By: Alex Murphy
As we approach the light at the end of the barrel that is the pandemic, Surf Park Central is excited to announce that Surf Park Summit will return to an in-person event on October 4th and 5th 2021. In the lead up a streaming Surf Park Summit Summer Series event will run virtually on June 24th.
Surf Park Summit has been running since 2013, but in 2020 SPC was forced to postpone and pivot to a virtual event as travel and large gatherings were canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Surf Park Summit 2020 was far from just a live stream and online video clips as SPC organizers worked with multiple players to truly make the virtual event live.
For example, SPC partnered with Brandlive to create virtual engagement and vendor booths for attendees to check out and shuffle through as if they were there in person. This helped bring new information to those in the surf-park industry while boosting brands that were in need of attention during the pandemic. Multiple vendors reported seeing a significant response from virtual attendees as the online interaction brought many people back to their web pages to create first-time customers and clients.
“It was an exciting and unique challenge to bring the Surf Park Summit online for the first time,” says Chris Kluesener, managing partner of Surf Park Central. “Given that the surf park industry is so often secretive, some partners initially pushed back on sharing too much in a virtual environment. However, once we were able to demonstrate the power of digital to help with meeting new partners, including those on the other side of the globe, we were able to win over the skeptics and host an amazing event.”
Summit 2020, along with all previous Summits, is available for Surf Park Central Insiders members to watch ‘On Demand’. Surf Park Central plans to continue to use this formula of easy streaming and On Demand global access to reach a wider audience than ever before in 2021.
For the first time ever Surf Park Central is going to be offering two separate events in one year. On June 24th Surf Park Summit Summer Session will go live. This is a live virtual event for everyone interested in surf parks to attend and get insights into the astonishing challenges, growth, and development our industry has seen during the last year. On October 4th and 5th Surf Park Central will be hosting a full in-person summit in San Diego, providing the educational, networking, and deal-making opportunities that have kept our audiences growing and returning. As always, the event will bring dozens of speakers and panels together to showcase and discuss the latest in surf park technology from all the major technologies, stakeholders, suppliers, developers, and investors in the space. An online viewing option will be available for those unable to attend in person.
“We’re excited about running something a little different at the October Summit this year: the Developer Showcase,” says Kluesener. “This will be a dedicated section of the conference focused on the teams who are building new surf parks around the world. While normally the Summit focuses mostly on wave technology advancements from companies like Endless Surf, SurfLoch, and Wavegarden, who all have been confirmed to speak, this year we want to also showcase the Development teams behind emerging surf park construction projects including groups actively seeking new partners.”
Interested parties can apply to be presented through SPC here
The single-day Surf Park Summit Summer Session, on June 24, will tackle many of the big questions facing the industry, including reopening after COVID, new creative business models and their design implications, and the latest developments from the industry’s biggest names and emerging new technologies. The full lineup of speakers and topics will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Surf Park Summit 2021 runs from October 4th and 5th, 2021, in San Diego, CA. Additional information and learning more about the different ways to attend can be found here.
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