Judging from the results of our post-booth assignment survey, how you felt about the process largely depended on whether you were happy with your booth location to begin with. We had said that most exhibitors would remain in the same location and most did. Those that didn’t were split on whether they felt their new location was an improvement. The reasons for the few moves that took place were two-fold: we needed to widen the cross aisles on Level 1 in order to improve navigation, per our post show survey, and a number of new locations opened up when over 6,000 net square feet of exhibit space became available thanks to the eight companies that voluntarily reduced their booth space at our invitation in order to help us widen those aisles and get more companies off our wait list. And let’s not forget that the reason we suspended space selection was to give us the flexibility to improve traffic flow and signage, which we all agreed was lacking.
A number of exhibitors who remain unhappy with their booth location contacted us to request, and in some cases demand, that we return to the traditional space selection, with the belief that doing so would increase their chances of miraculously landing a booth in the center of Level 2. The truth is that Priority Points continue to be the basis for booth selection, or in the case of this past year, space assignment. The companies with the most points occupy the prime locations and will continue to occupy those locations as long as they choose to do so. So the fact that there is no room for movement in reality means that most companies will land right where they were for next year’s show, unless someone with significantly more points vacates their space, making what we once knew as on-site space selection pointless.
No company wants to have unhappy customers and nothing is more frustrating to a company than not being able to supply enough of the right SKUs to their customers. In our case, that product would be a prime location for existing exhibitors and ANY space for the some 300 companies on the wait list. Yup, I said ANY space. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. Meanwhile those of us at NSSF, Reed Exhibitions, Freeman and Las Vegas Sands who comprise the SHOT Show team will continue to do our best to give our customers what they want.