Paddlesports Retailer Announces 2018 Paddlesports Industry Dinner

Paddlesports Retailer, the official North American tradeshow of the paddlesports industry, has selected the Renaissance Oklahoma City Convention Center Hotel as the venue for the 2018 Paddlesports Industry Dinner, featuring the first ever Paddling Magazine Product & Industry Awards. The inaugural event will take place Wednesday, August 29 and will honor the innovative products, important people and best practices making vital contributions to the paddlesports industry.

The Paddling Magazine Product & Industry Awards is presented by Rapid Media and will be emceed by Founder and Publisher Scott MacGregor and Director of Marketing Cristin Plaice. “Paddlesports Retailer is more than a sales event and so our Paddling Magazine Product & Industry Awards will recognize outstanding work and will applaud excellence in the innovation and design driving today’s paddlesports industry,” says MacGregor. “We are putting the very best of paddlesports on stage at the Renaissance in Oklahoma City so that we can showcase it around the world.”

The Paddlesports Industry Dinner on the final evening of Paddlesports Retailer will create the perfect gathering for the industry to honor its own. The evening is a grand celebration convening in one place near the end of the busy summer season. “The Paddlesports Industry Dinner is intended to bring together hundreds of retail buyers and manufacturer reps to exchange local knowledge and principles of best practices on a global stage,” adds Paddlesports Trade Coalition Board Member and Kokatat’s Sales Manager Jeff Turner.

Retailers as well as paddlesports and outdoor media will receive access to this year’s New Product Showcase where they can preview all new 2019 products and vote for the Paddling Magazine Product & Industry Awards. Registered retailer attendees will receive complimentary tickets for Wednesday’s dinner and awards ceremony.

The Paddlesports Industry Dinner and Paddling Magazine Product & Industry Awards provides Paddlesports Retailer an additional marquee event to complement its on water Demo Day. The 2018 Demo Day takes place in the heart of Oklahoma City’s Boathouse District, at the $45 million whitewater course and flatwater training center.

Paddlesports Retailer has already registered 30 percent more exhibitor space and three times as many retailers as the 2017 show had at the same time last year. The show is 90 percent sold out and expects to be fully booked by June 1st.