Surf EXPO

Thanks to all who have secured your booth at Surf Expo!

If you have a booth at Surf Expo and are attending the Demo in Clearwater PLEASE SEND a copy of the Retailer ENews under your cover to your retail mailing list making sure they know you are going to SURF EXPO and the DEMO. We are all spending a lot of money promoting these events and this will help the Retailers know you want to see them and what YOUR plans are.

Association Dues

Please forward your association application and dues to the AWSI office. The application is available here, or just pick up the phone and call Darren with a credit card number and he'll fill out the application for you! Darren is at 541 490-7137. We'll be sure to notify SurfExpo your a member to insure your get your AWSI discount, another benefit of membership.

The DEMO

It's Time to get your hotel in Clearwater for the AWSI / SurfExpo Retailer Symposium and product demo held at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort on Clearwater Beach Monday September 17th and Tuesday the 18th after the show.

The Sheraton Sand Key Resort was chosen because:

• Windsurfing and Kiteboarding demos are held side by side on a private beach in front of resort.
  
• The meetings, party and demos are held at the same place you are staying
  
• It's a resort, It's on the beach... bring your family!

The highlight of the symposium will be the Monday night Industry party at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort starting at 7PM. There will be plenty of food and refreshments available. Come join us for a little education and a lot of time in the water in sunny Florida!

Sheraton Sand Key Resort & Clearwater Beach Reservations

AGENDA

New Website!

We are joining forces with the Board Retailers Association (BRA) to bring our retail members a plethora of cost savings benefits, an updated FORUM and access to the BRA Retail University presently under construction. They can now join one association, get the benefits of both! Distributor Members can also receive the BRA benefits should they be of interest for a discounted rate. The present distributor member discounts will still apply.

With the new association, comes a new AWSI Website. It will go live in approximately a month.

The main benefits to the new site are the following:

• New Site


• More pertinent content 


• The Surf/Skate Retailers on the BRA site that use the forum will see Windsurfing and Kiteboarding and our sports will get more exposure


• The BRA benefits may be of interest to our Distributor Members.

Want a quick peek at the BRA site? Check out their website here.

ACTION ITEM. We need a dozen action, school or product shots in 300 X 600 @ 72DPI minimum for the new site. Please send to the association email address... we'll pick the best and put them up!

Distributor Meeting

The annual meeting of the Distributor members was held in Hood River on June 29 with excellent representation on both the Windsurfing and Kiteboarding sides.

Our guest speakers were:

•  Sean O'Brien from SurfExpo discussing industry growth via the Online Community

• Todd Weatherill of TKF Skate gave an overview on the wakeboard business and a discussion on guerilla marketing and retail selling

• Donn from Siriani gave us arousing overview of the Freight program, with a lot of give-a-ways that everyone appreciated, reviewed FEDEX discounts and various truck freight options for moving the Trade Show Products.

  We have put the POWERPOINT presentations from the various speakers on the Industry News page of the AWSI website. Check them out.. and if you missed the meeting, ask around.. you missed a lot!

The open discussions were focused on Insurance, the Summer House & other marketing opportunities, and the new demo location. Some of the highlights of these discussions were:

The summer house. The members asked us to visit the Summer House this year to see if that is a good marketing opportunity in 2008.

Insurance. We had a lively discussion on what's happening and why to our insurance, and that of the Retail and Yacht Clubs trying to rent (and sell) wind sports equipment. We still have some work to do, but it looks like we have a couple of groups working on a total insurance package, including liability and content for rental/retail and distribution companies, even across various sports. Watch for more info in the next month on the FORUM for a list of companies and programs.

The speakers brought a different prospective from alternative sports and how those sports have grown. The one comment we heard from both was; "You guys don't know how cool Windsurfing and Kiting look to the outside world".  Having the online community involved is extremely important and the costs associated with marketing are low, when done on a grass roots level. Check out Sean's slides.

The Highlight of the meeting was the Bar B Que at Rick Bruners House... all that can be said is 'WHAT A VIEW'!.. Oh yea, the food was killer as well...