The three-day 2007 CORA outdoor school wrapped up on October 25 th in Xi'an . This event, sponsored by ISPO China and BLACK YAK, gathered more than 60 shop owners and staffs from 30 outdoor shops across China . There is a marked improvement in terms of both the scope and influence compared with last year's event.
Drawing upon last year's exprience, this year's outdoor school placed more emphasis on the importance of outdoor knowledge in retail sales. A sales technique workshop was included in the first day's curriculum. For the first time CORA invited a lecturer and provided the students an professional and thorough speech about sales techniques, including how to communicate with the customers and so on. This speech was well received by the students and many of them have profited from it.
In addition to sales technique, there was product training. Detailed product analysis was made in four categories, namely backpacks, footwear, trekking poles and climbing gear. Of which, the training of trekking poles won rave review from the students. The speaker, Mengyun, gave a speech about trekking poles that combined the theory with his own personal experience The lecture of backpacks is also well-received with a trend analysis for latest pack technology and a comparison of different brand of packs. One of the highlights of this outdoor school is the climbing gear training. Lihui , China 's foremost free climbing expert gave the students a vivid lesson about the technical knowledge and usage of climbing gears in a very professional and technical way.
More and more Chinese people are aware of the importance of environmental protection. In this respect, an environmental protection education was made into a priority of this year's Outdoor School . The presentation began with the 2007 Oscar winning documentary A Inconvenient Truth that gave us a shocking picture of the consequence of global warming. After the viewing, CORA staff surveyed the best practice of Patagonia , REI, as well as some of the CORA member shops with the aid of photos and slide shows. The workshop got enthusiastic response from students who talked about their ideas for protecting the environmental, some expressed their determination to protect the environment as an outdoor enthusiast.
All in all, this outdoor school won acclaim from all the attendees.
Wenjing from Baoding Dipingxian Outdoor shop said: ¡° I really learned a lot, for example the sales techniques, communication tips and many professional knowledge about outdoor products. Thank you very much.¡±
Baini, staff of Xi'an Green Ants outdoor chain shops commented: ¡° I got a lot of professional knowledge from this school, what inspired me most is the environmental protection presentation, it made me realized to protect the nature I need to do my own part.¡±
Needless to say, we had a lot of fun at this year's Outdoor School which makes us looking forward to the next installment already!
2007-11-01
About CORA
China Outdoor Retailer Association (CORA) is a non-political, not-for-profit trade association.
CORA's mission is to help develop the outdoor industry in China through cooperation among its members, as well as through strategic relationship with brands and industry organizations.
Founded in March 2005, CORA has grown to about 40 members with over 150 shops in 19 provinces throughout China by July 2006. CORA has established cooperation and/or partnership agreements with many industry leaders and leading outdoor brands.
CORA is on the Web at http://www.cora.org.cn
Contact CORA £º
Tel£º+86-10-51286830
Fax£º+86-10-51286830
E-mail£ºinfo@cora.org.cn
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