Category Archives: events

views and insight from attended events

green – the new gold standard

More obvious than omnipresent at the 2008 Performance Racing Industry’s show, the greening of the motorsports industry is definitely underway. The Go Green pitch was in the house and awareness of the implications was impossible to ignore.

A new series – Green Prix, no less – debuted. Battery powered laptimes? Not just for RC anymore. The two biggest influences both started with ‘E’ – economy and environment.

This is an easy call – public opinion negatives regarding fossil fuel along with financial realities affecting everyone are going to have an enormous impact on the future of every sanctioning body and every series’ support, starting right now.

pri ’08 – subdued, not somber

I visited the 2008 edition of Performance Racing Industry’s efficient and very well produced trade show this week, not knowing what to expect from the trio formerly known as the Big Three, or how all the rescue plans would or would not impact the show.

Fair to say the mood wasn’t jubilant. On the other hand it wasn’t funerial, either. Impact: aisles were easier to navigate than in previous years and overall the vibes were lukewarm positive.

Between Honda’s pullout from F1 and AMA Superbike, along with rumored large scale corporate cancellations in NASCAR the broader implications of marketing to a mass audience will shock more than a few. We’ll have a web feature up soon and more commenting on the blog.

cw trek – no commercials, no spam, no kidding

This week Cycle World summons riders from across the globe to again gather in the fabulous Sierra Nevadas for the annual installment of the legendary Trek offroad adventure.

As in year’s past I’ll travel from the comfort of sea level 362 days of the year to 8,000 feet give or take and a chance to freeze my butt off, ride hours in sleet, get soaked to the bone, eat enough dirt to start a large sized garden, and otherwise get back to basics.

Trek is the great leveler. I’m packed, psyched and ready for the challenge.

what’s new, pussycat

Ben Montgomery is a damn fine writer for the St. Pete Times. When he’s not covering the impact gulf drilling would have on Florida beaches, he’s giving readers a first timers view of the road from behind the handlebars of his massive new mistress red manly machine as it roars up and down the highways of greater Tampa Bay.

This is a wicked bad riff on machismo, life in the mellow lane, teenage taunting, and the memorable vagaries of owner’s “manuals” authored by the Chinese. As the flood of scooter related mentions goes these days, it’s well worth a read.

photog icon joe bonnello suffers setback

$joe bonnello\'s work seen around the globe$

Now comes word that freelance shooting star Joe Bonnello’s back in the hospital as a result of neck surgery reportedly gone awry. Fellow photographer Stephan Legrand’s set up a PayPal site for fans of Joe’s unique vision and incredible depth of work, necessary because the passion that drives the best in the business isn’t compensated by the bean counters who treat editorial art as a commodity.

If you don’t know the name, you can’t help but to have seen his work, particularly as a chronicler of the motocross action genre. One of the top three rules of action still photography is the ability to impart a sense of motion into what otherwise would be a static staged shot, and Joe did it effortlessly.

echoes of the past

Was the time when any restaurateur worthy of his salt wrapped the dining experience around a book of matches. Like miniature billboards, these relics of a time when smokers accompanied their meals with between rounds cigarettes and end of the evening cigars have pretty much died out as a marketing tool – too many negatives.

I quit smoking in ’96 and haven’t looked back since, but last weekend I came across this nostalgic collectable while exploring a new restaurant, The Blue Fish Sushi, in Boca Raton.

I grabbed one of the colorful mementos on the way out with the idea of adding it to my small, packed away collection of dusty keepsakes from another era. Matchbooks were a fine example of the graphic designer’s art and it struck me as ironic that even though the heyday of this particular vehicle’s come and gone, a new need for small format graphics has taken its place: the cell phone.

dealer expo – it has to be said

For the record, as an advertising agency we pay to attend most trade shows. This year’s admission to Dealer Expo was $100. SEMA charged me $15. Performance Racing Industries charged me $0. So when I packed for Indy did I expect a show almost seven times shinier than that automotive mecca in the desert? No. But we also didn’t expect holes in the traditional powersports categories large enough to fly a space shuttle through, holes plugged with some truly questionable merchandise. By the time I finished the dome I halfway wondered how I’d missed the Hoodia franchise booth. Read the followup to February’s report here.

indy – brave expectations amid challenges

We’re off to Indy tomorrow, where the forecast includes single-digit lows. Hmmmm, guess I’ll pack an extra sweater.

News of White Brothers closing their doors is just one of many news ripples we’re expecting in what’s shaping up to be a bellwether year. I’m anxious to find out how the Asian tsunami of anything other than full sized bikes is playing out. ATVs, SXSs, scooters, pit bikes – all flooding our shores in record numbers, with identical undecipherable logo plays, ridiculous brand labels and a parts and service problem that paints all imports with the same brush.

Marketing’s all about perception and regardless of how efficient the back end manufacturing processes, it’s the sell that wins the day. Will there be any interest in delivering messages that connect, or business as usual as defined by those who don’t shop trying to connect with those who do? We’ll see.

pri’s speed shop – a performance triple-decker

Tag along as we travel to Orlando for the Performance Racing Industry’s annual trade show, held last December under Chamber of Commerce skies and a little north of 40,000 dealers. You won’t find stereos or flat screens, spinner rims or rhinestones. Just aisle after aisle of speed and performance. So jump on the bus and take a look at Performance Racing Industry 2007.

pri at 20 — what a show

Performance Racing Industries 20th annual show went off last week under Chamber of Commerce skies and filled to capacity with show goers — 45,000 as a matter of fact. This event is all about speed — no pump up the volume here unless you’re talking about nitro.

This is a seriously well done show that moved to Orlando a few years ago to take advantage of the million square feet of exhibition space. We’ll upload a full report soon, but in the meantime consider what it looks like when you start with go karts at one end, drag boats, pulling tractors and LeMans rides in between, and finish with a Benz powered Freightliner pickup on the other.