Gateway Outdoor Summit a free, daylong gathering dedicated to advancing outdoor recreation across St. Louis and the Midwest

As we continue 8.51 on Total Information a.m., Michael Calhoun, and for Megan Lynch this morning, outdoor recreation is building around the St. Louis area, and there is a convention to talk about taking it to the next level. If you've been to other cities like Denver, Austin, you know what I'm talking about. Here to tell us about the Gateway Outdoor Summit is Brad Kovatch, the deputy director of River City Outdoors. Thank you so much for being with us, Brad. Thank you for having me. So outdoor recreation, a lot of people might think, you know, a trip to the Ozarks or, you know, we'll do a weekend at a state park. You know, it's camping. It's something you've got to really plan, set aside time for. How does St. Louis get to the point like a lot of these other places where, you know, you could do this as before or after work or, you know, an easy kind of a weekend thing? Right. We do have a lot of outdoor resources right here in the city. You know, a lot of it is just knowledge, of course, in getting the word out. And then, you know, getting together leaders, which is what we're trying to do at our summit. to help expand access, grow inclusivity, just help to move the needle and make more opportunity for people in their community to get outside. St. Louis really does have, I think, dozens of Greenway groups, trailnet groups, park boards, land trusts. How do they all work together? Is that kind of the goal of this is to say you're all doing great things individually, but let's, you know, kind of figure out how it all fits together. Right. You nailed it. I mean, that's exactly what we hope to accomplish here is get everybody in the room. You know, people are doing great things individually or in their current organization. So how can we get those people together talking about projects they can collaborate on, new ideas that we can start to, again, just keep. growing that impact and accessibility to the outdoors here in St. Louis. What are some examples of either something that you've brainstormed or you've seen in a different city or something that's been talked about amongst these organizations that we should start an initiative for this or that? What are some examples that people could latch on to? Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I think something that we're doing really well right now with groups like TrailNet and Great Rivers Greenway are talking about pedestrian and bike lanes around the city. We're starting to make some real progress there. So that's a very positive movement that's happening. You know, some things that we might talk about at the Expo include, you know, how can we continue to grow the rivers and how can we protect the rivers while also expanding access to them and kind of activating those spaces? Because as we know, St. Louis is right on to the largest rivers in the country. So, you know, how can we keep expanding use there? And beyond the Missouri Mississippi. The Merrimack, Hazzah, et cetera. Exactly, exactly. You know, we hear about the state of state parks, and we will at this conference, I believe. What is the state of state parks? But also, how does that compare to, you know, the counties and the municipalities and all of the other contributors to outdoor recreation? You know, that's, again, a very good question. We will be at the summit talking about two of the new economic impact reports that state parks are putting out. We'll talk about trends, numbers, you know, users, all that sort of stuff. I don't know if county parks has done a similar sort of impact report, but it would be very interesting to compare Liz and see. I do know that we're very fortunate here in the city and the county to have access to just a wide number of parks. So there's some number that most St. Louis city residents live within a few miles or maybe a mile or so of a park. So we have these.

great resources there. It's, you know, how do we get people aware of that and get them, whether it's programming the parks or just letting people know that, hey, this is your closest area to go and experience outdoor recreation. You know, that's things that we'll talk about at the summit. And, you know, thinking about Austin, Texas and how people are packing Lady Bird Lake there with kayaks, you know, in the shadow of the skyscrapers, but you can go to Forest Park and put a kayak in or a... a swan boat and, you know, travel the waterway there, too. You can. We've got these urban opportunities here also. Yeah, Forest Park has not just the pedal boats, but also canoes, kayaks, and a stand-of-paddle boards now. So that's fun. And, you know, we're actually doing bike rentals there now as well. And even bike rentals now down at the arch. So we're slowly trying to, you know, build out the bubble of the things that we offer to visitors and residents here downtown. Well, as we wrap up talking about this summit coming up next week, it's next Thursday. We've talked about these kind of coordinating, organizing groups that St. Louis has, but running groups, team St. Louis, all of these different community groups that bring people together for the actual activities. How does St. Louis stack up in terms of those, and how proud are you of those community organizations? Yeah, I'm very proud of them. I can't claim to have anything to do with building them, but it's great to see that... Especially running has exploded, it seems, in the last year or two in St. Louis. Community, you know, social running groups have really have really some game momentum, not to use a pun. But that's really exciting. You know, once you get out there with those groups, not only is it fun and healthy, but, you know, you have some accountability and you kind of create your own new social network. And so it's really exciting to see people latching on to that. Well, Brad, tell us about the Gateway Outdoor Summit when it is, where it is, and how people can get more information. Yeah, so it's next Thursday, August 20th. It's in Midtown at Dotzac, which is a event space down there. And if you are interested, you can go on to our website and check it out. The website is actually Gateway OutdoorExpo.com that serves both the summit and an expo that we host later in the year, so don't be confused by that URL. But go there, check out that website. You can find more information about the summit. And then there's registration right there. We were very close to selling out. However, even if it tells you we're sold out, you are invited to come. Everyone, the public is invited to come see our keynote at 4 o'clock. You do not need you register for that. So just come at 4 and join the fun. Gateway Outdoor Summit next Thursday. River City Outdoors, Brad Kovac. Thank you so much for being with us this morning at KMO.