The current restrictions on international travel and social contacts are leading Oberalp to organize a ”virtual” sales convention to present the latest products of its brands, which include Salewa, Dynafit, Wild Country, Evolv and Pomoca. The 2020 digital convention, which is to replace the corresponding “physical” events of the past years, is scheduled for May 20 at 5pm. Thie topic of this year’s conference is “The future of mountain sports.” This event will be accessible to both professionals and consumers, and it will focus on the various constraints of the current health crisis. There will be simultaneous translation.
In addition to product presentations for the professionals, which will be available via on-demand video, the “Oberalp Virtual Convention” will feature 360° showroom tours and live chats. Participants will also be able to access work and look at books and training clips online. The event will start with a one-hour “live opening” by the brand managers, which will be simultaneously translated with subtitles. Directly after the opening, brand and product specialists will answer individual questions in chat rooms. For this purpose, 20 Oberalp representatives will be available for virtual exchanges around the clock for 48 hours. This will allow partners from all time zones to ask their questions in person.
The group’s new annual sustainability report for 2019 will also be presented on May 20 during the virtual convention. The report, which js called “Contribute,” documents all procedures on 90 pages. The CSR team will be available for live chats during the convention to answer questions regarding social responsibility and environmental protection. Together with the sustainability report, a brochure is being published for the first time this year, giving retailers and end consumers concrete tips on how to improve their sustainability performance
We suspect that many other companies are replacing their traditional sales meetings for the presentation of their spring/summer 2021 collections with online conventions. We would like to note that the Italian mountain sports company based in South Tyrol was one of the first exhibitors to pull out of the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen, preferring to spend the money on a big sales convention in a little Austrian village close to the Italian border. It subsequently invested in a smaller stand at the Ispo shows in Munich.
Furthermore, Salewa has decided to reduce the number of new models in its 2021 collection and to offer again some of the same models presented for the current season in order to help its distributors and its retail clients through the Covid-19 pandemic.
