The inaugural session of the CORA Outdoor School , was held in the western city of Xi'an from September 4-6 th . A total of 41 shop managers and sales staff from 19 outdoor specialty shops were in attendance. The Fall '06 session CORA Outdoor School , presented Gore-TEX, was jointly sponsored by Tecnica, Black Yak, and Hot Chillys.
The curriculum was divided into technical seminars and product presentations. Technical seminars concentrated on the technologies used in each product category, where product presentations presented a specific brand of products.
The technical seminars included the following sessions:
* Base layer
* Middle layer
* Outer shell
* Footwear
* Outdoor hardware
* Accessories
Product presentations featured the following brands:
* GoreTEX and Windstopper
* Tecnica
* Black Yak
* Hot Chillys
* Black Diamond
Each of the five product presentation was given by a vendor staff.
Last day of the CORA Outdoor School was an outdoor experience day where everyone went on a day trip to the nearby Cuihua Mountain for a day of hiking and rock climbing. Doing their share of work to protect the environment, each camp attendee was given an empty garbage bag at the start of the trip. They returned it at the end of the day with a bagful of garbage they picked up along the way.
It was a new experience for many who attended the training camp. “A lot of outdoor specialty shops are too busy running the business to communicate with their peers.”says Wei Yi Feng of Suzhou Outlook Outdoor, “What the CORA Outdoor School did was to get the sales staff from different shops together and provide a forum for us to learn from the seminars as well as learn from each other, which is a good thing for the outdoor industry.”
Tian Dong Ze, marketing manager of Shenyang Shanlu Outdoor enthuses, “I learned a lot of things that I have never knew before and made a lot of friends. Of all things, I found the networking aspects of the CORA Outdoor School most useful. I hope the events gets better each year.”
The next CORA Outdoor School is scheduled for March 21007, with new products and technology for Spring/Summer 2007.