From scale to value: how major outdoor trade shows are evolving

Outdoor Retailer has just wrapped up an edition in Minneapolis that illustrates just how much the model for major trade fairs is changing. Its debut in the city attracted more than 1,800 attendees and 275 brands. In 2018, when Outdoor Retailer and the SIA Snow Show jointly held their first major event in Denver, there were more than 29,000 attendees, 7,500 accredited buyers and more than 1,000 brands.

The comparison has its limitations: the format, the schedule, the duration and, above all, the market have all changed. But it is difficult to find a clearer illustration of the transformation that has taken place over the last decade.

And Outdoor Retailer is not an isolated case. OutDoor by ISPO did not take place in 2025, but OUTDOOR has returned this year in Riva del Garda (Italy) in a completely different format. ISPO is leaving Munich and will embark on a new chapter in Amsterdam this November. Meanwhile, highly specialised events such as INTERALPIN and Mountain Planet continue to attract large numbers of visitors.

We are not witnessing the end of trade fairs. What seems to be losing its purpose is the undifferentiated trade fair – the one whose main selling point was to bring together as many exhibitors, visitors and square metres as possible.

The exhibitors themselves seem to confirm this. The AUMA Exhibitor Outlook 2026/2027, based on a survey of 404 companies, shows that

“97.5 per cent still regard trade fairs as essential platforms for exchange, innovation and generating business”

However, the average number of expected participations has fallen slightly, from 5.4 to 5.1. AUMA interprets this trend as a shift towards fewer trade fairs, but ones that are strategically more relevant. This does not represent a move away from in-person events; rather, it reflects greater scrutiny of their value.

When bringing the whole industry together was enough

For decades, ISPO, Outdoor Retailer, the SIA Snow Show and OutDoor had one undeniable advantage: they brought the market together. Brands, buyers, distributors, suppliers, the media and competitors all travelled to the same venue on the same dates.

Furthermore, the trade fair used to be one of the main venues for discovering new products. With the digitalisation of processes and communication, this seems to have changed.

A buyer can find out a great deal about a collection before seeing it in person. They have received catalogues and samples, held online meetings and consulted B2B platforms. The fair no longer controls access to information.

That is why it has to offer something that is far more difficult to achieve via a screen: efficient access to the right people.

Outdoor Retailer seems to have got the message. The organisation speaks openly of a ‘reset’ and has rebuilt a large part of its offering around qualified retailers, emerging brands, training and content creation.

The results from Minneapolis are particularly interesting because of the new metrics it uses. The event exceeded its target of 400 qualified retailers and brought together more than 150 media representatives and creators. Its Wild Reach programme generated more than 850 connections between creators and brands, with a potential combined audience of 21.2 million people.

Outdoor Retailer is much smaller than it was a decade ago. But it is also aiming to be much more focused. And it has already confirmed that it will return to Minneapolis in 2027.

OUTDOOR: disappearing only to return in a different form

The history of OutDoor is even more revealing. The OutDoor by ISPO event held in Munich in 2024 brought together 595 exhibitors and 7,643 trade visitors. The organisers sought to revamp the model for 2025: more retailers, lower costs, new exhibition formats and an offering that would provide a greater return for brands. The industry itself was calling for a higher ROI, greater efficiency and a more evenly distributed financial burden.

In the end, the 2025 edition did not take place, but the story did not end there. In May 2026, OUTDOOR returned to Italy, in Riva del Garda, as part of the first European Outdoor Week. Rather than simply rebuilding another large conventional exhibition hall, the event combined a trade fair, industry meetings, sustainability initiatives, media coverage, innovation, awards and product testing sessions.

The week welcomed more than 8,000 professionals from over 60 countries. The OUTDOOR & ORBDAYS section brought together more than 250 exhibitors, over 400 brands and around 2,700 buyers. As a result, the European Outdoor Group and MagNet have committed to continuing the event in Riva del Garda until at least 2029.

“The market did not necessarily reject the need for a major European outdoor event. It simply stopped supporting a particular way of organising it.”

The response has been to bring together, over the course of a week, an exhibition, executive meetings, media events, product experiences and innovation. Less of an ‘isolated trade fair’ approach and more of an ‘ecosystem’ approach.

Mountain Planet and INTERALPIN are playing another round

Nor does this trend affect all segments in the same way. Mountain Planet 2026 welcomed more than 21,000 industry professionals to Grenoble, representing a 4.5 per cent increase on the previous edition, with more than 480 exhibitors and 65 countries represented. The need for more space led to the use of 60,000 m² and the opening of a second hall.

INTERALPIN brought together 650 companies and 36,800 professionals in Innsbruck in 2025. But there are two figures that are far more interesting than the sheer numbers: around 75 per cent of its visitors have decision-making authority over purchases, and more than 80 per cent of those decision-makers attend with specific investment projects.

Anyone involved in planning a ski lift, a snow-making system, a snow groomer, a ticketing solution or the digitalisation of a ski resort is working on projects that can last several years and involve millions of euros. These decisions involve resort operators, manufacturers, engineering firms, public authorities, technicians and suppliers. Bringing them all together in person remains of enormous value.

This is something we were able to see for ourselves at Mountain Planet: people don’t just go there to see technology. They go to meet a key part of the ecosystem that will subsequently play a part in the decisions that will transform a resort or a region. Even before the 2026 edition, we at I Love Ski highlighted precisely this combination of industry, operators and destination management as one of its distinguishing features.

“The more comprehensive the ecosystem is and the greater the actual decision-making capacity of its visitors, the easier it is to justify the journey.”

The figures from AUMA are once again revealing here: amongst exhibitors at capital goods trade fairs, 85.4 per cent consider trade fairs to be important or very important as part of their marketing strategy.

Visitor numbers still matter, but they don’t mean the same thing to everyone

This does not mean that high attendance figures have ceased to be significant. A trade fair is also a driver of the regional economy. A study by Prognos, commissioned by AUMA, estimates that trade fair events generate around 29,900 million euros in annual economic activity in Germany. Visitors alone spend around 4,000 million.

For a city, therefore, attracting 30,000 people can mean benefits for hotels, the catering sector, transport, employment, tax revenue and international visibility. For an exhibitor who has invested tens of thousands of euros, the question is a different one.

He wants to know how many strategic buyers he has found, which potential distributors he has met, which projects he has identified, and the volume of opportunities in his pipeline.

“The organiser, the host region and the exhibitor do not necessarily measure success using the same indicators.”

And companies are refining their own metrics. The AUMA study shows that around 49 per cent already assess the outcome of a trade fair primarily in terms of leads, contacts and new customer acquisition. Only around 4 per cent use brand awareness or visibility as their main indicator of success.

A trade fair attended by 8,000 professionals can be extremely profitable for a company if the 200 people it needs to find are there.

ISPO Amsterdam: the experiment yet to be observed

ISPO is probably the most important event still to come. After more than five decades in Munich, it will embark on a new chapter at the RAI Amsterdam from 3 to 5 November 2026. As we discussed in I Love Ski when the move was announced, the change of city is part of a much more far-reaching reorganisation of the model.

Raccoon Media Group and Messe München have committed 3 million euros to reposition the event. One million is earmarked specifically for a Hosted Buyer Programme designed to connect around 500 buyers with brands through targeted meetings; another million is allocated to content and a third to engagement and impact initiatives. ISPO expects more than 25,000 industry professionals and already has over 850 confirmed exhibitors.

Even the schedule is significant: 3 November will be set aside for the Leaders’ Summit, whilst the exhibition will take place on the 4th and 5th. There is an even more revealing detail. Since August, ISPO has been offering retailers the chance to put together personalised itineraries highlighting the brands, people and sessions most relevant to their business. It is hard to find a clearer illustration of this change. For decades, the main product of a trade fair was floor space.

Now the organiser is taking on a greater responsibility: ensuring that the people who justify the venue being booked turn up, and helping visitors make the most of their time there.

“The scarce resource is no longer the square metre. It is the decision-maker’s time.”

Outdoor Retailer is seeking to rebuild its profitability by focusing on retailers, emerging brands and content. OUTDOOR has returned as part of a wider ecosystem. ISPO is focusing on selected buyers and structured meetings. Mountain Planet and INTERALPIN remain strong because they bring together highly specialised sectors and major investment decisions.

These are different answers to the same question: What can a trade fair offer that is valuable enough to justify several days’ travel, time and budget? Paradoxically, the easier it becomes to discover a product or hold a meeting via a computer, the more valuable a face-to-face professional meeting can become.

But simply being there no longer seems to be enough. Major trade fairs do not need to get any bigger. They need to remain indispensable.