More from the Outdoor Retailer Show

I’m back in the office after spending a few days at the Outdoor Retailer Show. This was a fantastic event for NOLS. More and more people are recognizing NOLS and our unique role in the outdoor industry.

I continued to run across NOLS grads throughout the show—NOLS grads and former board members Ben Toland, Kate Williams and Jed Williamson were there. Ben does marketing consulting for a number of outdoor organizations. Kate is the executive director of The Northern Forest Canoe Trail. Jed is the president of Sterling College, which has a strong outdoor focus. A few other grads I met include: Matt Colon, a Fall Semester in the Rockies grad is now writing for Backpackinglight Magazine; Ariel Rotem runs several outdoor shops in Israel; two-time NOLS grad, Todd Walton does marketing for Outdoor Research (OR’s CEO is NOLS grad Dan Nordstrom); and Bobby Jackson is involved with sales for Keen Footwear.

Saturday brought a fun meeting with Ryan Cruithirds of Spenco Medical Products. Spenco supported 15 scholarships at NOLS this summer. It was great being able to say thank you in person on behalf of 15 grateful NOLS students.

I had a very productive meeting with Chris Doyle of the Adventure Travel Trade Association. He updated me on the upcoming Adventure Travel World Summit. I will be doing two presentations at the Summit. The line-up of sessions and presenters is very impressive (not sure how I made it onto the agenda!). This should be a very educational and important conference for everyone who is involved in taking people outdoors.

While I was off talking with Chris, ESPN’s “Cold Pizza” was interviewing NOLS Bus stalwart, Matthew Copeland at the Bus. Hopefully we’ll be seeing the NOLS Bus on ESPN soon!

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director