A Ten Year Plan

From the Mountains to the Mainstream

As an athlete and a spectator, I saw that the sport of competition climbing, with its grand, global history and broad aspirational message, could be showcased on a larger and more effective stage. I founded NE2C Productions with my best friend and business partner, a company that produced the first ever officially sanctioned climbing pro tour. Our work transformed competition climbing and its business model into a product that, ultimately, has been accepted into the 2020 Olympic Games.

Making Vision Into Reality

We developed a new business and production model communicating the tension and excitement of climbing while staying true to the sport’s origins.

This model required us to be the first to sell climbing as a profitable investment to outdoor industry leaders such as Adidas and The North Face, ultimately transforming our vision into the future that our sport has come to realize. This was challenging work, because we had essentially created a platform challenging the status quo for an industry selling an inherently outdoor message to an increasingly urbanizing global population.

I am perhaps most proud of our intensely diplomatic two-year effort to negotiate an unprecedented sanctioning agreement with the National Governing Body, USA Climbing. This effort remains the only such agreement to date. 

"Industry Leadership to a Future Compass Point"

When asked what product he bought by investing in the UBC Pro Tour, Ted Manning, CEO of Ibex said, “Industry leadership to a future compass point”. My company had the vision to see what was coming, and the capabilities to make that vision a reality.

We were early adopters of technology, embracing the digital revolution, and the first ever to broadcast a climbing competition live online (in 2009!!!), the first to broadcast to mobile and the first to offer live interaction with fans from around the globe

Creating Meaningful Experiences

The driving goal of the Unified Bouldering Championships was to harness the experiential power of events to grow the sport of climbing. Our competitions conveyed  the excitement and originality of rock climbing to attendees through production value, emotion, and entertainment.

Considerations such as site selection, venue layout, lighting, program content, scoring, and even the style of announcing, were all designed towards reaching new fans, resulting in a dramatic overhaul of the look and feel of rock climbing competitions.