Association of British Climbing Walls Summit Re-Cap: A Change in tone
Updated: 3 hours ago
A couple of weeks ago, Rise Above Consulting attended the Association of British Climbing Walls (ABC Walls) annual summit. In 2024, I gave a keynote address there entitled "Sales is not a Dirty Word" to a packed room of UK climbing gym owners and operators. What followed was hours of conversations from eager gym managers and owners about how to increase their revenue. I got home and Rise Above took on many UK clients, and even more free discovery calls centered around how to think more strategically about revenue.
Fast forward to 2026 and Rise Above returned to the ABC Summit and we noticed a few things.
The Sentiment Toward Data then vs. Now
I can't even count how many times I had conversations in 2024 about the need for owners and operators to get really zealous about data if they wanted to be able to take strategic control of their revenue and business. Fast forward to 2026, and almost every conversation I had was with a gym operator telling me what data they were looking at and not really sure what to make of it or what to do.
This shift from no data analysis to lots of it, but without the proceeding insights is a meaningful one. It showed Rise Above that gym owners and operators are getting smarter about their business operations and are eager to leverage data to win
We sat down with a dozen or more operators this year and unlike in 2024, almost all of them opened up their laptops to show us reports, charts, spreadsheets and documents of the data they were looking at. This is a huge step in the right direction and I was really impressed with how well many were thinking about what data to look at and why.
The problem? There was a notable lack of action or plan of action based on the data.
The solution? Unfortunately, if it were that easy, everyone would be thriving. Instead, the last 12-18 months have been some of the most brutal I have ever seen in our industry. It seems like almost weekly I open Instagram to see another post from a well-intentioned gym that is closing. At the time of this blog, Rise Above has 3 clients that we are supporting in winding down their businesses, or are to avoid having to do so. It's tough out there, y'all. And looking at spreadsheets and data is a good start, but you know what they say:
Well done is better than well said
So the solution is super multi-factorial and is based on the ability to read and analyze that data. And ultimately in one's willingness and ability to let that data give them a deeper and more meaningful understanding of their market, their business, and their customer's behaviors.
The Best Talk at the Summit
Rise Above sat in many talks, seminars and unplanned discussions over the course of the summit, and hands down far and away the best one was led by the Founder and CEO of BETA, Miura Hawkins. You might remember a blog we posted a few years back about climbing gym software where we mentioned that BETA is the best option around. Well, Miura proved why in this talk.
The talk lead by Miura centered around data. Specifically, aggregated data from dozens of UK gyms. In it, Miura laid out some VERY interesting trends (or lack there of) and an incredible hypothesis about "community" - the most overused phrase in the climbing gym industry.
Miura is writing an entire blog series about her data findings, and we've agreed to write a connected series of blogs here at Rise Above. BETA's blogs will focus on the data and the insights. and as always, Rise Above's companion blogs will be about what to do with those insights.Follow along over the net 4 weeks to learn about data, trends and meaningful actions you can take.Read the BETA blogs here |
WONDERING WHAT TO MAKE OF YOUR DATA?
There are literally infinite data to look at, so first, you have to look at the right stuff. Secondly. you have to understand what that data means for your business. And lastly, you have to build a believable and trackable plan to influence that data.
Want help aggregating, analyzing and taking action on your data? We would love to talk.
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