SAM Magazine-McLean, Va., Mar. 11, 2010-A total of 18,932 attendees gave the SnowSports Industries America (SIA) Snow Show its greatest attendance in six years, according to SIA. The show, with more than 3,100 booths representing 845 snow sports brands, was held at Denver's Colorado Convention Center Jan. 28-31 for the first time, after a 37-year run in Las Vegas.

The move to Denver boosted media coverage. There were 875 journalists at the show (we suspected there were a lot of us there), including numerous television camera crews. And they had an impact. "As a result of being featured in a local FOX 31 television report on the Snow Show a distributor came to us with a great opportunity," said Brett Curtis of Manic Snow, who is also featured in the SAM CAM hardgoods video report on the show.

According to research conducted by Leisure Trends Group, the shops in attendance represented 75 percent of the snowsport industry's buying power. While that was a decline from past shows, buyer attendance was up 9.6 percent from last year-there were 4,561 buyers from 1,309 buying managements. With the change in location, the show drew more buyers from the Rocky Mountain and Midwest regions, but fewer from the West Coast and Northeast.

Of those buyers who attended, 95 percent said the SIA Snow met their objectives. More than 50 percent also noted that the recession was still having an effect on their business.

"For the first year in Denver, in the middle of a recession, we're very happy with the attendance numbers," said David Ingemie, president of SIA.

New product buzz on the show floor included the continuing story of rocker or reverse camber technology for both skis and snowboards. Outerwear fashion showed no clear trends; there were as many styles and color schemes as companies, it seemed.

Following the Snow Show, 3,470 attendees, including 1,152 buyers from 402 managements, headed to Winter Park and Devil's Thumb Ranch for the first international On-Snow Demo/Free Ride Fest Feb. 1-2. The On-Snow Demo included 231 booths.