After lending its support to the annual European Outdoor Forum (EOF) since its start in 2010, the European Outdoor Group has decided to launch a similar initiative from 2013 on, working with national associations to host it each year in a different European country. It will be called the European Outdoor Summit (EOS). The first EOS in 2013 will be organized in conjunction with the Scandinavian Outdoor Group (SOG) in a Scandinavian city, probably Copenhagen or Stockholm. A German venue will be chosen together with the German sporting goods industry federation, BSI, for the EOS in 2014. In any case, it will have to be a place which, unlike Annécy, can be quickly and easily reached by airplane from anywhere in Europe. The choice for 2015 is still open. The SOG and BSI will be deeply involved in the organization of the next two summits. The EOG will provide financial support for the convention, which is designed as a non-profit-making initiative for the outdoor industry. It will handle the branding and the bookings. The Ispo fair in Munich and the OutDoor fair in Friedrichshafen have already agreed to support the EOS in different ways. Like the EOF, which will again be organized by the Outdoor Sports Valley (OSV) for the third time in the nice French town of Annécy next Oct. 16-17, the future EOS will feature top-level keynote speakers and provide opportunities for networking. It will also feature break-out sessions that participants can choose from. The EOS will last for three days instead of two, starting around lunchtime and ending in the early afternoon to give delegates time to get in and get out while spending only two nights on the site. More in today’s Outdoor Industry Compass and in the next issue of SGI Europe.