2019 Schedule
“I think anyone who wants to open a climbing gym would benefit a lot from being here.”
“(WICS) gave me a very open world perspective to the climbing industry, something that I didn’t have before.”
“Being able to meet and compare successes and challenges with operators in other countries has been probably the best part of the summit.”
Day 1 - June 19, 2019
Short talks by industry leaders from different parts of the world summarizing the state of the indoor climbing industry on different markets to give us all the Big Picture. How has the indoor climbing scene evolved in the recent years, what are the trends, what is the end customer looking for are parts of the questions we’ll answer and we’ll follow up with a discussion.
Gain knowledge about the most important things to consider when opening a new gym. Get tips on choosing the right location, developing your concept, finding the right manufacturers and suppliers, and more, but most importantly – learn about the costly challenges and mistakes that have been made in the past, and how to avoid them.
Learn about the benefits and good practices on running a successful F&B zone within a climbing gym. What are the challenges? Is chalk good to eat? Shall we put it on Margaritas?
Arkose opened their first climbing gym in 2013 in Paris, France. Now the company operates 13 gyms in France and plans to open 30 new ones in Europe in the next 2 years. The group also launched a brewery and acquired Snap, a 20 years old climbing brand. Join us to learn more about their business case. How to grow through private equity and M&A? How has the company changed after two rounds of investments? What’s the right balance between operations and expansion?
Once a new climbing gym is open, the real challenges begin. How do we find and keep quality staff? How do we make a great first impression and maintain the best reputation? How do we get climbers to choose our gym and stay loyal? In what environment is an indoor climbers’ community nurtured?
Yes, it can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve gathered some of the industry’s most experienced players to share what is proven to work overtime and to also speak about the mistakes to avoid.
Learn how:
– to use the MyClimb app for climbers and MyClimb’s Platform for Climbing Gyms to easily create and run climbing leagues and other fun events in your gym
– MyClimb’s indoor and outdoor climb logging and social features helps climbers improve and feel connected to the community in your gym
– MyClimb can help you manage your route setting and receiving feedback from climbers.
• Intuitive route setting management software (scheduling, facility statistics, individual setter stats, ready-to-print route cards)
• Enhanced customer connectivity and retention through interaction with our app (individual training plans, challenges, notifications, ranking games)
• Broad exposure and reach thanks to our app’s worldwide following
• Route and gym updates auto-populated to your website and facility monitors
• Digital comp scoring and live results services
Day 2 - June 20, 2019
When an industry is growing fast, so do the challenges businesses face – be it the people, processes, scaling. And because life is short to go through all new businesses do’s and don’ts ourselves (not impossible though, just timely and costly), we decided to look how other industries, similar to ours, have succeeded in this transition. What were their lessons learned and is there something that can help us grow in a healthy, sustainable rate? And as climbing often goes well with fitness, we turn to some of the fitness industry’s experts to learn more.
One of the pioneers in shaping and setting, with over 30 years of setting and hold making experience, Laurent Laporte will talk about the connection between climbing wall design, holds and volumes shape and routesetting and this whole eco-system is used to create the climbing experience we offer to the end customer of a gym.
Today, having a great climbing gym is certainly not enough for it to be successful. That’s why at WICS we invited some highly experienced gym owners and operators to share what marketing tactics they’ve tried and to compare good practices. We’ll also discuss what happens in gyms besides regular climbing – what events are organized and how to use them to attract different customer groups.
Routesetters and gym owners with extensive experience in the industry will sit at a round table to discuss hot topics related to the relationship between gym owner and routesetter and the product they both deliver to the end customer – namely the routesetting. Let’s discuss the different points of view and see where they meet to create a productive and fulfillng environment for everyone on the gym.
Day 3 - June 21, 2019
An in-depth discussion that will cover the characteristics of safety mats in climbing gyms, the dilemmas that arise when choosing the right type of flooring, current safety standards, the most common types of injuries, fire safety, and more.
Let’s talk about what lies ahead, what challenges are we expecting and, as industry leaders, where are we going to take it from here.
A practical workshop by Peter Zeidelhack and Nate McMullan taking place at Walltopia Climbing Center, right next door to the WICS venue.
With a major focus on safety practices in routesetting, the session will consists of two parts:
– Access (Lifts, Roped, Ladders)
– Setting (the actual placement of the holds – including modification / volume use/ basic safety considerations like clipping holds and descent routes.
Each session would be started with a comparison of the standards offered by different countries (UK, DE and US) – these may not be specifically “endorsed” but more of an industry standard (if written standards are not available).
After a brief overview of the country specific practices – there will be a Q&A session to allow for discussion. This will intentionally be a smaller style session, so the discussion can be focused and very relevant to the participants.
*WICS attendees only.* The spots are limited, fill out the following form to participate: SIGN UP NOW
