IMBA Announces 2008 World Summit

By Karl Rosengarth

On June 18th–21st, 2008 the IMBA Summit will bring mountain biking advocates, land managers, ski resort professionals, trailbuilders, tourism officials and the bike industry together for collaboration, planning and celebration. The 2008 IMBA Summit will be open to the public, and will feature advocacy seminars, trailbuilding workshops, networking, great food, parties, celebrity guest speakers and, according to IMBA, some big surprises. Seminar topics will include the economic power of trails, sustainable trailbuilding, liability and risk management, urban trail networks, building club capacity, to name a few.

"We could not be more excited about the location of our 2008 gathering," said IMBA executive director Mike Van Abel. "Park City is a model trails community and IMBA's host club, the Mountain Trails Foundation, is a model of shared-use leadership. Non-motorized groups have worked together in Park City to create amazing trails, and maybe more importantly, a tight-knit trails community."

"Park City was losing its trails to rapid development. In the course of a couple of years, we went from trails being an afterthought in the planning process to where trails are given equal weight with streets and utilities in new development," said Mountain Trails Foundation founder and IMBA Board Member Tom Clyde. "Practically all of the trail system is on private land, and now there is almost a competition among the development community to see who can build the best trails. This is because an active trails community got behind the cause."

Speakers, seminar topics and sponsorship opportunities for the 2008 IMBA Summit are in development. IMBA's partners are creating the agenda now through several steering committees to capture the most important issues and secure the best speakers. To make suggestions about about seminars and speakers, contact Patti Bonnet at patti@imba.com. Sponsorship inquires should be directed to Rich Cook at rich.cook@imba.com. Or call IMBA's offices at 303.545.9011.

Watch this space for more details on Summit speakers and events, as they become available. In the meantime, mark you calendars for the 2008 IMBA Summit.