dominant role in the overall revenue picture. Jessica Williams, founder of You Did What With Your Weiner has found that some revenue streams that don’t work for other bloggers seem to work for her. Learn the secrets that have made Michael and Jessica successful as one person media operations.

Don’t just drive traffic, use Amazon (or Etsy) search data to drive the right traffic to your product pages. Without using search data, you’ll end up spending money on too competitive, too broad, or just plain wrong keywords. Learn how to optimize your content and ad strategies to get sales and lower costs.
Topics Discussed Include:
-How to stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace
-How to index and rank for your main keywords, improve your click through rates and conversion rates to grow your sales
-How to make simple content adjustments that can boost your discoverability
-New tools and tactics for keyword research

Rebranding is a pain in the ass. It’s expensive, it’s hard and it’s not something to take on without good reason. Yet the risks are often outweighed by the benefits when done correctly. These companies have gone through successful rebrands and this session will examine four different case studies from a publisher’s perspective, an agency and conference perspective, a hard goods perspective and a supplement brand’s perspective.

“Within 5 years, more than 50% of publicly traded companies will have a Chief Community Officer” — Alexis Ohanian

The power of community is clear, and with Facebook shifting focus and investment into groups since 2020 (there’s even a secret group for ‘power admins’!) this platform is ripe for building an audience of evangelists that could be the secret sauce for your growth. .

But it takes work! Join (names) to learn tangible takeaways for using groups to drive sales, break into regional groups while maintaining one brand voice, and keeping your community engaged + growing organically.

Understand the process of generating partnership-driven editorial content using affiliate marketing programs as the foundation. From program set-up and management best practices, to the required materials, costs and expectations, this session will provide key tips that can help brands generate content from bloggers, commerce editors, social influencers, and other partnership types.

Outdoor Media Awards is where we celebrate the best voices in the outdoor industry from 2020.

When NPD looks at consumer behaviour data for the outdoor industry, they are able to pull some insight into who the customers are. One thing they are seeing right now is a boom in new outdoor participants, people who are experiencing the outdoors for the first time. Kay Rodriguez, founder of Urban Outdoors, Courtney Lanctot, founder of The Unpopular Black, Rick Stella, senior editor, Business Insider, and Kristin Canning, features editor, Women’s Health, will go deeper and share insights into who these new participants really are and how the outdoor industry can accommodate them.

For this year’s post-conference activity, we’ll go for a group hike and take in some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world.

OMS 2021 is officially over but the faithful who remain, we will be doing a post-conference group hike!

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Robin Thurston has reinvented and changed the game of traditional subscription business models and is on a mission to create the ultimate active lifestyle network. He recognized a need for a platform that brought together all aspects of the outdoor ecosystem and launched Outside+, a premium subscription bundle combining all of the Outside brands into a single offering. This digital content hub is the first of its kind, bringing content, commerce, and community together under one umbrella. Robin has redesigned Outside’s offerings to represent the future of media and how to create a sustainable subscription model.

Publishing has changed and journalism as we know it, it’s in a crisis. As a result, many new monetization models have sprung up in an effort to keep outlets alive. Brian Smith, senior content marketing manager, Outside Magazine, Eve O’Neill, senior staff writer, Wirecutter and Michael Calore, senior editor at Wired, have figured out how to use affiliate revenue, paywalls, and branded content to fund their publications’ journalism. While these monetization models are certainly not mutually exclusive, these editors will share pros and cons of each.

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If a product isn’t Best of Show worthy, it won’t win a Best in Show. But not all Best of Show worthy products get the attention needed to win the awards they deserve. Veteran PR professional Eric Henderson will share his formula for getting the attention of top outdoor editors to win best in show awards and getting into gear guides, while Sean McCoy, editorial director of Gear Junkie, Switchback Travel, iRunFar, Explorers and others, will share his team’s process for combing through product while at tradeshows, selecting products for buying guides and winning the coveted GJ Gear of Year award.

It’s all about lifestyle (and sometimes health insurance). If you work in media, you know how volatile the industry can feel — it’s not uncommon to think about job leaps, whether it’s from freelancer to editor, staff writer to brand copywriter, journalist to PR. There are a lot of options out there for media professionals, but navigating these lines takes some finesse. These successful media professionals will tell you how and why they made career jumps from pure play media to brand to destination marketing organization and further afield. And why some of their career switches made them come running back to the outdoor industry.

Who knew that there is such a breadth of legal knowledge within the outdoor media community!? Two attorneys involved in outdoor blogging and influencing walk participants through essential legal issues every brand and content creator should know: trademark basics, contract documents and terms, and ways to limit your personal liability. These outdoorsy attorneys will provide you with ideas for a few tools to use as you formalize and protect your content, blog, or brand.

Join marketing leaders from Outdoorsy, the most-trusted global online RV rental and outdoor travel marketplace, to learn why they put their brand mission into action every day – and why you should too. Learn about how their business changed during COVID, how they leaned into organic channels to tell their story and why that all led them to double down on being a business that gives back. Whether it’s to stand out from the competition or just to be a brand that matters, values matter and Outdoorsy will share how you can put your mission into action.

Covid has changed everything. Suddenly, the outdoor industry is the center of attention for hot button political, economic and social issues. Lisa Aangeenbrug, executive director of Outdoor Industry Association will share insight into the industry’s role in shaping these issues and where the industry will go in the future.

Covid has changed the press trip game for DMOs and content creators. Deborah Park, who currently manages Visit Estes Park’s communications strategy, will share insights on the state of press trips from a DMO perspective. Monica, host of the Monica Goes show, will share her tips for pitching a DMO in a way that ensures you still get paid, despite the shrinking budgets due to Covid.

The hashtags #KeepItPublic and #RunWildMyChild both have something in common; they were started through grassroots efforts that went viral. But these campaigns were no accident. They were meticulously designed and planned to ensure that they would have the highest chance of success. Now that they’ve gone viral, they’ll deliver results for years. Learn how to design your own hashtag campaign in this session.

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TikTok isn’t just for teens. With 2.6 billion global downloads and growing, TikTok isn’t going away anytime soon. And it’s certainly more relevant to brands and media today than it was yesterday. Listen to strategies from @wadehollandmedia, @nationalforests and @bonjourbecky on how to get started on TikTok and explode your organic reach.

Creating content is the hard part. Once you’ve put in the time and effort to write and create images for a feature, don’t stop there. Nicole Feliciano, founder of Momtrends.com, turned skiing articles from the website into a profitable, annual stand-alone print ski guide. She will help you master the art of taking existing blog content to build larger audiences and attract new readers. Kay Rodriguez, founder of UrbanOutdoors.com, will share the many ways she molds a single piece of content across various blog posts and pages, social media, and email marketing to create cohesive messages and cut down production time.

If you’re still stuck in the world of batch and blast, chances are your Open Rates, Clickthrough Rates and ultimately, Conversion Rates are suffering. But automated email isn’t that hard; you’ll need to learn the basics of email segmentation, foundational automated emails (welcome series, abandoned cart, post purchase), and drip content series. These email experts will show you how they navigate strategies so you can keep your customers more engaged with your brand.

We’ll break everyone up into teams for this interactive, hilarious and collaborative tour of Estes Park. Teams will compete at stations for swag, paid gigs and bragging rights. Be ready to bike, climb and fish all over town (for technical stuff – you’ll pick a representative on your team so don’t worry – we’re not going to have you hucking drops or on sighting unfamiliar climbs – unless you want to). Also be ready to walk around for a couple hours at elevation in the wet and cold! (if this doesn’t sound like a good time, hit us up and we’ll figure out a different arrangement for you!)

Whew! All that walking and competing sure builds an appetite. Time to chow down, drink and relaaax.