Increasing International Buyer Attendance at SHOT Show

A key aspect of the strategic plan approved the National Shooting Sport Foundation Board of Governors is to increase international buyer attendance at the SHOT Show and, in doing so, increase sales opportunities for SHOT Show exhibitors and international retailers and wholesale distributors alike. In response to this directive, the SHOT Show team has exhibited at the IWA & Outdoor Classics Show – specifically the International Weapons Exhibition (Internationale Waffenausstellung) – in Nuremburg, Germany each year since 2011.

Our attendance at this event is already paying dividends with international buyer attendance increasing each year. Our focus continues to be to educate IWA buyers on the breadth and reach of our exhibitors, in addition to offering them a chance to enjoy a first-rate U.S. city like Las Vegas. To that end, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Las Vegas Sands Corp. partnered with NSSF to increase our exhibit size and to sponsor a well-received SHOT Show hospitality suite. We are grateful to Craig Erlanger of LVCVA and Kent Stanton of LVS who were on hand to provide venue and location details to prospective international attendees.

Attending the IWA Show is one way we seek to attract more qualified international buyers to benefit exhibitors at the SHOT Show. We also had the opportunity to visit with many of our current exhibitors and supporters of the SHOT Show. Acceptance of the 2014 SHOT Show into the International Buyer Program, which offers Department of Commerce assistance in recruiting qualified buyers resulted in 23 international delegations attending the SHOT Show for the very first time.  I’m pleased to report that SHOT Show has been accepted into the International Buyer Program for 2015.

Diedra Cauley is the senior director of exhibitions and conferences for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow her on Twitter at @dcauley.