Thanks to you, our exhibitors and attendees, the 2011 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show soared above expectations by setting records for buyer attendance at 31,769 and media attendance at 2,074. With an overall attendance of 57,390, comprising buyers, exhibitors, media and guests, ranked the show as the third largest ever behind the 2008 and 2010 events. In this sluggish economy, the SHOT Show demonstrates the resilience of one of America’s oldest industries and the popularity of its products.
The SHOT Show is the largest event that the Sands Expo has ever hosted as evidenced by the crowds that filtered through the show floor each day and the food and beverages consumed by SHOT Show goers:
– 10,002 Hot Dogs consumed
– 5,506 Beers, in addition to 69 Kegs being sold
– 16,010 bottles of water
– 3,008 vitamin waters (The healthy crowd)
– 9,500 coffees
This afternoon, we are sending out via e-mail our post-show survey. Please take a few minutes and let us know how we did for 2011. Your feedback will help to shape plans for the 2012 SHOT Show January 17-20, 2012 at the Sands Expo. Thanks for your business and for your help in making the SHOT Show the best event ever.
First of all I’d like to say that it was a drastic improvement over last year. Our stuff got there on time, the people were in a good mood, and you could find stuff a little easier. Some of that is because being at the same place you remember your way around more, but you guys clearly made a huge effort to help people and it was really appreciated by everyone I spoke to. he wide isles with tables downstairs were a huge hit as well. Kudos for giving up space you could be making money in to give people a better show experience. I don’t think anyone likes the Sands, but you have to deal with your situation where it comes, and that is our situation. I strongly support not leaving Vegas, even if we had to set up in the desert. We had a 40 x 50 at the last Orlando show and it was a disaster. Nobody was there and more exibitors came to our booth than gun dealers. I personally hate Vegas. It is the armpit of humanity, but we are there to do business, and business people like Vegas.
Now for the not so good, and I think the reason for the not so good is that the show is having something of an identity crisis. It used to be an industry-only show where gun dealers and other buyers went to learn about new products and do real business with manufacturers and distributors. Now the show is more of a media event, or fan event. Dealers are still there to do business, but most business is being done at the distributor shows these days, not at SHOT. For us, since we are stuck downstairs on shmuck row because we don’t have seniority, it isn’t a huge investment. But you are asking for commments so I’m commenting. Raising the ticket price was a great idea, but it is just a bandaid. We don’t need a booth to cover the show for GunsAmerica Magazine and Blog. We have a booth purely to do real business with dealers and introduce them to our dealer services products. With all the vacationers at the show and “retailer” badges being one out of 10 (if that) at this point, I don’t feel the booth pays for itself, short or long term. We’ll be back G-d willing next year, but that is my take on it.
If you went the other way and sold the show as a fan and media show, you’d still attract the same dealers to come fondle the new guns, and you’d be able to open the show to everyone who wanted to buy a ticket (which it is now but not everyone knows that). If the new way to judge SHOT Show success is how many hotdogs you sold, I think you’ll sell a lot more hotdogs. You could also let the non-gun companies actually sell product (like they do at NRA). We would probably print 10,000 of our t-shirts to sell instead of 1,000 to give away to gun dealers like we do now. I don’t think anyone would complain about SHOT becoming a fan expo, least of all the major gun companies upstairs. From what I could see, Ruger, Sig, Kimber, Smith & Wesson and many others have already changed their production schedules to be shipping product for SHOT instead of introducing at SHOT and shipping six months later.
It is just a matter of deciding where you want the show to go so the actual show reflects the goals and expectations of the exibitors. During SHOT we had upwards of 130,000 people on our website every day, and the articles that we did for the exibitors have now had over 500,000 reads in just over a week. Our two Kel-Tec vidoes alone have had more plays than the number of people who attended SHOT. The internet has changed what numbers mean in business terms and maturing the show towards actual goals, one way or the other I think will do everyone good. -ph@ga
Paul Helinski
GunsAmerica
I have been attending the shot show for many years. EXACTLY like last year, I found the layout to be the worst of any show I have attended! With all the small rooms, the possibility of missing entire displays was VERY EVIDENT! Not only myself but many, many attendees all standing around trying to figure out where a specific booth was. Then finding themselves in a totally wrong area, and many missed their meeting times due to being unable to find the specific exhibitor. If one has to use the Sands and their mix of rooms, then why not make it easier for the attendees to find SPECIFIC product lines. As an example, put Body armour in one room, Swat gear in another, Firearms in another, Accessories in another, Archery in another, Clothing in another, etc. That way if one has NO INTEREST in a particular product, they simply eliminate the room! I know I missed a number of exhibits as I spent too much time trying to find ROW number, BOOTH numbers, EXHIBITOR by name, etc. The pull out map from the daily paper was a very big help. But if you follow the COLOR code, you missed an exhibit as its color was mixed in with another larger and totally different color.
I know very well some of your difficulties in trying to make everyone happy. A near impossibility, however, the last 2 years have indicated to me a lot of displeasure by those attending and all about the confusion of finding booths. No matter where you tried to stop and have a coffee, the table discussion was always the same! I truly do sympathize with your predicament but also applaude you for all you and your team do to try and fix issues as they arrive. Thank You.
Murray Charlton
First of all let me congratulate you all on a WONDERFUL show! We were able to attend for the first time as a non-exhibiting vendor (only because the show was sold out a long time ago) and consider it a great success for us. We found several new companies that we can add to our line of product offerings and will increase our sales.
I’m also comforted to know that the vendors at this show are no different than many of the shows that I attend. So many vendors like to complain about everything so that they have something to blame a sales week on. I think they would complain if you gave them a bag of money. I found nothing serious to complain about.
I Like the idea of asking the Big Dogs to downsize. That makes sense. After all how much square footage does it take to look at camo clothing? On the other hand I thought that the big booths were pretty cool looking even if they were a waste of some space. Making room for more vendors is a good thing, it will increase competition and those that want to sell will up their game to do it, those that don’t will not.
I think that the map and the online show planner were good. They helped me navigate and find exactly what I was looking for. I may have got lost but it was just because I was looking at too many cool things to remember where I was at. One suggestion here though, sometimes the name on the published material was not exactly what was displayed in the booth. Hard to control from the show side but would be helpful.
I would like to see the rolling milk crates disappear. They were a hazard more than help. I almost tripped on one several times, again mostly my fault for being distracted by cool guns and other stuff. But they do take up the space of 2 people when someone is pulling them behind, so that 1 person occupies the space of 3 instead of 1.
I did notice many empty booths that I would have gladly pounced on to be able to display at this show. Not wishing anyone ill will, but if a vendor does not show up for whatever reason I would love a shot at that space. It may be hard to do since the booth is paid for so far in advance, but if a business goes out of business it should be easy to verify and then kick it over to the waiting list. Admittedly, I’m a vulture when it comes to being on a waiting list!
I think the show was great overall. Good job putting a quality show together. We were able to increase our business even though we did not have a booth.