Another TRE in the books…
We jumped so quickly in to the holidays after this year’s TRE, I didn’t get to post my thoughts on the event. Here’s a quick re-cap…
The Running Event has come to be one of our most important industry events of the year for our business and along the way, we’ve made a whole lot of good friends as well.
It was exciting to unveil the positive results of the first annual Great Store Makeover to the whole industry on day one of the seminar sessions. We shared some behind the scenes insights about how the transformation actually took place, all while the winning store, Independence Run & Hike, stayed open for business! During the Q & A session with the store owner and manager after my presentation, Brion After (store owner), shared that much to his pleasant surprise, not only were his customers patient with the construction mess in the store, many of them didn’t even seem to notice as they hopped over piles of sawdust and equipment throughout the store to get to their favorite shoes or apparel in the midst of the chaos!
The Big Reveal video is posted below so you can see for yourself what an impact we had on the store during this transformation.
In addition to making this presentation at the show, I got a chance to hear podcast guru and public speaker, Scott Stratten. He spoke much about how the single most important thing driving your success in business is your relationships. Period. And, Scott, I have to agree with you on that one. At the end of the day, if a client doesn’t like you, they’re really not motivated to do business with you. I look forward to listening to more of Scott’s point of view in his regular podcast ; “Unpodcast”
I also gathered lots of insight from running industry veterans during a roundtable session I participated in about “The Store of the The Future”. This was an open forum discussion where store owners shared ideas of how they are working in their stores to drive retail traffic, keep people in their space longer and getting them to continue coming back.
Of course walking through the trade show and seeing new product is always inspiring, as is catching up with old friends along the way and sampling the endless culinary options in Austin’s restaurant scene right out the front door of the Convention Center. Our favorite hole in the wall finds this trip included Stubb’s BBQ and Koriente, a virtual goldmine Asian rice bowl establishment that certainly delivered to all the 5 star ratings it had online.
We left Austin feeling exhausted, inspired, invigorated and ready to dive in to the many specialty store remodel leads we had in our notebooks. Right after we take a nap, that is…
Looking forward to doing it all over again in 2016 in the new venue of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. Hope to see you there!