More of an insider piece rather than of general interest, but it does at least give a flavour of the whirrings of the ski and snowboard industry behind the scenes.

About 10 years ago the industry trade show, known as Soltex, was a roaring success. It made lots of money which was spent by the managing body on various initiatives to keep people buying skis and snowboards, sales of which were in decline. The trade body, the Snowsprts Industry of Great Britain (SIGB), remains more gear than travel focussed because it was set up by hardware importers. Anyway, ski and snowboard sales have been under pressure for years because of various factors, the biggest being the prevalance of acceptable quality rental gear, easily accessed in any resort you arrive in. Carriage costs on airlines, reduced in-country skiing and lots of other things to spend one's cash on also played a part. So with the revenues available from the hardware sector reducing, the clothing manufacturers became more important, taking by far the biggest and fanciest stands.

After a few years of this, earlier deadlines for ordering clothing from increasingly tight Far Eastern production schedules, coupled with larger sales teams and separate showrooms meant that a February show became less and less relevant to the clothing suppliers. Since it's been in the fine but overly glam G-Mex centre (now Manchester Central) for years, costs have remained quite high, but then this is a fancy sport and it's harder to sell high ticket items from a shed.

The big European show, ISPO in Munich, has also been stealing the thunder of the regional/individual country shows. All told, this has made it hard to run a successful (read profitable) event for a couple of years. Added to this has been a succession of satellite events set up on the back of the trade show, nicking potential exhibitors at a reduced cost as always happens.

So now we're moving to Telford for February 2011. Is this a good thing? Are we simply shuffling a stale event around that's past its sell-by date, or is change essential to revitalise an industry essential?

The view from Peterborough (the mountainous region where Fall Line lives) is that a UK show is key to reinforcing the industry. All the retailers I speak to like getting a feel for what they'll be stocking next season in one place, unswayed by the vast swathe of stands at ISPO representing brands that aren't available in the UK. ISPO is important to many of them, but speaking to all the people who will actually be carrying out the staff training and making sure the orders turn up complete and on time is even more so.

Telford is a great venue, relatively compact, plenty of break-out space and better value than Manchester. It doesn't have Canal Street, but it does have a card that you can charge everything on-site back to your room. Does that make it even? We'll have to see.

Will the majority of the snowboard and clothing industries make it back into the hall from their break away events and showrooms respectively? Hard to say. They have the opportunity to sit it out to see if it works, or jump in and test the clean water.

Here's a thought. There will be more non-industry than insiders reading this, and I'd like to know if anyone who isn't in the ski trade would want to attend a show like this. It's a moot point within the trade, because if you're trying to sell to a store it's hard to politely push away the end consumer, so any public viewing would have to be at a separate time.

Let me know what you think: email dickie@fall-line.co.uk if you'd like to attend a preview of the next season's gear. There's no guarantee, but at least I'll get a feeling...