Around 200 participants will meet at the Marsöl Congress Center in Chur on October 2 and 3 for the second Ride Mountain Bike Congress

Intensive knowledge transfer
The second Ride Mountain Bike Congress impresses with high-caliber speakers who provide the 200 or so participants from all over Europe and overseas with new input. The speakers pose important questions or reveal precisely where Swiss mountain bike tourism has potential for development and conflict. While the first event featured several contributions that resembled commercials, the speakers at the Ride Congress 2014 were committed to providing the audience with real knowledge and experience.

And this transfer of knowledge is important: According to the findings of Züri Trails, many mountain bikers - and also experts - are unaware of which organization in Switzerland is responsible for which task in promoting mountain biking. The congress provides valuable support here: lobbyists, heads of associations and representatives of authorities are at the lectern and numerous decision-makers from the tourism industry are in the audience.

Expertise from overseas and lobbying
On the first day of the event, eight presentations in the morning will ensure an intensive transfer of know-how. The experts will present benchmarks and statistics and draw up theses and forecasts. Tom Prochazka will share his expertise as bike park manager in Whistler and dictate in detail to the participants how a bike destination should be set up. Mark Torsius from IMBA Europe and Mathias Marschner from DIMB will focus on lobbying to promote the sport of biking. Marschner calls for a professionalization of lobbying for the sport of mountain biking, "too much depends on too few heads, lobbying must leave the hobby room".

Better integration of popular sports
Frank Wadenpohl from Züri Trails presents the results of the Switzerland-wide survey regarding the requirements for a national mountain bike organization. The conclusion is that bikers want more influence on legislation and more lobbying and that popular sport is not represented enough at national level. Wadenpohl asks openly whether a new national organization or a realignment of the existing organizations is needed.New signals
Bruno Hirschi from Schweiz Mobil revealed that after six seasons with a network of 3 national, 15 regional and 172 local mountain bike routes, his foundation is aiming for a quality offensive. Signposting is to be improved and a uniform signposting system for trails and pistes is being developed with the bfu, based on the signals in Graubünden.Peter Stirnimann from the Canton of Graubünden's Office for Non-motorized Traffic takes a critical view of the "Supersize Mountain Bike" congress topic: he doubts the sustainability of black-signposted trails, and the potential for conflicts would also increase with more bikers. He sees bans on bikers in extremely popular areas as unavoidable. For Stirnimann, signaling, communication, channeling and training of bikers and guides is important in order to use infrastructure together with hiking.Christoph Müller from the bfu left his mark on the congress with the statement "The future is blue". According to the accident expert, for biking to grow, the trails must be blue in terms of difficulty. "It is essential that trails are designed to be forgiving," says Müller, referring to the conclusion of the first Ride Congress, which revealed that many trails in Switzerland are too technical.

Journalist Anna Weiss develops insights into bike offers for women in a workshop with congress visitors

Workshops deepen presentations
Journalist Anna Weiss from World of MTB magazine took to the lectern as an expert on women's issues in the bike sector. She presented the results of an online survey of around 1300 biking women. Like all other speakers and congress participants, Weiss moved from the conference center to a nearby school building in the afternoon to discuss the theses, results and open questions of the presentations in classrooms in a more intimate setting.

In Weiss's workshop, there are concrete results (Do women prefer a female or male guide on a bike course?) and an exchange of experiences on how to design offers for women. In the workshop with the experts Bruno Hirschi, Peter Stirnimann, Christoph Müller and Pete Stutz, the question of the difficulty of trails is discussed and the presentations are supplemented with perspectives. Trail builder Claudio Caluori says: "The future is blue - but not exclusively. We can also build difficult trails in such a way that they are forgiving."

Which association does the sport of mountain biking need? Experts Mathias Marschner, Samuel Hubschmid, Frank Wadenpohl and Markus Pfisterer (from left to right) share their views.

Swiss Cycling promotes popular mountain biking
In the workshop with Frank Wadenpohl, Mathias Marschner, Samuel Hubschmid and Markus Pfisterer, the "lions' den" opens up, according to moderator Claude Balsiger. The question of the right association for mountain bikers is the subject of lively discussion. Pfisterer, as Managing Director of Swiss Cycling, surprises with the information that his association will be creating a position for the popular sport of mountain biking in November.

Two out of six
In further workshops, speakers Tom Prochazka, Mark Torsius and Oliver Rosch will discuss with the participants. The sometimes statistics-heavy presentations become more understandable and the topics more tangible. The audience is given the opportunity to ask questions and get involved. The atmosphere in the classroom provides insights and encourages statements that would not have been possible in the plenary session in the congress hall. Participants can only attend two of the six workshops. Back at the congress center, the moderators provide the audience with a summary of the results they missed.Growth without borders?
On the second day of the congress, Thomas Giger takes his place in the hot seat. The Ride editor takes the topic of "supersizing" by the nose - as he argues that the sport should not necessarily be made bigger, but better. This includes, in particular, increasing added value. For Giger, the example of Whistler is an example of how it cannot be done in Switzerland, as the natural conditions in the Alps are completely different to those in Canada. For Giger, there is a clear threshold at which more bikers cause more damage to nature. However, he expresses the hope that better maintenance will improve the trails in the future despite more use.Representatives from tourist regions in Tyrol, the Dolomites and the Czech Republic will give participants an insight into mountain bike projects abroad during the second day of the congress. Dave O'Riordan describes how to build a community using the Grass Root method. Andrej Zigon explores the question of how to provide the destination with sustainable branding and what problems arise on the way to becoming a well-known brand. Darco Cazin concludes the panel of speakers. The Grisons bike tourism expert presented "MTB Agent", a free app that allows bikers to give detailed and user-friendly feedback on destinations. The app used by bikers generates data that can be evaluated by destination management in the categories of trails, scene, transportation, services and hotels.

The OC has done a great job: Leonie Liesch, Michael Christ, Claude Balsiger, Darco Cazin, Thomas Giger, Roland Anderegg (from left to right)

Informal exchange
In the breaks, during the evening program and on the final bike tour, the symposium once again provided plenty of space for informal discussions between the participants. The transfer of knowledge and experience between the participants was also central here - such as during the networking round for trail builders or the exchange between destination management representatives and the hotel industry.

With around 200 participants from all parts of Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and the USA, the organizers of the 2nd Ride Congress can look back on a successful event that has evolved significantly. The third stage is already set: the 3rd Ride Mountain Bike Congress Chur will take place on October 15 - 16, 2015.

www.ridekongress.ch