Outdoor Sportswire Executive Interview Series – Yoon Kim of Outdoor Media Summit

March 23, 2026

Today we’re speaking with Yoon Kim, founder of the Outdoor Media Summit (OMS), an annual event where the brightest minds in media and marketing gather to share secrets, forecast the future, and learn to make more money. OMS is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and Yoon pulls back the curtain on how the event has evolved, what makes it unlike anything else in the industry, and the one challenge that still humbles him after nearly two decades in the business. And if you’ve ever met Yoon, you also know he is one of the kindest people in the outdoor industry.

I hear it is the 10th anniversary of Outdoor Media Summit (OMS), congrats! In what ways has the event evolved to where it is today?

We’ve come a long way and I think we’ve finally dialed our formula to maximize value to brands and gear editors. In terms of format evolution, in the early days the event was a day and a half. We colocated with another conference but quickly outgrew them.

We added New Gear Speed Date three years ago, which is a fresh take on the gear showcase experience that guarantees brands a minimum of 40 media meetings.

Two years ago we added New Gear Campout, another smashing success for us. We caught Airstream’s attention this year so media will be sleeping in Airstreams for campout.

Excursions was new last year where attendees had the opportunity to try out gear in a variety of settings including mountain biking, birding, hot springs, packrafting and more. It’s a huge pain in the ass to put on, but brands love it so we’ll do it again!

We’re also experimenting with two new formats, a pitch fest designed to maximize value to attendees as well another format that I can’t talk about just yet! 

In terms of team, having Eric Zazo a join us has been the best thing that has ever happened. If you don’t know Erica you need to, she’s the sharpest, fastest and most eloquent team member I’ve ever worked with. But her unique superpower (among the other super powers she has) is this combination of kindness/compassion mixed with a strong bullshit radar. In other words, she knows when you’re not giving your best and pushes you to give your best. She pushes me to give my best every day and has had immediate and lasting impact not just on the event but also on me as a professional. Oh and she also knows like everyone in the industry.

In terms of attendees, from my vantage point, the quality of attendees hasn’t changed and actually the number hasn’t grown much because we keep running into capacity issues at each venue. But this year, Asheville is much bigger so we’ll have more people. We always turn down about the same amount of people as we let it, so this year hopefully we won’t have to do that.

Having attended OMS this year, one of the programs I was most impressed with was the excursions. Can you talk about that a bit more and how it came about? 

We used do this event called Scavenger Hunt which was cool in some years but honestly kind of lame in other years. Excursions elevated the day 2 afternoon experience for sure. The thing is our industry wants time outside and it can’t just be in some city park. The experience has to be authentic and what we offered in the early days was just not there. Like I was saying earlier, it’s a huge pain in the ass to shuttle hundreds of people to 8 different outdoorsy excursions, but in the end, it’s not about us. It’s about our attendees.

How is OMS unique/different from other outdoor industry conferences for attendees?

For media, we offer job security and career advancement. Media should walk out of the event knowing how to grow their publications and/or make more money. There are coaches and consultants that offer this kind of thing, but no other event in the outdoor industry is offering that. Our education is a huge loss leader for us; it’s very expensive and time consuming to get right. But that’s how we attract the caliber of media we do. Most high profile editors don’t have the patience to wander around aimlessly at a tradeshow, or sit in product meetings for days on end. This is how we attract editors from Travel + Leisure, Conde Naste Traveler, SELF, etc. These guys don’t go to other outdoor industry events.

For brands, the value prop is slightly different. While technical education is still important, they see value in guaranteed media meetings with these elusive editors. Again, many of these editors won’t go to other shows – the value is not there for them. But they come to OMS. On top of that, brands get to showcase gear in an authentic outdoor environment which ultimately leads to higher product coverage.

How is OMS unique/different from other outdoor industry conferences for sponsors?

I like to say that our event is disruptively different. For instance, we guarantee a brand will get a *minimum* of 40 media meetings. No one else is guaranteeing that.

Second we showcase product outside in an authentic outdoorsy environment which leads to higher rates of gear coverage (they can take photos right then and there as seen in the OMS Gear Roundup in Outside).

Third our education is on another level. It’s just better. Like disruptively better.

What are some of the biggest challenges and learnings of putting on an event like OMS?

The biggest challenge I’ve had is earning a brand’s trust. Despite being in the industry for almost two decades, the show running for over a decade of work, an NPS of 79, and some of the strongest word of mouth in the industry, I still run into brands who treat us like a cold pitch from a company they’ve never heard of. That’s been humbling and honestly a little frustrating. But it also makes me that much more grateful to partners like Patagonia, Osprey, NEMO, and COAST who gave us a shot early on.

What is ahead for OMS for next year?

OMS Asheville will be hyper productive, wildly fun and will actually be outside.