May 18, 2020,

As many of you have surmised from the unusual quiet of the OutdoorFest social media channels and the lack of our most popular annual email “The Schedule is Live”, OutdoorFest is not happening this summer.

In early March, when New York City began shutting down, I still had hopes for early June, then mid-August, perhaps late September? Yet, the reality of this current crisis and the state of our city means that convening hundreds of people isn't something I can reasonably plan for in 2020.

So, what now? Do I pivot to running online OutdoorFest conferences? I started meditating and journaling daily. OutdoorFest has been such a joy to create and produce every year. It’s been the source of so many great friendships and partnerships. How could the fest stop?

And then I remembered, the Principle of Maximum Fun (PMF). If you’ve ever been to an OutdoorFest event or spoken to me about event experience design, you know I take PMF seriously. I learned it years before I started OutdoorFest and think it’s essential to creating events that people return to year after year after year (let’s just pretend there are six “years” in there).

PMF: Maximize the amount of fun (enjoyment, fulfillment etc.) that participants get from an experience. Seems obvious right? But in a city where time is limited and there are 1000 other things competing for your attention, making sure everyone’s really enjoying the time they’re spending with OutdoorFest (and our amazing partners!) was crucial.

As a visual learner, I like to think of it like a plot diagram, where we have exposition, rising action, climax and then denouement. There is no falling action, we stop the programming when everyone is having maximum fun. Is there more fun to be had? Probably! But there tends to be diminishing returns. After a night of trail running, dancing and campfires, y’all are tired and we, the organizers, are tired too! Instead of spending another day of hiking, slacklining etc., when we’re all not at 100%, we send you home. And hopefully, it wasn’t enough, hopefully you wanted more. You had maximum fun.

All of the events during OutdoorFest also drive this home - yes, there’s mountain biking and kayaking after work or on a Saturday morning, but it’s designed to be a teaser for even more adventure in the future. We wanted you to leave OutdoorFest wanting more and hopefully having gained the skills and resources to find more be it locally or off on a faraway adventure.

And so, after 6 stupendous years of traipsing around New York City, discovering nooks and crannies and green spaces I never knew existed. It’s time for the denouement, the goodbye to OutdoorFest. We had maximum fun.

My final words are thank you. To each of our partners, our cheerleaders, our participants. Together we co-created something truly amazing and I’m so so grateful.

-Sarah Knapp, OutdoorFest Founder & Director

🙋‍♀️ Keep in touch with me

Try me on email: knapp.sarah.l@gmail.com

I’m also on Instagram and LinkedIn.

👥 Keep up with the community

Mappy Hour, OutdoorFest’s younger sibling, continues to operate virtually with the support of sponsors like The North Face (oh yah, shouting out our sponsors, the backbone of our small business!). Mappy Hour has the same underlying goals of OutdoorFest: to change the definition of an “outdoorsy” person or an “outdoorsy” place. To show that the outdoors are for all and that we can live in the city and love the outdoors.

You can join for free at MappyHour.org and follow on social via the Instagram and Facebook pages.

We’re also launching this new thing called “Lists” which will highlight our community partners so you can continue to find amazing resources locally. Here’s our first one - it highlights non-profits in the outdoors world of NYC.

🎉 Celebrate 6 Years of Fun

We’re going to create a virtual scrapbook of sorts and we want to feature YOU! If you had Maximum Fun, share your favorite memory, photo, or story from OutdoorFest on Instagram with the hashtag #OutdoorFest so we go out with a bang. Blue shirts encouraged :)

P.S. we plan to have a party once IRL gatherings recommence