Dave Manchester - CANNONDALE

How long has CANNONDALE been coming to Interbike?

Forever...... since the show began.

What is your focus for the show this year?

Our focus has actually changed dramatically this year. We've down sized the overall size of our booth......typically we are up on the main showroom floor. (Editor's note: Cannondale had rooms down one level from the main showroom floor without a lot of "fluff" - however each time I checked it (which was more than once per day) it was ALWAYS standing room only).  That became more competitive for us to be successful at because it's a very large venue. We have a very strong loyalty to our brand...... everyone wants to see what we're doing...... what's new and what's not....... it got so busy that we couldn't have conversations that were very important to business...... and it became more unfocused than we wanted it to be. It was a great event..... we looked great to the industry.... beautiful banners, bikes, and displays........ but this year we wanted to do it differently so we down sized our booth because we have been selling these bicycles effectively since June and July....... so most of our dealers have either purchased these and / or saw these. Many dealers would come here to learn about colors....... maybe see this shade of a color versus another color....... but what we want to do is also give the dealers an environment to speak directly to our product managers and reinforce what we've already been saying and have that kind of one on one environment......... so we have additionally had four rooms over the last couple of days where our product managers from the bicycle division, clothing division, our marketing team and then our VP Dan Alloway gave a vision of our company....... where we're going...... what we're doing in the future...... and then the product managers explained each of their products....... bikes and clothing........and that worked out very, very well. It helped reinforce the message from the sales reps....... and why we do what we do and what the future is for us....... it's been great..........we're very happy..... so we'll probably continue something like this....... then at the same time we did a banquet for our dealers (600 plus dealers the other day upstairs) which gave Joe Montgomery an opportunity to speak collectively to all of our dealers which we haven't done for a couple of years....... all at once and share some of his vision through 5, 10, 15 to 20 years from now for Cannondale.

This is the largest gathering of cycling industry representatives from all over the world. What is your take on the general attitude for 2002?

It depends on who you ask....... the companies that are being successful right now feel very positive about the future ahead. I think the companies that are struggling are very concerned about the future..... and the same applies to dealers. The thing I get is that the dealers that are focused on the business......... the dealers that get it......get it....... and the manufacturers that get it......get it..... and they are the ones that are achieving success right now. We are fortunate to fall into that category hopefully.

Will the Sept. 11th attacks on America and its effect on the economy change any of your business plans for 2002?

No. Not at all.

Are you happy with this year's show?