Channel Mastery - Ep. 189: Kimo Seymour, President of Media and Events at Life Time

Life Time

Life time events, customer experience, THE Grand Prix, and Community

featuring

Kimo Seymour is President of Media and Events at Life Time. Following a 15-year career in real estate development, Kimo purchased the Red Rock Company (events production) in 2008, which has since been acquired by Life Time. He joined Life Time in 2011 as the brand director for the Leadville race series. Currently, Kimo oversees the Events and Media business across the complete Life Time portfolio.

Kimo is also an active endurance athlete, having completed eleven Ironman’s (six in Kona), 12 Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike races, 24-hour mountain bike races, and multiple marathons. He is a father of a 23-year-old daughter, Makena, and a 21-year old son, Kai. Kimo and his wife Julie remain very active in the racing community, participating in many Life Time events annually.

show highlights

During our conversation with Kimo, we discussed overarching themes that relate to the excitement for Life Time events, specifically Sea Otter Classic and Unbound, and how the Life Time consumer base drives the company forward. Furthering our conversation on in person events, Kimo gave us insight into the vision behind the Grand Prix race series and its launch this year. We also touched on the spirit of cycling and the community that Life Time hosts at their events, which comprises of athletes from all backgrounds, local community members and the greater Life Time team!

Kristin Carpenter:
Hey there everyone and welcome to the Channel Mastery podcast – if you’re just joining us for the first time, welcome and we’re so happy you’re here! And for our loyal listeners, thank you SO much for tuning in again… And for your patience with our publishing schedule of late here at Channel Mastery. Let’s face it, 2022 has been quite a year so far, hasn’t it?
The pace of change is staggering and we all know more change is on the horizon. Like you, the team at Verde has been full gas working to stay ahead of the challenges with our clients. My apologies that this podcast has taken a back seat of late.

This show was founded about five years ago to help specialty business leaders in the outdoor recreation spaces navigate the “Retail Apocalypse” – remember those headlines? That seems like last century, not five years ago. It also seems relatively simple compared to what we’re looking at together today: inflation, ongoing supply chain woes, and worrisome national headlines, all of which are fueling sentiment and behavior change from our North Star: the consumer.

The team at Verde and I were so fired up to help create a specific resource to assist passionate, specialty business leaders during the Retail Apocalypse era and throughout the Great Unpleasantness of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic.
Well, for such a time as now….
As we step forward together into our most challenging time as business leaders, Verde is doubling down on Channel Mastery. We’re committed to getting our content offerings and how we serve YOU, our beloved community, up to an entirely new level.
Because we’re being called on to give our BEST now as business leaders. Channel Mastery is evolving to give you what you need to be just that. Our new season kicks off next week, Thursday, July 21, 2022. Now let’s focus on today – because we have a great show for you! We wanted to get warmed up for next week’s kick off – and so we’re bringing you an interview with none other than Kimo Seymour, Senior Vice President at Life Time, and Leader of the Events and partnership marketing business there. Kimo’s here to give us a state of on consumer events, Life Time is THE leader and resource to inform us on this super important collection of channels – the in-person events, community and experiential marketing space. Here’s the Kimo Seymour interview on the Channel Mastery podcast – LET’S DO THIS!
Welcome back, everybody to another episode of the Channel Mastery Podcast. I'm so excited to have Kimo Seymour, back with us here today. Welcome back to the show, Kimo. It's great to have you.
Kimo Seymour:
Thanks, Kris, and I think I'm more excited than you to be here.
Kristin:
Oh, it's and honestly, we've talked over, you know, the past few years, just so the audience knows we're recording this in early, mid-May 2022. And we've had some conversations over the past two and a half, three years, haven't we, in terms of just looking at, you know, how business has changed, what the consumers are going through, with what I like to call the great unpleasantness of the pandemic. (laughing)
Kimo:
I'd say that's a good way to put it. We've, we've probably shared a few, uh, we probably could have shared a couple of joints to calm our nerves over the last year. (laughing)
Kristin: Yes. (laughs) Absolutely.
Kimo: Right.
Kristin: Um, and I-
Kimo: I love that.
Kristin:
It has, it has. But the beautiful thing is here we are uh, not quite through the pandemic, because obviously, who knows when that's gonna happen, but we are at a fantastic precipice, I think. Um, Life Time just wrapped up a very successful Sea Otter challenge, Sea Otter Classic, which also included the Sea Otter Summit, um, your team rallied for an absolutely huge successful effort there. Um, and I just wanted to kind of start by um, introducing you back to the audience kind of at this point in time, really, as a great resource for consumer events. And with that, I'd love for you to kind of describe the portfolio of Life Time consumer events, and um, then we'll kind of get into some of the great uh, insights that you'll be sharing here today.
Kimo:
Well, as you know, Kristin, we, you know, Life Time we've on in our events business, we've been primarily focused on, on, you know, endurance and athletic event experiences, right? And over the years, we've built our business, really kind of catering to creating um, what, you know, we call great experiences, or we hope to have great experiences for our 'consumers,' which are primarily athletes. Um, and that's where we focused our business. But over the last couple of years, there's, you know, the opportunities come along to really, um, to really shift some of that focus towards really, um, you know, not necessarily even participant focused, but more consumer focused, as you mentioned.
Kimo:
So the acquisition of Sea Otter was a is a perfect example. And then some of the growth we've seen at some of our other larger events, with expos um, more and more interest of brands wanting to come out and connect with our audiences. We've really, we've found a new, I don't know if you'd call it a niche, but a new maybe a new opportunity, um, and seem to be uh, enjoying a little bit of success there.
Kristin:
Well, we're gonna get into the expos and I'm really excited to dive in there. But it's, I mean, I think that the, the platform through the communities that you've built over the past few years and kept alive and growing through COVID, which was just a mark of um, a commitment to be nimble, to rise to the occasion, your team was so creative in terms of enabling the Life Time event communities to to stick together while they couldn't get together around their passions, I think just created this even a deeper loyalty and trust among the community around Life Time, which is really fantastic to see. And the brands are noticing, I think that there is a great affinity from the consumer to belong to these events. And when they're at the expo, it's like a completely different activation that they get to have with a very, very enthusiastic consumer base, and the family of the those, you know, athletes.
Um, so let's talk about just general trends around consumer excitement with your events. I mean, I think it's fair to say, things have bounced back in a pretty healthy way, uh, in 2022, but I'd love to maybe grab a couple of high points from you in terms of what you're seeing with consumer behavior around the Life Time event portfolio.
Kimo:
You know, they have bounced back um, really well, we we're, we were really excited. And it started with um, you know, an event that we have coming up here in about three weeks called Unbound. It started a year ago with Unbound, that was really our first event back. And we were kind of pleasantly surprised with the demand for, across our portfolio starting in June of last year, through the end of the year, we sold out most of our events, um, we the demand came roaring back. We definitely saw higher demand on the cycling side um, than we did on triathlon and traditional road running. We do have some larger road running events in a couple larger triathlons. Um, so we definitely saw the recovery come back quicker, and the cycling brands, but that's also, you know, as you know, that's where we've focused more of our growth the last few years and put a lot of our energy. So as you say, building those communities around these events, and then investing in physical communities of these events, that's, that's where we I think we've seen some success and, and and and that's where, you know, it seems to have paid dividends with the interest and the demand, and those those those small communities that help us host these big events. That's, that's definitely where we've seen the energy come back the quickest.
Kristin:
That's amazing. And as we're looking like, let's try and maybe bridged Sea Otter classic with that, because obviously, that's a new event in that Life Time portfolio, you finished that acquisition, I believe in Q3 of 2021, you held an October version of it, which was in person. And that was I think, people were excited to get back together, but it was really at the wrong calendar moment, especially for the brands in terms of how they're used to activating at Sea Otter on the bike side. But let's talk about the success and kind of the growth because that really was a bellwether, the same way Unbound was last year in 2021 as kind of the first major consumer, you know, mass cycling event that had a ton of people covering it on YouTube, and just, you know, sharing for many, many weeks, like longer than I think we were used to seeing people were sharing their content. And now you know, here we are in 2022, and literally Sea Otter Classic became one once again, the kickoff to the cycling season. Um, I'd love for you to just talk a little bit about the just the complexion of that this year, because I know there was some expansion on the event side, we'll obviously be getting into some of that later in our in our interview here. But like when you were packing up and heading to to the airport after Sea Otter, what were you thinking were like, the biggest surprises and the biggest successes?
Kimo:
I think after uh, you're asking after Sea Otter last fall or Sea Otter here in April this year?
Kristin:
In April of this year.
Kimo:
You know, I think the uh, the biggest successes that we saw with Sea Otter in April of 2022, it was that the consumer was ready to come back and the brands were ready to come back. Um, no question, we were up um, basically matched 2019's numbers, uh, exceeded 2019's numbers in some areas, but basically across the board match, you know, match what what happened in 2019, which was the last real full year before the pandemic, obviously, that the event was held. In the fall participation, you know, across the board brands showing up, um, you know, total participation down somewhere between 20% and 30%, uh, depending on which category you look at. So, you know, walking away from the event this year just blown away by um, the the excitement, maybe more from the brands that wanted to get back out and reconnect. Um, it was some, you know, some the one of the resounding messages we heard was, this is the place for the brands to get together and connect again, right, with, um, uh, without Interbike uh, you know, existing anymore, this is the spot where where brands can connect and they like. It shows us that even on the on the you know on the B2B side, brands still like to connect as much as consumers like to come together and connect with like minded people, you know? So we always think of our events as this gathering of these communities of of athletes and their families and they all love to come together and you've heard Ken and Marilee up Leadville talk about the Leadville family and it's getting everybody back together every year. And, but the irony is the brands themselves, the, you know, that are that are part of this industry, they love getting back together. And that was, that was pretty neat to see. It was got, you know, out there on, you know, Thursday, uh, during during the summit, I snuck out there for a couple hours, and then you know, all day Friday, it's really, it's almost more about brands connecting than it is about connecting with the consumers on those first couple of days.
Kristin:
It's so interesting, 'cause over the years, we've seen consumers, you know, they're gonna go where they want to go, they're gonna connect and engage where they want to connect and engage. And when Interbike went away, the brands organically made Sea Otter in the cycling industry, anyway, they made Sea Otter the place to gather and there was definitely a B2B component there. And I think that, you know, it's now a platform where they can have everything. They can have that interaction, they can, you know, use it as a hub regionally to maybe entertain dealers or talk about different, you know, ideas around channels and growth in channels, but then they also have the consumer there. And like what executive would not want to see their consumer in the wild? And tell us like, at the end of the day, how many um, attendees and campers were at Sea Otter Classic this year?
Kimo:
You know, I think the final numbers were around 72,000 or 73,000 people came through the festival over four days. I think we had around 7,000 people camping, um, were the last the final numbers that I saw. So about 6,500 of those 70,000 plus about 6500 of them actually raced, competed or participated in an event. Um, you know, anything from the Grand Fondos to the mountain bike events, the gravel events, downhill, Dual Slalom. Um, so as you know, lots of different events happening over that four day window. Um, so it was, you know, it was it was very well uh, attended. Um, I think our you know, our job next year, I'd really like to see us focus, you know, I'm pushing our team to really focus primarily, you know, that on the athlete experience. I think the expo itself, um, is, is doing great. I think where we need to put some more energy is, is improving the athlete experience. It's a gr- it's a good experience, I wouldn't call it you know, it's not one of our greatest experiences yet. Um, and some of that is just by the nature of the venue, as you know, it's it's, you know, people are spread out everywhere outside of the lake bed, where the expo occurs, we've got starts and finishes and things going on, kind of all over the place. And it's hard to create, it's hard to create a gathering place around some of those events. So the team and I are working on how can we create gathering moments or opportunities pre and post race for some of those events that happen. So it feels like, it feels like what it feels like when you finish Unbound and, you know, downtown Emporia and and you know, there's 10,000 people out there at that street festival, right? We want to create, we want to create some, you know, a little bit of um, add on to the experience, just that's beyond just the bike racing that's going on. So that's, that's an area where I think Life Time brings, you know, a little bit of experience to an event like Sea Otter, but I'll tell you that Sea Otter in the team are teaching us a whole lot about the festival side of things and how to, how to, how to build an expo and how to how to create an engaging expo. So this has been a, it's been a, it's been such a fun opportunity to get to learn from this, from, you know, Frank and his whole team, so.
Kristin:
They're quite seasoned. I almost feel like it's like, you know, Life Time gets together with the Sea Otter Classic team and like lightning bolts come down. Like just (laughs) creation is happening. (laughs) It's really exciting.
Kimo:
Between, uh, yeah, between our two entities, I think hopefully, hopefully the, you know, the athletes, the, the exhibitors, hopefully all of the attendees will see some build, they'll see some positive change. You know, it's only been, I mean, it's been like, eight, nine months since we acquired it. And well, you know, right after the acquisition, as you said, we were right into putting, you know, hosting one in October, and then, gosh, you know, six months flies by and, you know, to go from October to April, there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity to implement a lot of change. Um, so it was just kind of like, I joke that we just finished tearing everything down, and it was time to start setting back up again.
Kristin:
Yeah.
Kimo:
So I think and then over the next year, we'll really see what we'll really see some enhancements start to come to life.
Kristin:
I agree. And obviously, I was um, so excited to be part of the team that put on the executive summit, the Sea Otter Classic summit this year under Frank and working with Becca Sands and your team was absolutely incredible. And I feel like we pulled off something special that was a great start. Um, and I love that it's an extension of a platform that everybody trusts and a lot of um, I think we were, we were able to kind of expose non cycling executives to a consumer that is a cyclist and that is, you know, obviously like the bread and butter and hub of Sea Otter Classic, But they obviously had to camp to be there or, you know, potentially had a vehicle supported adventure, you know, type of experience getting there. And I think COVID really taught us that we don't have obviously the buy sell cycle, the trade shows aside, we don't have silos around these consumers anymore, because a consumer doesn't see, you know, the difference between a cycling event and, you know, a, you know, they're getting to the event and having the experience and it involves all of the different markets that used to be separate from a buy sell side. So it's like, it was very interesting to see the consumers, uh, the executives rather come together because they share a consumer. And I'm excited to see how, you know, we're able to kind of continue to have that consumer lead the experience that we're going to be offering those executives. So, I definitely thought that that was an interesting, um, almost like a little petri dish for us to look at before the event happened um, over at Laguna Seca.
Kimo:
Right. I think it was a. yeah, I think we there were a lot of learnings. Um, definitely just phenomenal get together with the summit and phenomenal for a first year experience, couldn't be, couldn't be prouder of the way the team came together, and the work that you and your team did to support it just, we we we couldn't be happier. We got a lot of learnings. Um, a lot of things we know we can improve on next year. And, and I think it'll be an even better experience for you know, for tho- for those industry thought leaders that want to come and attend the summit, and even even making changes as simple as moving it up a day, like we're talking about so that you create better opportunity for some of those business leaders to get out to Laguna Seca on what is now kind of become an industry day on Thursday, uh, out at Sea Otter classic. So I think, you know, little little tweaks like that will make it even even better.
Kristin:
And Life Time is so exceptional at listening to their customer, in this case, the the executive, but also, I mean, I, I was amazed to hear Tom Bergman, the COO and President of Life Time, correct?
Kimo:
Correct.
Kristin:
Um, talk about, you know, just you're going to get a survey, like survey was in every other sentence when he spoke at the summit. And it was just like a small pulling back of the curtain like, okay, these, you know, you truly do, the consumer drives what you do, and obviously, like, it shows in terms of how quickly your team can respond and react. And I'm really excited to see what the, what the vision and future of that's going to be as well. And speaking of big vision, Kimo Seymour, we need to have you talk us through the, you know, the vision behind the Grand Prix. So if we could spend a couple minutes here with you just explaining what the Grand Prix is, and the launch of that this year. And I want everybody to kind of hear in the background of your mind, like, the Life Time team did this, in addition to pulling off their first Sea Otter Classic, and producing all these other fantastic events. Um, but you really have done something special with the Grand Prix. We're obviously only one race in with Sea Otter, but can you explain what that is to the audience and what your vision is behind that with the team?
Kimo:
You know, Kristin the vision it came, you know, it came about a roughly a year ago, we started having these conversations um, that, um, you know, just watching what's happening with cycling, and particularly professional cycling, and road cycling in North America, um, it's just been painful to watch. And I'm not only a an avid cyclist, as you know, but I'm a fan of professional cycling, and a lot of our team is. And, you know, we started looking and we had this, we knew at the time, we had the Sea Otter acquisition on the, it was on the horizon, and we were pretty certain we were going to get that done. And we just started thinking, like, gosh, if anybody has a platform to try and do something, to have some, to effect some positive change, we're we probably do and, you know, I didn't feel like we had an obligation to most... Like I said earlier, most of our events sell out, it's not like, it's not like we needed to drive more demand, although I am always telling our team we can't, we can't ever sit back on our heels and say, you know, we're always going to have more demand than supply uh, you know, with number of, you know, available entries to races and whatnot. So I don't ever want us to get complacent but but I just thought gosh, they're just, it's just painful watching what happens and we thought, why not take up, put together a series and start with some of our events and it could expand beyond this someday but do something to try and stir up a little bit more interest in what's happening with with cycling in North America. And for us, it's primarily off road. I've said this in the past, you know, the only, the only road cycling events we host now are at Sea Otter. Um, outside of Sea Otter everything we do is off road, mountain bike and gravel, and so we there was a little bit of a gosh, we have an opportunity. There was a piece of me that felt like not only do we have an opportunity I almost feel like we have an obligation. Like if we don't do it, who will? Like somebody's got to, you know? So, you know, I don't know, you know, it's, there's nothing, it's not perfect. Um, you know, we we get lots of criticism, uh, lots of feedback. It all started, you know, I think I told you it was when I was had some health issues a year ago, and I was basically became a walker. And I would have, you know, I would ask different people in the industry here in Boulder to come go for walks with me in the morning, and I would bounce ideas off of them. Some of them were professional cyclists, some of them were people in the industry, brands, marketing people, um, and I just bounced ideas and ask for their feedback. And it really came from all of their feedback and guidance and support and encouragement to do something. And so that's, that's really how it, how it came about last year. So we know that, we know we're making mistakes, you know, with with the, with the series, and we will and we'll, you know, I think as you said earlier, we listened to feedback a lot. And we'll hopefully be able to tweak and adjust and, and do something that just has some positive effect for, at least for the professional side, if it... And and we just believe that if we can have a positive impact and and a little lift on the professional side, that will trickle down, and that will have a positive effect on the industry as a whole. We just, we just believe that. There's, there are a lot of, you know, um, uh, counter opinions out there with, you know, the everyday average athlete that, you know, and especially the grassroots athlete that says, Oh, nobody cares about what happens at the pointy end of the spear at these races and whatnot. And that's, you know, that's historic, you know, mountain biking is kind of coming from that really grassroots place and gravel has certainly come and we've gotten probably the most most criticism from the gravel community. But you know what, it's getting more, if it gets a few, if it gets more people riding bikes, and in my opinion riding bikes off road, you know, how bad can it be? So, I don't know. We'll, there's, it's, it's definitely created a buzz, that's for sure.
Kristin:
And I think you're being in true Kimo fashion, you're being pretty hard on yourself here, because you listen, and because you're so, you know, a part of this community. But um, let's not forget, there's no blueprint. It's not like you were, like, Okay, I'm gonna pick up this template, you're literally building this plane, as you're flying a lot of other little planes, you're building a big plane. And there is literally like, there is no rule book there, you know? And there's so many mavericks off road, like, that's what I think you'll love embracing about these communities off road, and also the the races that you've brought into your portfolio and the just the characters that founded these races, and the way these communities grew up. Of course, people are going to have an opinion, but at the end of the day, I know that you're seeing the growth in an organization you care deeply about with Nika, and you're seeing so many newcomers come in from COVID. You have a huge community uh, with Life Time clubs, and and you're seeing like, I think a viewpoint, Life Time is that that a lot of us can't see in terms of the health and well being and growth of cycling. And let's just, I'm just gonna call it out here. Like one of the things that you're every man, every woman, however you identify, at your, at your mass participation cycling events, we love to be on the same course with the EF riders and, and with Peter [inaudible 00:23:16]. Like it's just a really special experience. So it may not suit everybody, but I think again, it's going to bring great visibility, it's going to invite people in. Um, I know that you have built a much more diverse start line from this. And I love that you're totally making it okay for the team to like fail forward and create something new, that's going to create some impact and change in US, you know, competitive cycling. And for me, competitive cycling is something that I participate in, but it's also something I consume. So I feel like that's the special part of the Grand Prix is it makes it attainable for us to both join in, but also watch our heroes and heroines do these races. I don't know. I have to share, my, and I told you this in our recent call that we have, but I want to share this with my um, audience here, that being on the course at Leadville last year, and seeing Alison Tetrick coming down from the summit of Columbine, with her eyes like as big as saucers, um, just in her very first mountain bike race. Like there she was one of my heroes and just going for it. I think she had a borrowed bike. And literally, you know, was sending this downhill, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's not smooth up there. It's super high altitude and she was terrified because I said, you know, "Go Ali" and she had an expletive and said, "I'm effing terrified." And as she rode by, (laughs) but I just have to tell you like that encompass the spirit of it, you know? She told me that she loves to just try new things and be with the, with the group of people that loves to do the same thing and whether that's a pro or an amateur, like that's the spirit right there. And I think that's really what the Grand Prix is, oftentimes, the pointy end of the race gets a lot of the press, but just know, I think as people experienced this, we only had one event, but as people experienced this, like, who are on the every man, every woman side of the racer equation, I have a feeling, a very different outcome, you know, will come out of this in terms of like people's experiences. So I'm just throwing that out there. I think it's amazing and brave and courageous that you guys just went for it. And I think it's wonderful, you know, to see, and we are going to learn a ton from it. But just know that like, people's lives are gonna change because of this. That's just sort of the nature of these events.
Kimo:
I've always loved that saying that life happens outside of your comfort zone, you know? And and something that that I realized, it it it didn't dawn on me until we were sitting at Sea Otter, actually, and I think I said this in another uh, talk into uh, with one of, someone from the media out there, I realized that there probably isn't one pro in the field that's racing the Grand Prix this year, that is going to be comfortable at every event that we have. We have people that have come from road biking that have now got into gravel racing that some I mean, we had people that got their mountain bikes the week before the race, the race at Sea Otter, you know, male and female. I think I think I heard that Ashton Lambie got his mountain bike literally got it built up that week before, you know, and here's here's a world class, you know, world record holder in the individual pursuit fastest guy in four minutes on a bike. And he's, and he's got his name in the hat, and he's out there going to race every one of these races and gets his mountain bike, whatever, the week before the race, I think I heard. I mean, it's just like, it's those kinds of stories that, you know, it's in some ways, it's a little bit goofy what we're doing, right? I mean, who would, who would bri- try to bring, you know, bring a bunch of athlete professional athletes together? And, and kudos to the athletes that are willing to try something that's just so far out of their comfort zone, you know? I mean, for Ali, like you said for Ali to show up and do Leadville last year, oh, my gosh, and I'll tell you, a lot of them are nervous about Leadville. And then there's others that are they've never ridden 200 miles on a bike. And they're been knowing they're all worried about, you know, riding a gravel bike and through the Flint Hills of Kansas for 200 miles. So it's, nobody's going to be comfortable every single race. And you know, that's, that's the beauty of it.
Kristin:
It is just so beautiful. And you know, I'm watching the Giro right now, I'm sure you are, too. One of the best parts about it is seeing the beautiful landscapes, and just the pageantry of it. And every one of these races has its own beautiful backdrop and pageantry, and quirky fun cultural, like founding story. And you're also showing the world that, that part of America and like I don't know that it's like, quirky, so much that it feels like America to me. It's like a melting pot of cycling genres and characters and prose. And the stories that are going to come out of this will be amazing. And I just want to remind everybody that these races are being broadcast live. So let's talk a little bit about that. Because it also brings in the parody aspect I wanted to touch on with you.
Kimo:
So the, you know, the idea, we tested doing a live feed uh, with Flow Sports and Flow Bikes last year at Unbound. Pick, tried to pick up roughly the last four or five hours of that event. And, and, you know, we did that on literally, I think five days notice. I think we signed an agreement with them five days before the event, and they came out. And I think they did an amazing job, given the amount of time and energy they, you know, they could put into that event. So it was a great, it was a great test. And then, you know, this year, we decided, we thought, you know, we debated, you know, is it important to to to try to get live content out there as the events are happening? Or is it more important to maybe curate the content capture and curate some content, and maybe post you know, post series, tell a story about what happened? Kind of the, you know, everybody's using the analogy of drive to survive right now.
Kristin:
Yep.
Kimo:
And so we kind of went, we went back and forth and back and forth. And Michelle Duffy, who you know, is just brilliant person on our marketing team, leads marketing for all of our events business now. You know, she she really I think struggled with what was the right approach. And in the end, she came and said, I think we should do both. And so uh, she advocated for a, uh, you know, certainly improving you know, the what we did with Flow last year at Unbound, but providing some live content from every, from every every one of the six events to the best we can. And then and then also um, bringing in a production company that would help us do a series that would be kind of post the end of this series in October, uh, after big sugar will come out with a more of a curated storyline of what happened throughout the season. So we'll do a little six part series of how the uh, how the Life Time Grand Prix, you know, transpired over six months. So we're really looking forward to seeing what comes out of really both of them. So Flow did a phenomenal job, I think at Sea Otter. I mean, much improved over what we did last year. And you know, some of these upcoming events will be even more challenging, you know? But there's the challenge is, you know, we don't have the money to invest like, you know, like the, you know, ASO can invest in, in, you know, their events in Europe to, you know, to, you know, create a live feed across an entire course. We just, we, you know, a lot of these courses are very remote. And so they're they're really creative with how they kind of, you know, prepackage some content and kind of weave it in there in between live cuts of what's happening with both the male and the female, you know, pointy end of the spear.
Kristin:
It's, and I did watch um, a lot of the coverage from the Sea Otter Classic on Flow Sports. And I know that's a subscription. But it's, there's a lot of vignettes in there, showcasing our athletes and their stories are incredible. And so if you are, you know, a member of Flow Sports, you should check those out before, just so you have some context, watching the series as it rolls out. Um, it's pretty remarkable to hear their stories, and they're very candid about, what they're excited about, what they're fearful of, frankly, and it's just it really humanizes them and makes you feel like you're, you know, rooting for them. And 'cause you know, their story, it's really special. And I think Life Time is incredible at at at unearthing these stories and sharing them. Um, and, you know, just on that note, I just, you know, as we're heading into the global gathering of gravel at Unbound, I mean, I just wanted to say, you all work so hard, and I think your head down, like producing these amazing experiences. But keep in mind, like what you're bringing to us, you know, your ardent fans who are either runners and cyclists that you're serving is a way to like, get back to what our new reality is. And, and a big part of the anchor of that identity is experiencing these communities in these events. So I think that as we're kind of head down, like sprinting from one event to the next and producing this content and and whatnot, we have to also remember that you're bringing a great opportunity for, you know, athletes of all levels to get back together and just fall back in love with their sport after we've gone through the great unpleasantness, so (laughs) it's important that you remember that.
Kimo:
I- I- It's very important, and you know, our team, we talk about it a lot, because, you know, a lot of the energy and the, you know, a lot of our energy and focus goes into that, you know, kind of the front end of of these events, and especially with the work that we've put towards, you know, building this Life Time Grand Prix this year, and, um, you know, it's definitely, it's getting a lot of the media focus, it's getting, you know, it's creating a lot of the excitement. But the reality is, I think I've said this in the past, we're going to have close to 30,000 parti- you know, people participating in our events this year, our cycling events alone this year, you know, riding, you know, riding in our events, and, you know, less than 1% of them are, are, you know, at that pro level, right?
Kristin:
Yep.
Kimo:
And so, our team is highly, highly focused, although we talk a lot about that the, again, the pointy end of the spear, our team is really highly focused on how do we create really just kick ass amazing, memorable experiences for those other 29,900 athletes that are showing up at our events this year, right? That's, that's really where, believe it or not, behind the scenes, that's where our focus is. So, um, it's exciting. It's fun, we're, you know, that we're, we're getting the kind of, you know, you know, the excitement around the Grand Prix. But I'm telling you some of the stories, I mean, one of the things when I get, when I get calls from, and I think we might be, we might be surprising some people with some of the big names that could be showing up at Unbound. When I get calls from even some of the biggest names in the sport, the you know, the demand is you have, they have to go to packet pickup and get their number just like everybody else. I expect them to be at the award ceremony Sunday morning if they if they end up on the podium, I expect them to come back at you know, 10, 11 o'clock at night and cheer on some of the final finishers and drink beer with all the people there in the community. Like they got to do everything else, just like every other athlete does, right? So, um, you know, we do get some requests from time to time from some big name athletes that want to get in and they need to do they need to, they need to come out and experience it just like everybody else does.
Kristin:
I think that's awesome. And it's it's American racing, right? Um, that finish line experience, um, you know, everything that that you offer, and we'll be showcasing I think people will start to feel incredibly proud and and a sense of like hometown pride, not nationwide around that. Um, and before we sign off here today, I want to make sure everybody knows that um, we have complete parity with the price purse and the number of um, riders and I just want to make sure that, that everybody knows the commitment that you and the team have to elevating equality in cycling and endurance sport. So I'd love for you to maybe close our conversation on that.
Kimo:
Yeah. I felt, I just felt that was really important. You know, I think the sport in general on the professional side has has um, um, I don't I don't know it's just been kind of behind the times and and I felt like it was important for us to really set in, in following the lead of some other, you know, we've got some, there's some other great event producers that have done a phenomenal job with this and really probably led more than we have. And so uh, we haven't even traditionally had price purses at most of our events. And, and so we have a few small prize purses here and there, but, yeah, I just I felt like it was just really, it was critical to do that. And, and um, I, you know, we we've, our team has spent, you know, has put a lot of time and energy into um, making our cycling events more welcoming to the BIPOC community, LGBTQ communities, you know, uh, non binary transgender communities. We're just open arms to everybody. And we, and and, and we've really worked hard. People like Kristie Moen, who you know, on our team has worked tirelessly to help improve, you know, gender parity across our events. And so um, what a better way to kind of put our money where our mouth is, and... And I'll say, I think, you know, the women's race is is it's just as exciting as the men's race. Anybody says it's not, they don't know what they're talking about. They're, or they're not watching. It is super exciting. It was exciting to watch what hap- went down at Sea Otter, I think it's going to be even more exciting at uh, at Unbound. And um, so we're excited to see how it plays out over the season, but-
Kristin:
Oh, my gosh.
Kimo:
We, we felt that was critical, important, if we really, you know, if we really were going to, um, you know, practice what we've been preaching, so.
Kristin:
I think it's great, you're really setting a great example and adding that in, you know, straight away from the lodge, I think really, it makes a big statement. And just, you know, on that front, watching women's cycling on the, you know, pro level road and cyclo-cross, everything, like just being able to be exposed to that through the coverage that you're also providing is huge. And it has shown just as the riders said it would in 2019, around different things that happened before the pandemic. And now we have more coverage and more women's teams like on the World Tour level. And it has made such a fast impact and growth clip. I mean, I just can't believe it's only been a few years, and and and we're we're where we are. And there's like I think 14 World Tour teams now. And now we have our series, which showcases an amazing group of professional female athletes. So it's just super exciting to see all that's ahead and to be part of that. Um, and just thank you so much for joining me here today. I've been wanting to get you on the show to get caught up on everything, and to also just offer you as a great resource to the audience of Channel Mastery around consumer events, and frankly, like continuing to be out in the wind and way over our skis. Like we all had to do that in COVID, and I think that there are great gains, some fun and some horrifying experiences, but some progress and some traction, if we keep this mindset to try new things, and to be willing to just be out there on the front with a headwind, you know. (laughs) You're doing a great job, and I'm so excited to be part of the team to support it. So thank you.
Kimo:
Well, thanks, Kristin. I'm, I'm honored every time you ask me to come on. And, and I don't know why anybody would want to hear what I have to say, but um, I, I, I think it's really fun. And and I'll tell you that, you know, I do a few of these here and there. And, um, you know, we get a few requests once in a while, and, and, but following your, you know, each time I come on with you, that's the, that's the most LinkedIn request, connect request I ever get, so flooded with people wanting to connect and then chatting with people and... So I, I welcome people to reach out and happy to share any insights I can. I mean, there's, you know, there's, I don't, I don't know if there's, anything I can do to help and if there are other race directors that I can help, or anybody that wants to hear at least our experience, I'm happy to share. So I don't know that I have much advice, but I can, I can share the experience we've been through, so.
Kristin:
And I can attest, you are an open book, and you're all about just creating growth, um, and being partners to everybody. So he's not kidding everyone. So find him on LinkedIn. (laughs) Thank you so much again, and we'll definitely have you back as we get through a few more of these events. And I'm super excited to, um, you know, just see how the Grand Prix and all of the events unfold this year. Thank you so much for being here today.
Kimo:
Thanks, Kristin.
Kristin:
Awesome. Okay.