Concerted effort needed to retain dominance in outdoor industry

Back off, Ogden. Step aside, Portland.

It’s nothing new for communities to woo companies to relocate from elsewhere. It’s done all the time in economic-development circles: One community seeks to create or build on an industry cluster, and one way to do that is to recruit companies from other cities.

That’s exactly the game that’s being played now by cities such as Ogden, Utah, and Portland, Oregon. Those communities have been mentioned frequently in the pages of the Boulder County Business Report and elsewhere as they seek to build on their own bases of companies in the outdoor industry.

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But they’re now going beyond that, seeking to lure the Boulder-based Outdoor Industry Association itself. The OIA’s office lease expires in February 2012, with association executives exploring alternatives, which could include remaining in Boulder, going to outlying communities in the Boulder Valley, or even relocating out of state.

As Business Report staff writer Beth Potter reported in our June 8-21 edition, OIA officials have identified Portland and Ogden as “two of the trade group’s most prominent suitors.”

Three years ago, OIA president Frank Hugelmeyer told the Business Report that the association had opted to remain in Boulder, despite attempts to lure it elsewhere.

“There is absolutely a strong attempt, and there have been offers made to us,” he said at the time.

He followed that up at the Boulder Economic Summit in May of this year, saying that the unofficial mantle of the global leader in the outdoor sector “is Boulder’s to lose.”

Hugelmeyer, in a recent column in the Business Report, outlined what the city and the industry need to do to build on the outdoor sector’s strong base in Boulder. He recommended a series of actions to identify the industry’s needs; to foster communication among outdoor companies, the city and the university; to create better recognition of the industry locally; and, possibly, strategic investments to retain companies.

All of these steps should be pursued not only for the outdoor companies but also for the association itself.

Only then will Ogden and Portland back off.