A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Expanding on Bentonville, AR in The New York Times
Bentonville, Arkansas was recently spotlighted in The New York Times for its transformation from a business hub to a world-class cycling destination. In this episode, host Nat welcomes local leaders in the cycling industry to reflect on the national attention and share a deeper look into how we got here.
Together, they explore what makes Bentonville’s trail system unique, how the shift to a leisure destination is fueling economic development and a look ahead at a visitor's experience in the MTB Capital of the World.
What we discuss:
🚵♀️ Bentonville’s Cycling Culture Evolution
🌱 Community Impact & Inclusivity
🚀 The Future of Cycling in Bentonville
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Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your cycling host, Nat Ross. Today I'm joined by Scott King and Aimee Ross from the Runway Group. We're talking about how Bentonville became the epicenter of the cycling world, and this is all related to a new article in the New York Times that's spurring a lot of interest in the community here, so I would like to welcome both of you to the podcast. And yeah, Scott, I think let's figure out in terms of the audience here what Scott King does and kind of talk about how you're related to cycling space here in the industry in Bentonville Cool.
Scott King:Well, I'm Scott King with the Runway Group. I have a couple different roles there that are pertinent to this conversation. I'm Chief Experience Officer, where I look after a number of things, primarily in cycling. I could talk more about that in a moment. And I'm also Chief Business Development Officer, where I'm leading a team with Amy and some others to go make a case to the cycling industry to call this home.
Nat Ross:Okay, Aimee Ross, you and Scott are in the same office building, so tell us a little bit about what you do.
Aimee Ross:Yeah, so, as Scott mentioned, part of the business development team as it relates to how we're looking to build Northwest Arkansas as a geographic home in North America for the cycling industry and I've been fortunate enough to have going on 20 years of cycling industry experience that I can bring to this role and to the community to help really make this charge forward.
Nat Ross:Well, the exciting thing is is this article just came out at a not couldn't even come out at a better time, because the momentum that you guys have been feeling and experiencing is the truth. It's really happening here. So I think, scott, a lot of us would like to hear about how this development over the past decade has been going on. Peel back the curtain a tad bit. Talk about from your industry perspective what makes the trail system, the system of what we have here for cycling in general the playground. What makes it an established cycling destination or a desirable place to come ride?
Scott King:Yeah, well, besides the just the miles of trail and roads that we have, which there is a lot, and that's all. All those details are out there, but I think the thing that's sometimes overlooked until you come here is that all of that is so integrated into where you are, in the sense that when you arrive, you probably come by car, maybe by van, or maybe you fly in, but you take a car to where you're going to stay and then you get your bikes out and then you don't get back in the car until you're going to leave. You ride everywhere, you ride to the ride, and that kind of integration into the place is, I think, one of the things that makes this so unique, and it's something we hear over and over from every visitor and every local who moves here. It's like man, I just can get out of, I can leave my house and go ride, and that's really special.
Nat Ross:Yeah, no doubt on that piece A lot of folks. Even the article alludes to that. So in the New York Times, amy, they also mentioned the transformation from business destination to a leisure destination in the article and we want to know how this shift has impacted the economic development beyond the tourism dollars.
Aimee Ross:For years Bentonville has been known as the home of Walmart and I think now that we're a self-proclaimed home of the mountain bike capital of the world, that really helped make that shift by hosting events here, thanks in part to businesses like Visit Bentonville doing that work. We've kind of started to coin this experience as a leisure traveler, where they come for business but then they stay over the weekend for leisure, and you know, I've heard numbers, it's kind of a mullet.
Scott King:Yeah, it's like the rotten party effect.
Aimee Ross:You know, you hear the numbers over the years where it used to be that like, hotel occupancies during the week was, you know, upwards of 90% and would drop into the teens over the weekends. And that's just not the case anymore. It's still very heavily focused during the week with that work traveler. But now that they're staying over and then the additional visitors coming in, you know that capacity numbers are growing. It allows us to create more opportunities for new hotels and short-term lodging opportunities.
Scott King:It's cool too to see how many people are coming during the week to ride, particularly in the spring break time of the year and also in the fall season, when you'll look up and you'll see just dozens of people showing up in groups to go for a gravel ride or a trail ride or whatever.
Scott King:Yes, the hotel occupancy is still predominantly business during the week, but there's more and more people that are riding throughout the week. I think the other piece about this that's kind of cool to think about is kind of this business to leisure. But there's also this business to leisure back to business, because the cycling industry is doing more and more business here. So it's not the Walmart business that we're going back to business, because the cycling industry is doing more and more business here. So it's not the Walmart business that we're going back to, which is obviously still a big part of the heartbeat of the community, with 15,000 employees that are all kind of in this new campus, which is amazing, but there's a whole influx of the cycling industry now too. So that's kind of a cool add-on to the business to leisure to business.
Aimee Ross:Makes a good case for the work that Scott and I do on a regular basis as well.
Nat Ross:Well, yeah, I mean the templates here just over the decades, the business development and now focus with cycling. And honestly, john Carroll was mentioned in this article from coming to visit and he had no expectations that he would be here for four nights. So what are you hearing from visitors about their expectations versus reality once they land?
Aimee Ross:I think one of the cool things is and this isn't meant to sound negative is that people don't know what to expect when they hear Arkansas Like, the bar is still set pretty low. And so when we do get visitors that are coming specifically, you know, for cycling experiences, no matter how much you tell them how great it is, they still don't really understand until they're here. And once they're here and then they buy in and believe it and really like, feel the culture that's here. It definitely changes that mindset.
Scott King:So it it's always like, because Arkansas still has a little bit of a stigma, we always win yeah, the other thing that's cool about that is maybe somebody comes for a long weekend cycling visit and they realize there's a lot more to do than cycling. There's incredible art and or this music, or there's a great restaurant scene, and so so they might say, well, I'm coming back with my family next time, and so it was a three-day visit or a four-day visit. Then there's a week visit, and this is something we've seen in our research over the last few years is most mountain bike trips are three or four days. That's all anybody gets all pass for.
Scott King:It's like they're going to go with the family, just with the girls or the guys for a bike trip. It's a long weekend, but if you're going to keep someone for a longer period of time, particularly in a kind of a travel destination, you need to have some for the whole family. Absolutely Right. And so I think a lot of times people come for that long weekend then they realize there's museums of all sorts, there's all this other culture, and then they bring the whole family back and they stay longer.
Nat Ross:Well, scott, touching on that community impact and then the way that it includes all the groups, the article does talk about how a third of the residents ride at least monthly. How does this kind of local engagement? How does that shape the business development strategies?
Scott King:does that shape the business development strategies? Well, we see this a lot in the cycling industry and I think maybe it's unique in some cases, but in other maybe not, in that I mean, in the cycling industry, so many people that work in that industry are active participants themselves. It's kind of a passion-driven industry. So people who want to work there are generally cyclists too. So, because of the to work, there are generally cyclists too. So, because of the fact that there's so many locals that are riding, it's an easy place to attract and retain talent. And so many of the people that we're talking to, from a business development standpoint, see it as an easy place to bring a company because their employees will be one of those people who are riding their bikes all the time. Absolutely Right, yeah, true, it makes our job easier when there's such amazing trail, just so accessible and gravel and on and on. So it's a key component of the argument about well, this is a great place to kind of do business.
Aimee Ross:Yeah, and there's a term saying you know, visitors want to visit where locals want to live, so we definitely have that going for us.
Scott King:Yeah, I think it's worth unpacking that for just a bit too. One of the design principles early on with the trail and with the experience in general, was build for the local. I've concentrated initially on build for the local. Another was build with the beginner in mind, right, so build an amazing beginner experience so that you have a good first-time experience. And then, thirdly equally important, is build for progression right, so you can go have a great beginner experience, but you can also then progress on your skills, which has been a key aspect of the trail building for the last decade.
Aimee Ross:We have something for everyone.
Nat Ross:Yeah, and addressing the inclusivity. What does that look like? What more can you do? What are you guys thinking towards future forward?
Aimee Ross:There's groups like this that form in different communities across the country. But the power that's been behind that, because of all the things that Scott just pinpointed as far as the experience building for the local building, for the beginner building, for progression, it's allowed groups like Women of Oz Mountain Bike Organization to form and FEMS Gravel to create opportunities. Latinas in BC All Bodies on Bikes. They relocated their business here and home base here. You have organizations like Pedal it Forward that provide opportunities for underprivileged families and students and locals to get access to bikes, to make that opportunity in which that they can participate in this cycling culture that we've continued to build.
Scott King:Yeah, we fundamentally believe in the transformative power of the bicycle and we think that that's something everyone should have access to, like everyone, and so whatever we can do to continue to promote that is positive in our opinion.
Nat Ross:Sure, and I understand it's not all about competition and racing, but the article talks about events like the Lifetime Grand Prix and cycling trends. So what does that look like for Bittenville, since the pioneering element's been, the groundwork's been laid and we're looking to the future?
Aimee Ross:Yeah, you know Lifetime came in about a handful of years ago now. There had been a lot of groundwork laid, with a lot of local organizations kind of trying their hand at putting together some some community focused events that it's attracted, you know, participants from all over and many of those are still going. But it's also helped us really in the sense of how we develop different opportunities and events. You know we have things like rule three, where it's you pick. You know we have things like Rule of Three, where it's you pick one bike to do both or all three methods of tarmac, gravel and single track.
Aimee Ross:That's an experience that's very unique to Bentonville. Other places are trying it out now. You see it as you go out, but it is something that we have an abundance of access to and then it opens the door for us to think about, like kind of that, what's next and how we can continue to foster. You know other opportunities on a global scale, like hosting World Cups, world Championships. I mean Fayetteville did Cyclocross World Championships. It's only a matter of time before Bentonville has their hand in one of those as well.
Scott King:Yeah, I think the other one, a couple more that are notable to point out. Obviously we're building a bike park. The part of my life I was mentioned to earlier is developer for a bike park, which will bring an important gravity component into the kind of mix here. There's also a lot happening with BMX in the area and there's obviously all the things that are happening in Tulsa with BMX racing. There are some folks in town that are really interested in the BMX freestyle side of things as well. All of that in preparation for upcoming games in LA in 28. I think there'll be a lot of both of those will be a lot of energy and it's just another component of cycling.
Scott King:I like to say all the wheels, you know their, there's their diameter, we like to ride them and sometimes we ride them in places we're not supposed to in terms of like the rule of three.
Scott King:You know we kind of mix up different things but, um, I don't know, it's just kind of the. The fun part of it is we. I think one of the cool things is we have a clear understanding of kind of cycling history and culture, and then there is the way it happens on the ground, right, and that to me, the rule of three was a great example. That's like, oh, there's a piece of single track, if we were to ride that, I could connect these two gravel roads and the next thing, you know, you've kind of got this new event that happens, and I'm really excited to see what happens when, um, we have a gravity park and a lot of folks who have ridden at parks in the east and west when they go will have direct access to that here. What does that do to our level, talent and the youth that are coming up and having access to just another type of terrain?
Aimee Ross:And we'll see what happens. Benville, never ceases to amaze me that they reach out and try to grab things that are maybe a little bit different or something than another community hasn't really thought to lean into as a way to help elevate itself in that cycling culture. National mountain bike team and it's brought, you know, world-class athletes, olympians, world champions, to the community, some of which have decided to to move here and live here full-time. You know that's a testament to all the development that's happened over the past.
Nat Ross:You know, two decades well part of the community is that fun disruption, and the rule of three is the perfect example. It's spearheaded here and it can expand elsewhere. The template is replicable, scott. I think that economic sustainability is another element that we'd like to learn more about from you.
Scott King:Well, I think in this case, from a business development standpoint, there's what we're doing with the industry Obviously the trail and tourism is a piece that we're always driving towards sustainability. With that, amy and I are more focused on the cycling industry piece and we like to think this could be a great place in North America to have a geographic home for the industry. There's not currently in the cycling industry, there's not a Silicon Valley or Detroit or a Wall Street or Hollywood.
Aimee Ross:Yeah, exactly.
Scott King:There's not one home base.
Scott King:It's grown organically over the years across the US and we're not suggesting that everybody's going to pick up and completely relocate here.
Scott King:But we do believe there's power and synergy when the brands have some presence in town and that can take a lot of different shapes but from that presence kind of becomes a whole lot of energy, a flywheel effect, as they would say, to actually move the industry forward. And sometimes that is talent moving between businesses and everybody gets frustrated when you lose a good talent. But you also realize there's more talent out there who could come work for you and that just slowly ratchets up the talent and the new ideas come out of that. And then ideas bring capital and innovation happens out of that. So the whole cycle of an innovation cycle happens when everyone's kind of in one spot. I saw that very clearly years ago when I worked in Silicon Valley and also saw it in Austin, how it developed there, and so some of those ideas are behind what we're trying to do with this recruiting process. And it all goes back to that thing we talked about earlier, which is attract and retain talent, because this is such a great place to live and work.
Aimee Ross:Mm-hmm, and the startup ecosystem in the cycling spaces is incredibly strong.
Nat Ross:Great. The examples are just all abound here. And the godfather of all this kind of Tom Walton, when he said that Bentonville has the replicable model. And what does that mean for the other communities? What does that template look like? How can they get involved?
Scott King:Well, visit Bentonville actually hosts a lot of different communities who come and want to learn from us, and I think that one important thing to remember is there's a template, but everybody's going to have to take that and make it their own right. So we have a set of circumstances here that are unique to us and everybody doesn't have those circumstances. But we do believe they can come and learn and we're a very open book about that. We do a lot of benchmarking ourselves, we travel to lots of different places, talk to lots of different people and we kind of go into the process with a very kind of open mind and we also are welcoming to people who want to come and talk to us and learn from us as well.
Aimee Ross:So, like I said, there's a template but I think that template has to be applied very specifically to every place and I think it goes back to like inspiration. Everybody always wants something to look towards, to be inspired, to get motivated to activate on, and Bentonville does that very clearly. Especially when you host those visits and they get to see firsthand the, the cycling culture that's here and the opportunities to Scott's point they put it back in their community and make it theirs absolutely well.
Nat Ross:there's so much to unpack here and we can just send folks to visit Bentonvillecom to get more information. And, scott and Amy, you guys are a wealth of knowledge and there's so much work that you've been doing and so much work in the pipeline. So thanks for coming on the show and we look forward to learning more about what's behind the curtains and what you guys are up to.