2008 IMBA World Summit to Utah

The International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) will host its 2008 World Summit in Park City, Utah from June 18-21. The annual summit draws together mountain biking advocates, land managers, ski resort professionals, trailbuilders, tourism officials and the bike industry for collaboration, planning and celebration. The 2008 edition is open to the public. Topics for discussion will include economic power of trails, sustainable trailbuilding, liability and risk management, urban trail networks and building club capacity.

The Utah town is an appropriate host for a mountain biking advocacy summit. "Park City is a model trails community and IMBA's host club, the Mountain Trails Foundation, is also a model of shared-use leadership, with non-motorized groups coming together to create amazing trails and maybe more important, a tight-knit trails community," said IMBA executive director Mike Van Abel.

"Park City was losing its trails to rapid development. In the course of a couple of years, we went from trails being an after-thought in the planning process to where trails are given equal weight with streets and utilities in new development," said Mountain Trails Foundation founder and IMBA Board Member Tom Clyde. "Practically all of the trail system is on private land, and now there is almost a competition among the development community to see who can build the best trails. This is because an active trails community got behind the cause."