Kenji Consults

09/18/2025

Heads up for some superb Outdoor Fall Events! KC Outreach Outdoor Media Summit & Executive Track, and Climb Smart 2025 - https://mailchi.mp/b0c56a4a7951/top-outdoor-industry-events-fall-13875951

08/11/2025

Navigating through this event, 26 years ago today, was one of the most intense and illuminating experiences of my career. My first trade show ever working on the organizer side.

Every call with senior leaders bringing up this fabled industry episode details exactly where they were and what they were doing/thinking at the moment of the infamous SLC tornado of 1999. I’d never seen this full Weather Channel episode but it’s a blast from the past (pun intended).

Also remembering Alan Crandy (who was killed) and his family whom we invited out years later to honor the memory of this father and exhibit foreman.

https://youtu.be/SLfgPrgQI9o?si=4o4FFKoi-S9VCNGq

The industry leaders and all of us were put to the test and our character as a community showed. I’m always proud to be part of such a grounded and greater-good focused community, despite its challenges and flaws.

In this video, we recount the story of the unprecedented 1999 Salt Lake City, Utah tornado, which ravaged one of the mountain west's largest cities with no w...

07/23/2025

Key Outdoor biz Fall events coming up... hope to see you there; and explore how to engage!

Come to and support the largest media-centric event in the greater Outdoor Industry. Kenji Consults has been a part of OMS since the early years; We’ve fine tuned this event to deliver great value; As a sponsor, brands get 60+ meetings with working media in real life and real relationships result....

01/06/2025

Perseverance and Advocacy can change the world. Exhibit A

https://www.friendsofjosh.org/chuckwalla-national-monument-becomes-reality/

Chuckwalla National Monument Becomes a Reality in 2025 Chuckwalla National Monument becomes a reality with President Biden coming to the high desert next week to make it official! The designation will add a large new chunk of land to the area next to the Joshua Tree National Park — making it the b...

10/01/2024

Gotta admit excited for this next week...Hope to see you in Traverse City!
https://michiganoutdoor.org/presenters/kenji-haroutunian/

09/24/2024

Kinda sad, but also somewhat inevitable. Where do we go from here?

This news hit us this morning and has kicked off a flurry of social media commentary and phone blowups with the news. We anticipate plenty of lamenting, reminiscing and pontificating on the future of shows (full disclosure, we’ve already done our own pontificating in the socials…:-). During Kenj...

07/26/2024

If you're interested in catching up but don't have the time, give a listen to this during your drive/dishwashing/lawnmowing/mediating/procrastinating or otherwise visually encumbered. It details where I come from on various issues and where we're going with Big The Big Gear Show . https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=31917287

Today my long time outdoor compadre Kenji Haroutunian makes his 3rd appearance on the show. As longtime director of two top-fifty trade shows in the country (and many events and services beyond), Kenji’s experience has afforded him a truly independent viewpoint to best understand the ebbs and flow...

05/14/2024

Hey here's a last minute opportunity to support our work at CORP (The California Outdoor Recreation Partnership)! I went for the long sleeve myself.... National Trails Day coming soon and Illumine is on board to support!

Illumine makes adventure inspiring apparel to build outdoor communities that give back. Each month we partner with nonprofits making the outdoors more accessible, sustainable and welcoming by donating 20% of every sale to support their mission.

02/26/2024

Recently learned of a great man of the Outdoors passing. George Basch was always the biggest heart in the room, and engaged with his Himalayan Stove Project mission through to his too early end here on Earth. If you knew him, you loved him. Will carry his spirit with me as role model, inspiration for doing good and living right.
(this shot from Outdoor PressCamp 2017).

02/19/2024

We interrupt this very informative Black History Month to announce that we have a New National Park Unit at Amache, Colorado... the 'camp' where my family was incarcerated during WWII. Black History is American History... and so is Amache. Learn, or else repeat.

Amache, also known as the Granada Relocation Center, near Granada, Colorado was one of ten incarceration sites established by the War Relocation Authority during World War II to unjustly incarcerate Japanese Americans. Over 10,000 people, most American citizens, were incarcerated at Amache from 1942...

08/23/2023

OMS Curious? https://mailchi.mp/87f09ebd5230/kenji-consults-hurriquake-edition

07/18/2023

We are searching for textile, materials, sustainability, and compliance experts from outdoor industry brands outside of our current membership that sell in California. You do not have to be based in California. California is in the process of creating a Textile Environmental Producer Responsibility (EPR) Program under CalRecycle with bill SB 707 that has now been made into a 2-year bill. While we have a lot of feedback from our current members, we want to bring as many folks from the outdoor industry together to collaborate on this important program.

We have been added as a representative on the California Product Stewardship Council's Statewide Textile Recovery Advisory Committee for the creation of the program. Currently the program will include textile products such as clothing, backpacks, handbags, and footwear. Tents and ropes are not written in at this time. Our plan is to have our feedback together by December 1st.

If you work for a company in the textile, materials, sustainability, or compliance space, we would like to connect with you for input on the program. If you know someone who works in this space, please pass this message along. Thank you! Please feel free to reach out to our Director at: [email protected]