Get prepared for the upcoming SHOT Show by catching the Exhibitor Webinar Series. Getting ready for January entails not only knowing what you will be doing in Las Vegas, but also having an understanding of your company’s goals and how to best accomplish those goals through the tools provided to you both pre-show and on site.
Tune in tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 5, from 11 a.m.- noon. EST for the second segment in the series, 25 Do’s and Don’ts To Ensure a Profitable SHOT Show. Another segment is being offered on Monday, December 9 at 1 p.m. EST. Get informed about export compliance requirements and meeting international buyers from Department of Commerce representatives in this webinar. Register today!
If you missed the first segment last week, Develop a Plan That Will Guarantee Success at the SHOT Show is available online in the Exhibitor Resource Center under Exhibitor Education and News.
ArmaLite Inc., the internationally known manufacturer of AR-10, M-15, AR-30 and AR-50 rifles, has returned as the title sponsor of SHOT Mobile for the 2014 SHOT Show®.
The SHOT Mobile app allows show attendees to search for exhibitors, navigate the show floor by using interactive maps, find new products, learn about show specials, view the show’s education schedule such as for SHOT Show University, set up appointments with exhibitors, request callbacks and find show services.
The app will be made available just prior to the 2014 SHOT Show.
With its renewed sponsorship, ArmaLite joins Outdoor Channel and GunBroker.com as major industry supporters of the SHOT Show.
“We are extremely pleased that ArmaLite will be the title sponsor of SHOT Mobile,” said Chris Dolnack, NSSF Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. “This show-navigation technology enriches the SHOT Show experience for buyers and attendees. We greatly appreciate ArmaLite’s support in this effort.”
“ArmaLite used the 2013 SHOT Mobile app’s messaging system on Days 1 and 2 of the show to invite attendees to our booth for free tickets to the Day 3 raffle of our new AR-30A1 rifle,” said ArmaLite Communications Director Arthur Steadman. “Thousands of enthusiastic people crammed our booth — and much of the surrounding show floor — for the Thursday raffle. This year, we’re bringing a bullhorn for the raffle!”
In recognition of ArmaLite’s continued support, the company’s logo will be featured on the splash screen of the SHOT Mobile app, on the SHOT Mobile webpage at www.shotshow.org and in the app download section of iTunes, in addition to the company receiving other sponsorship and text-messaging advantages.
The SHOT Show is owned and sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry, and is produced and managed by ConvExx. The show is the largest of its kind in the world, attracting more than 60,000 attendees and 1,600 companies exhibiting firearms, ammunition, outdoor apparel, law enforcement, optics, cutlery and related products and services.
ArmaLite has one of the broadest product lines in the firearms industry. ArmaLite manufactures and sells semiautomatic rifles in a variety of calibers including 5.56mm and 7.62mm, long range super-accurate bolt action rifles in calibers including .308 Winchester, .300 Winchester Magnum, .338 Lapua, and 50 BMG, and classic 9mm pistols.
Chris Dolnack is senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisDolnack.
GunBroker.com, the world’s largest online auction site for firearms and related accessories, will return as exclusive sponsor of the NSSF® Member Lounge and Business Center for the 2014 SHOT Show®.
“GunBroker.com continues to be an extraordinary partner of NSSF and the SHOT Show,” commented Chris Dolnack, senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “GunBroker.com is a great example of an NSSF member that makes the extra effort to help grow hunting and the shooting sports, from supporting the SHOT Show and the Shooting Sports Summit to distributing NSSF’s “Pull the Trigger” newsletter to its list of nearly one million opt-in email subscribers. GunBroker.com’s SHOT Show sponsorship demonstrates the company’s commitment to all that the industry’s premier trade show stands for.”
NSSF members will find free wireless service among many other amenities in the NSSF Member Lounge and Business Center, which serves as a central point for NSSF members to take a break from the show floor or to network and conduct business.
“Throughout our history, GunBroker.com has strived to be an effective partner of those organizations that are working in support of our hunting and shooting sports industry,” commented Steve Urvan, GunBroker.com founder and CEO. “Clearly, the National Shooting Sports Foundation is a leader in those efforts and we are proud to return as the exclusive sponsor of the NSSF Member’s Lounge and Business Center and to seeing our fellow NSSF members at the show. Indeed, I would like to take this opportunity to urge any SHOT Show exhibitor that is not a member of NSSF to make a point of coming on board before the 2014 SHOT Show,” Urvan said.
The SHOT Show is owned by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry, and is produced and managed by ConvExx. The show is the largest of its kind in the world, attracting nearly 60,000 attendees and more than 1,600 companies exhibiting firearms, ammunition, outdoor apparel, law enforcement, optics, cutlery and related products and services.
GunBroker.com provides marketers of hunting and shooting sports equipment with extraordinary exposure to an active audience averaging 3 million unique visitors each month. GunBroker.com is a member and active supporter of NSSF and is the official host site for each year’s SHOT Show Auction.
The NSSF Member Lounge and Business Center sponsored by GunBroker.com will be located in the Venetian Hotel, Level 3, Lido Ballroom. The Venetian Hotel adjoins the Sands Expo Convention Center.
Chris Dolnack is senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisDolnack.
Online exhibitor registration and reservation services are now available. At this one-stop portal you can add new booth staff, modify or cancel existing registrants and upload a file with new booth staff and order a listing of media attending the show. Also online is the Exhibitor Resource Center, where you can access information about your exhibit, education on best practices and contractor information.
REGISTER BOOTH STAFF – Use our easy exhibitor registration system to quickly register all of your exhibit personnel. You get immediate e-mail confirmations. At this one-stop portal you can add new booth staff, modify or cancel existing registrants and upload a file with new booth staff. *NEW* Register your staff for an Exhibitor/Media badge! Please Note: There is an allotment for exhibitor personnel and guests for the 2014 SHOT Show.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY TICKETS – While registering your booth personnel, purchase tickets to this year’s State of the Industry Dinner on Tuesday, Jan. 14. This year’s entertainment will be Penn & Teller, who have redefined the genre of magic and invented their own very distinct niche in comedy. Tickets will sell fast. Reserve yours when you register your staff.
Follow these simple steps:
CLICK HERE to access the Exhibitor Registration website. You can also copy the following link and paste it in your web browser to access the site: http://shotshow.org/exhibitreg
Please Note: You will need your user name and password to access the following components throughout the show cycle, so please keep it accessible.
LEAD MANAGEMENT SERVICES – Gain a competitive edge in following up on your company’s most valuable assets — new customers! Use a CompuLead tool and capture information quickly about the buyers visiting your booth.
Use either the SmartApp for smart phones and tablets, Mobile and Mobile Elite handheld scanners or desktop units to record qualified leads with complete information about the customers visiting your booth. Sign up when you register your booth staff so you don’t miss out on early bird pricing.
Diedra Cauley is the senior director of exhibitions and conferences for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow her on Twitter at @dcauley.
Good news. The Sands Expo & Convention Center recently completed installation of a new $1.6 million wireless LAN (WLAN) that Sands executives say will deliver seamless mobility to the Sands Expo & Convention Center’s 2.2 million square feet of flexible exhibition and meeting space.
“We needed Wi-Fi we could count on 24/7. We never shut down so neither can our Internet connection,” said Justin Herrman, Executive Director of Information Technology at The Sands.
The network features architecture from Extricom Ltd that is set up as a complementary, hybrid network alongside the Sands’ existing WLAN to ensure that the show floor and adjacent spaces were sufficiently covered with uninterrupted, high-quality Internet connectivity.
That’s great news for SHOT Show attendees who use our SHOT Mobile app sponsored by Armalite. Based on last year’s adoption rate over 20,000 of you downloaded and used SHOT Mobile, which resulted in some challenges during peak show hours.
With the deployment of additional wireless support to complement the network already in place at The Sands Expo & Convention Center your SHOT Show and SHOT Mobile experience will be even better in 2014, and that’s a good thing.
Chris Dolnack is senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisDolnack.
The SHOT Show’s Twitter following came together Monday night for a Tweetup sponsored by Sportsman Channel. Held at V Bar in The Venetian, the event allowed the attendees to shed the 140-character limitations of the social-media platform and discuss in person at greater length the 35th running of the SHOT Show. A big thanks to Sportsman Channel for supporting what was a great event. Some photos from the Tweetup below.
@huntinglife and @jodistemler@guns_com@jasonprance
Social Media Spotlight: Final of a Four-part Series
Some folks aren’t so lucky as to be able to travel to Las Vegas next week for the SHOT Show. You can reach more prospects in real-time and continue to reap the marketing benefits of a video. Leveraging live video to increase market share requires a serious plan of action, though. No one knows this better than Traci Browne.
The author of “The Social Trade Show” has graciously provided us with a series of blog posts that we’ll be posting right here — and in the Exhibitor Resource Center at shotshow.org — each week for the next four weeks in advance of the 2013 SHOT Show.
I’ll also be giving away the final free copies of Traci’s book this week. The first six exhibitors (and you need to be a SHOT Show exhibitor to qualify) to send me an email (be sure to include your mailing address) requesting a copy will receive one. Ready. Set. Go!
How To Live Stream Your Booth Presentations
You put so much effort into planning your in-booth presentations, why limit who is able to participate? Your biggest potential customers might be sitting back in the office wishing they were at the show. Well, invite them in and turn your presentation into a hybrid event.
Two Different Audiences
It’s not enough to stick a camera in front of your demo area and hit record. That’s not an engaging demo, that’s C-SPAN. You want to deliver an experience to your audience watching from their home or office that keeps them engaged. You do this by enabling your two audiences (the ones sitting in your booth and those who are at their computer) to participate as one.
You need to provide your in-booth audience with a comfortable place to view your presentation. You also need to design your environment so that everyone can see what is taking place and hear and interact with the speaker.
Your virtual audience is no different. Of course you cannot choose their seating but you can make sure they are comfortable by providing and easy to use viewing platform, a way to interact with the presenter (chat function which is monitored by someone in the booth to relay questions for the speaker), and a camera that that follows the action.
Technical Requirements
You’ll need a streaming provider. These are the folks who capture your video feed, compress it, and stream it over the Internet to the viewing platform. There are free services available such as Ustream. A low cost option is Livestream. After that there are many different providers in the higher end range.
You will need a viewing platform. A viewing platform is basically the website that your audience goes to view your presentation and interact with your presenters and other virtual attendees. Ustream and Livestream provide both the live stream and the viewing platform.
You will need an A/V or production provider. These are the people behind the camera and those directing the production. This can be an outside company who specializes in this service or Joe from accounting who videos the Pop Warner games on the weekends.
Fine Tuning With Backgrounds, Lighting, and Speaker Tips
The two most important things you need to make sure are covered are sound and lighting. Run a test over the live stream to make sure your virtual audience can hear the speaker clearly and see everything that is happening. All your efforts will be wasted with a video that is too dark and sound that is garbled.
Beyond that pay attention to the background. The cleaner the backdrop behind your presenters, the better for your virtual audience. They are seeing the presentation as a flat two-dimensional image. So that logo positioned behind the presenter becomes a distracting growth coming out of the side of his head. The seam that is barely noticeable to the face-to-face audience becomes a distracting line projecting from the top of the presenter’s head.
Let your presenter know what color the backdrop will be so they can dress appropriately. If they match the backdrop your virtual audience may be frightened by what appears to be a floating head and hands doing the demo. Also, let them know a white dress becomes washed out on camera and is hard to look at. Navy blue and black suits lose their detail and become blobs. Fine patterns like herringbone and checks produce a wavy effect on camera.
And if you are shooting in HD it is considerate to let your presenter know. They may want to apply a bit of cover-up and dab some powder on oily skin, which is enhanced in high definition. Be sure they understand they have an audience online and remind them to look into the camera every now and again so the virtual audience does not feel ignored Especially when they are taking a question from the virtual audience.
Internet Connection
Plain and simple you are going to need a dedicated T1 line in your booth if you want to create a professional, clear broadcast. You cannot depend on the show’s wireless connection to get you through a broadcast. The bandwidth is not intended for uploading video and your live stream could drop in and out.
Live streaming your booth presentations may seem a daunting task and does require a plan.
Virtual Emcee
To create an interactive experience for your online viewers you may want to have a virtual emcee. This person is present at the event and not only introduces your presenters, but also represents your virtual audience as a whole. The virtual emcee becomes the voice of your virtual audience as well as your virtual audience’s eyes and ears in the room.
She is the bridge that connects your virtual audience to the face-to-face event. She’ll be the one taking questions from your virtual audience and relaying them to the speaker. This can be a professional or someone with an outgoing friendly personality from your company. A good virtual emcee is friendly and easygoing and also able to multi-task.
Instructions On How To Use The Platform
Make sure your virtual audience has all the information they need to participate in your live-streamed presentation. They should know what time it starts and when it will end. Also include instructions for the viewing platform including who to contact for technical problems and how to use the chat function. If you are using a Twitter hashtag be sure to let the audience both in your booth and at home know what it so they can participate that way as well.
Include the presenters’ names, titles, bios and contact information. If the platform has the capability you may want to include a graphic called a lower third that runs at the bottom of the viewing window and tells the audience who is speaking at any given moment. Don’t just flash it at the beginning of the presentation. Include it throughout intermittently.
What To Broadcast
An easier question would be what not to broadcast. The world is your oyster; don’t be afraid to try something new. In-booth presentations that can go virtual are (but certainly not limited to):
Product launches
Product demos
Industry education and interviews with thought leaders
Q&A sessions
I hope you can see an excellent way to get more bang out of your trade show budget is to expand what you are already doing for your face-to-face audience by including the virtual audience.
But this is not something you just tack on at the last minute. This audience must be considered throughout the planning process. Presenters need to be prepped and the environment needs to be designed to accommodate extra equipment while not taking away from your in-person audience.
Traci Browne
Author of “The Social Trade Show – Leveraging Social Media and Virtual Events to Connect With Your Customers www.TheSocialTradeShow.com
While test driving SHOT Mobile with the rest of the NSSF and Reed Exhibitions team it was readily apparent that the Reed Touch developers took your feedback and packed even more features into the 2013 version.
It is hard to pick a personal favorite feature. With just a tap of your finger you can see what fellow attendees are saying via Twitter and read all the latest SHOT Show news through the SHOT Show Blog feed without leaving the app. You can fully customize your agenda and view the SHOT Show floor plan to plan your strategy. The app gives you the ability to pinpoint your location and show what’s happening nearby in which you may be interested.
To help make using the 2013 SHOT Mobile app easier, the Sands Expo has ensured the broadband width will accommodate the signal reaching into the far corners of the exhibit hall, allowing greater use of the navigation feature. You will also notice wi-fi hotspots on the show floor that will allow you to rest your feet while you check your email or update the new and improved My Show Planner feature.
SHOT Mobile is compatible with iPhone, iPad, Android and available in a web mobile version for other devices.
All-in-all I’m confident that you’ll like the 2013 SHOT Mobile app. We encourage you to download it and begin familiarizing yourself with it.
Social Media Spotlight: Third of a Four-part Series
The mantra “If you build it, they will come” just won’t cut it these days. The good news is that the mileage potential on your marketing effort has grown exponentially in recent years and you can now reach hundreds, thousands, millions of customers from the sitting position. No one knows this better than renowned trade-show industry consultant and thought leader Traci Browne.
The author of “The Social Trade Show” has graciously provided us with a series of blog posts that we’ll be posting right here — and in the Exhibitor Resource Center at shotshow.org — each week for the next four weeks in advance of the 2013 SHOT Show.
I’ll also be giving away free copies of Traci’s book each week. The first six exhibitors (and you need to be a SHOT Show exhibitor to qualify) to send me an email (be sure to include your mailing address) requesting a copy will receive one. Ready. Set. Go!
How To Find Potential Customers On Social Media
Before you can decide which tools you are going to use in your social media strategy, you have to find out where your customers are and what tools they are using. Where are they going to be receptive to your messages? And by messages, we don’t just mean advertising and product pitches. Your customers are looking for support and helpful information.
Facebook – The SHOT Show has a very active Facebook page where they post, not just news about the show, but valuable industry information. This is a great place to meet members of your community and see what they are interested in. Just remember, you want to participate in the conversation…not force your marketing messages on the community.
LinkedIn – If Facebook is a casual party, LinkedIn is all about business. The SHOT Show has their own LinkedIn group but do a group search on LinkedIn for “sport shooting” and you’ll see there are 14 different groups. Some have just a few members and others have thousands.
Start by observing what members are discussing and jump in when you can offer information people are looking for. This is a great place to bounce new ideas for products and services off enthusiasts.
Twitter – Do you think Twitter is just a place for Justin Bieber fans? Think again. The SHOT Show (@nssfshotshow) has over 10,000 followers and the official Twitter account of USA Shooting (@USAShooting) has over 12,000 followers. Start connecting to their followers and share valuable information with them.
Remember, on Twitter you want to practice the 80/20 rule. Spend 80 percent of your time talking about others and 20 percent talking about yourself. In no time word will get around and you’ll develop a good following of your own. Also be sure to stay up-to-date with show information by following the SHOT Show hashtag #SHOTshow. Twitter is great during the show because it’s quick and easy to use when you are on the move.
What’s in it for you?
It’s important to remember that it’s not only potential customers that are part of your community. The media is spending a lot of time in these online communities as well and they are on the lookout for a good story and/or experts to interview.
Social media gives a voice to many who would never have been heard from before. Someone in your company could be the next industry thought leader just by participating in these social media communities and putting people in touch with valuable educational information.
When the SHOT Show rolls around attendees will know you as more than just a brand, but a provider of valuable information.
Traci Browne
Author of “The Social Trade Show – Leveraging Social Media and Virtual Events to Connect With Your Customers www.TheSocialTradeShow.com
It’s a given that pre-planning your SHOT Show is essential. The My Show Planner online aid can help SHOT attendees plan their schedules in the smartest logistical way possible. This resource will help them navigate the show floor, keep track of appointments, and find new products and services, among other conveniences.You can review the entire SHOT Show layout, search for exhibitors, find specials, search for brands and much more. Then you can map out your own planned schedule and route.
One NSSF member, Scott Foster, president of Catskill Mountains Firearms, LLC says, “As a new FFL, 2012 was my first SHOT Show, and I knew it would be challenging. I used the My Show Planner several weeks before to lay out the important stops for me. The free mobile app came in handy in the mornings when I’d get to the show early, pick up SHOT Daily, and compare it to what I wanted to do for the day and make my changes.”
The response has been very positive from those who availed themselves of this service in 2012, and even more SHOT Show participants are expected to make use of it for the 2013 show. You can find a link to the My Show Planner at shotshow.org.
SHOT Mobile app coming soon: SHOT Mobile for iPhone and Android will be available soon. Learn more here.
Good news. The Sands Expo & Convention Center recently completed installation of a new $1.6 million wireless LAN (WLAN) that Sands executives say will deliver seamless mobility to the Sands Expo & Convention Center’s 2.2 million square feet of flexible exhibition and meeting space.
LinkedIn – If Facebook is a casual party, LinkedIn is all about business. The SHOT Show has their own LinkedIn group but do a group search on LinkedIn for “sport shooting” and you’ll see there are 14 different groups. Some have just a few members and others have thousands.
It’s a given that pre-planning your SHOT Show is essential. The