Outdoor Business Alliance (OBA) upcoming events

Rawhide Lanterns w/ Josh Barnwell (11/14/2026)

Sat, 14 Nov 2026 15:00:00 GMT

Craft a rawhide candle lantern by hand and explore this ancient material’s luminous magic in a hands-on workshop.

As the leaves fall and the diminishing days lead to long November nights, we turn toward one of the oldest human instincts: to tend a small fire and lean in towards the light. Before glass was common, before hardware stores and headlamps, people depended on candles, shaping the materials around them into vessels to protect the light. Rawhide has been meeting this need across continents and cultures since time immemorial. When held to a flame, its translucent surface softens and amplifies candlelight like nothing else, glowing beautifully and coming to life with the flame.

In this hands-on workshop, we’ll join beloved Firefly Gathering friend & instructor, Josh Barnwell, in crafting our own individual rawhide candle lantern rooted in European designs dating back to the Iron Age.

During this workshop, you will:

Learn how rawhide is made and why it behaves so differently from leather

Explore its unique properties as a natural material

Select and assess hides for your project

Create and pattern your own lantern design

Clean and prepare the lantern body

Practice basic rawhide stitching

Assemble your own working candle lantern

This class is open to all skill levels, whether you’re brand new to handcraft or already comfortable with natural materials, you’ll find something here: a new medium, a new technique, a new way of being with the light. Each participant will take home your finished rawhide candle lantern, as well as the knowledge and skill to continue experimenting, adapting and following your inspiration wherever it leads.

This class will be held indoors on Saturday, November 14th, 2026, from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm in Asheville, NC.

Social Media Roundtable: Time Management + Avoiding Burnout (11/18/2026)

Wed, 18 Nov 2026 22:30:00 GMT

Social media can feel like a full-time job on top of your actual job. Our next Roundtable is all about working smarter, not harder.

Join us for a relaxed, practical conversation led by Samm Coffin, owner of Matcha Nude, on how to put your time and energy where it counts most, without burning out along the way. We’ll talk about:

Which platforms are actually worth your focus
Scheduling and batching content to save time
Staying consistent without it taking over your week
Stories vs. posts, and when to use each
Keeping it all approachable and sustainable

Whether you’re just getting started or feeling stretched thin, you’ll leave with ideas you can put to work right away, plus a few new connections with fellow business owners who get it.

About Samm

Samm Coffin is the founder of Matcha Nude, a small business on a mission to make organic, great-tasting matcha affordable and approachable for everyday life. After giving up coffee in 2020, Samm discovered how much better she felt with matcha, but struggled to find a quality option that was affordable, sugar-free, and easy to make at home. So she built one.

Today, Samm and her team grow Matcha Nude through online retail and wholesale, with social media at the heart of how they connect with customers. Across Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube, Matcha Nude shares easy tutorials, fun recipes, and a warm, welcoming voice that makes a sometimes intimidating product feel doable. In addition to managing Matcha Nude’s social media presence, Samm manages social media for the Outdoor Economy Conference, helping connect and engage the outdoor business community. She brings a real-world, small-team perspective to building a social presence that’s consistent, genuine, and sustainable.

This session is part of our ongoing Social Media Roundtable series

Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy's Office Open House (11/19/2026)

Thu, 19 Nov 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Hand-Dipped Beeswax Candle Making w/ Jess Kaufman (12/19/2026)

Sat, 19 Dec 2026 19:00:00 GMT

EVENT DETAILS HERE!

Celebrate the Solstice by hand-dipping beeswax candles in this cozy, hands-on workshop rooted in tradition and light.

On the longest nights of the year, we’ll come together in warmth and good company for this age-old Solstice tradition: hand-dipping beeswax candles, a timeless practice that invites patience, presence and a quiet resilience.

In the 5th Annual cozy, hands-on workshop, you’ll gather around the “fire” of gently simmering cauldrons of golden beeswax, the earthy-sweet smell filling the air. Settle into the calming rhythm of dip, cool, and repeat as your tapers slowly take shape. Jess Kaufman, local batik artist and founder of WAXON, will guide you through the candle-making process while sharing the deeper story of beeswax—an increasingly rare and precious gift from our pollinator kin.

You’ll also learn how WAXON’s zero-waste batik studio reclaims and reuses every drop of wax, honoring this sacred material through careful stewardship and creative reuse. The result is a practice rooted not only in craft, but in sustainability and care.

Participants will leave with:

Two pairs of hand-dipped beeswax taper candles (four total, with the option to make more)

Practical candle-making skills, from wick selection to tapering, trimming, and shaping, along with tricks learned over time

A shared sense of connection and joy as we honor the darkness and welcome the returning light in the 5th Annual Solstice Beeswax Candle Dipping Workshop

Jess says her favorite part of the class is “watching the joy on people’s faces as their candles grow.” Come celebrate the Solstice, kindle your own light, and take part in a tradition that weaves together community, craft, and reverence for the natural world.

This class will be held indoors on Saturday, December 19th, 2026, from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm in Asheville, NC.