LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA (BRAIN) Feb 3 — Lifeboat Events said Thursday that it will merge Urban PressCamp, originally scheduled for March 17-19 in Washington, D.C., with the broader media gathering it organizes in the summer called PressCamp.
In an email to Bicycle Retailer, Lifeboat’s Chris Zigmont said the company expected growth in the number of brands, exhibit space and attending editors, but that interest from exhibitors was "lackluster."
So Lifeboat Events will roll the two media camps together. Zigmont said several mobility and urban focused suppliers will participate in the Park City, Utah, event set for June 18-22.
“When we recognized our event was going to be much like 2011, we thought maybe we're spinning our wheels,” said Lifeboat Events founder Lance Camisasca. "The objective was to grow it."
PressCamp this year will be held at the base of Deer Valley, which provides better options for road and urban bike demos, Camisasca added.
Lifeboat held its first urban-focused press event last March at the House of Sweden in Washington, D.C., timing it just before the National Bike Summit, an annual gathering of cycling advocates and transportation officials in the nation’s capital. More than a dozen editors from transportation-focused magazines and non-endemic media attended. They got to see the latest urban/commuter products from 10 bike and accessory suppliers and two bike-sharing companies that set up simple booths.
While it was small in its inaugural year, Camisasca said at the time that he hoped to grow it by bringing in more commuter parts and accessories brands and apparel makers.
Lifeboat Events also organizes DealerCamp, a summer product launch for retailers in Park City, Utah.
