The 2023 edition of the Outdoor Trade Show is underway in Exhibition Centre Liverpool along with the UK Outdoor Industry Awards, reports Bob Morrison.
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A calendar change for 2023 has allowed both Mike Gormley and myself to be able to attend OTS. For more years than we can remember at least one of us has attended Britain’s primary trade event for the outdoors industry, but whenever diaries permit we both like to visit the show. Last year the Special Operations Annual Warrior Competition at KASOTC in Jordan, which I try to attend on odd years, clashed with OTS so I had a fair bit of catching up to do yesterday.
The show, which is not open to the general public, gives the trade an opportunity to display / peruse new and forthcoming outdoor products and is essentially a massive viewing and talking shop for the industry. This year is German footwear manufacturer LOWA’s 100th Birthday and once the show closed at 18:00 and the Opening Day ice-breaking sessions commenced on a number of the larger company stands, they livened up the evening with an oompah band, bier and pretzels. After mingling, and meeting a few old industry friends not seen since OTS 2021, I wandered over to the Keela stand where Mike Gormley was attempting to hog the single malt.
OTS 2023 continues until tomorrow, Thursday 15th. Naturally we have ‘proffed’ a few samples for review and once we have had a chance to try them out we’ll report back.
[images © Bob Morrison]
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