Entering its fourth year, the annual bicycle tradeshow held in Park City, DealerCamp, plans to add "Consumer Day," an event where locals will be invited for the first time in the tradeshow's history to test and potentially buy new product.

The tradeshow takes place at Deer Valley and runs for three days at the end of July, pulling in thousands of manufacturers and retailers in the bicycle industry, including mountain biking and road biking.

Lance Camisasca owns Lifeboat Events, the company that hosts the tradeshow each year, and he said adding a Consumer Day has been on the radar since the first year of DealerCamp, but it took years to get a consensus from retailers and manufacturers on how to go about it. Lifeboat Events, self-described as the "future of cycling media events," was created by Camisasca, to create an event that put cyclists in a place where the product could actually be tested.

In other major cyclist tradeshows such as the Las Vegas Interbike International Bicycle Expo and the Eurobike Show held in Germany, opportunities to test drive products are limited. But in Park City, retailers can select a bike and hit mountain trails all in one location. Tacking a Consumer Day onto the event is just another way Camisasca hopes to make DealerCamp stand out.

"Trade events in Europe often add consumer days," Camisasca said. " but I don't know of a bike trade show in North America that has a public day."

The idea to add a consumer day came from other tradeshows Camisasca attended in Europe, where allowing consumers in on the final day of a tradeshow is more common. Though consumers may not be able to buy brand new product directly from manufacturers, Camisasca is working to get retailers involved, which may include bikes and gear.

"We recognized the active lifestyle in that region of the market," Camisasca said, "that mountain biking alone is extremely popular. And that mentality goes beyond Park City. Most of Utah seems to be cut from same cloth in this regard."

"To increase value for our customers, why not let them show their products to some of the best consumers in country, people who just happen to live in the Park City, Salt Lake City and Ogden areas," he added. "We're talking about high-quality spenders who are exactly what you would hope for in a consumer."

DealerCamp continues to grow each year, with more than 100 brands of bicycles and more than 700 individual retailers attending this past year, including names such as Raleigh, Osprey and Velo. While it is a smaller tradeshow in size, Camisasca said it is continuing to garner more attention from industry members.

"As a show producer, I am always trying to increase the return on investment for our customers, the brands that participate," he said. "There is only so far you can go with a business-to-business event. And Lifeboat Events is about providing a high-quality event."

The cost for brands to participate in DealerCamp will drop by 25 percent, Camisasca said, in the hopes to add more value with less of an investment. The DealerCamp schedule and what will be offered next year over the three-day event, will be developed in the coming months. One retailer day will be dropped from the schedule to add the Consumer Day, but Camisasca said he expects to have plenty to keep people busy.

"We'll have affordable ticket prices that may have extra perks that come with the gate fee," Camisasca said. "The bike manufacturers may not be selling but I do intend to have number of local bike shops from the area attend and they are invited to participate.

"I really want to get local retailers involved."