SHOT Show Downside

[Stickman]

SHOT Show 2010 was larger than ever, with more floor walkers, and more manufacturers than I've seen. It was also chopped up with no real sense of layout that made sense. Remington Military mixed into the hunting section? Come on, how is that helping dealers, distributors or the manufacturer?



I heard from multiple well known manufacturers that SHOT is less and less of what it used to be. As MIL and LE gets thrown into the Hunting section, and the show grows to obscene size, the return on the manufacturers investment doesn't seem to be there. One of the guys commented that SHOT runs about 250k once you figure everything in. For that money, they could be doing adwork in print or pushing into pictures and online work more heavily. I also heard a lot of people commenting that SHOT is no longer an insider show, and that now its everyone who knows a guy with a FFL running around witha bag looking to load up with free stuff.

I think the internet and raw size of SHOT is detracting from what it used to be.


Anyone else getting similar feedback?

[Slippers]

I agree with you on the size becoming an issue. It was so large, and spread through so many rooms, that it was actually difficult to find the vendors you were looking for. The map was useless, and completely incorrect in some cases.

I happen to do trade shows in other industries, and you can't completely get away from the bag toting people that only want free stuff. It's a side effect of any venue like that.

Also, it seems as though people these days lack the courtesy and respect to not waste a salesperson's time at a show unless they have a genuine interest in purchasing a product.

[TripleBravo]

I can't speak about past shows because this was my first, however I did find the layout very disjointed and confusing. Many of the conversations I had with vendors/manufacturers felt rushed. Some guys...Bill Geissele comes to mind...were just too swamped to talk to at all...that is after you actually found his relatively small booth amongst the crowds and huge displays.

Overall, the show seemed almost too big to me...but I was chalking that up to me being a newbee to the industry and it being my first Shot Show experience. They definitely need to do something about that cab line!

[Stickman]

Some guys...Bill Geissele comes to mind...were just too swamped to talk to at all...that is after you actually found his relatively small booth amongst the crowds and huge displays.

I swung by his booth 3 or 4 times, and each time he was mobbed. My talking with him wasn't anything that couldn't be said over the phone or via email, so I didn't jump in.

Bill was one of the people I had wanted to speak with at SHOT that I never got a chance to. Last SHOT Show, we were able to talk for awhile, but his booth location was different.

[tac40]

Right on Stick. This year's SHOT at the Sands Convention Center was not perfect. By Friday, the vendors were leaving by noon time and rushing out. Like all, the people I wanted to talk to were overwhelmed or crowded out. Hopefully Sands will figure this out next time.

[Stickman]

Do you think SHOT has the ability to launch new products the same way that it did 10 years ago?

[Devilphish]

Looking at videos from contributors that were at SHOT, it seems like instead of manufacturers taking some of their product line they are taking a good deal of it above and beyond their new products. While I didn't have the pleasure of attending the show I have to wonder if the venue is suited for the size of the show anymore, or if the organizers are equipped to deal with the magnitude of the show anymore. Seems like the companies that released their 2010 product catalogs (Magpul, for instance) prior to the show got a lot of talk on this board and others.

So the big question is, I think, Is it more effective to concentrate efforts on a web based attack versus an exhibition show or would a combined effort pay off for the introduction of new product?

[rob_s]

All it's going to take is one major vendor (Glock, Remington, one like that) to realize the whole thing is a waste of time and pull out and the house of cards is going to come crashing down.

I think that most are only there because everyone else is there.

[Eric]

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years. With the astronomical cost involved, will manufacturers with an already stressed budget pull out?

I haven't made it for the past two years, but I plan on going next year. Hopefully by then the venue will be all squared away.

[tac40]

Do you think SHOT has the ability to launch new products the same way that it did 10 years ago?

IMHO, no. Too many venues out there and the rising cost may turn some of the big vendors off. The crowd felt like it was looking for an used car deal.

[JustMatt]

This happened in the video game industry a few years ago. They have a trade show called E3, it all but disappeared in a matter of a year. I never attended E3 but by all accounts it was on par with SHOT. I did attend last years SHOT in Orlando and was impressed with the size and didn't find it over crowded that bad. I remember guys from LWRC, MagPul, Larue, Surefire, ASP and Taser all taking time to talk to me even when I identified myself as a correctional officer and that there product didn't affect me professionally but I was interested personally. Maybe Vegas is bigger than SHOT when it's in Orlando? As to new product launches, how many people there are in a position to buy the LEO/MIL only stuff that 90% of us go there to see? I did bring back some info for my CERT team commander but the majority of what I was there to see was for my own personal enjoyment. It would seem that maybe SHOT has grown to big and can no longer serve it's purpose as originally intended.

[Creeky73]

it would seem as though the internet would be killing these kinds of trade shows. If a trade show's main purpose is to get retailers to invest in the vendor's new products and make them available to the public, I see one problem with this. I routinely feel as if I am better informed about what products are available (at least in my particular areas of interest) than most store owners I have come across. The internet means that savvy shoppers don't have to go down to Bill's Gun and Pawn and assume that all he has, is all there is. I would rather these manufacturers use that $250k to either build a better product or maybe make it cheaper for us instead of blowing it on a spot in a trade show that every tom, dick and harry with a gun blog can get into.

[jdun]

This happened in the video game industry a few years ago. They have a trade show called E3, it all but disappeared in a matter of a year. I never attended E3 but by all accounts it was on par with SHOT. I did attend last years SHOT in Orlando and was impressed with the size and didn't find it over crowded that bad. I remember guys from LWRC, MagPul, Larue, Surefire, ASP and Taser all taking time to talk to me even when I identified myself as a correctional officer and that there product didn't affect me professionally but I was interested personally. Maybe Vegas is bigger than SHOT when it's in Orlando? As to new product launches, how many people there are in a position to buy the LEO/MIL only stuff that 90% of us go there to see? I did bring back some info for my CERT team commander but the majority of what I was there to see was for my own personal enjoyment. It would seem that maybe SHOT has grown to big and can no longer serve it's purpose as originally intended.

E3 was dissolved because it started to strictly limit the number of people that was allowed to enter. Instead of over 60+K attendees, it drops down to less then 5k.

The E3 staff did it because there were complaints that the convention was costing way too much for the vendors. Cost did come down but the vendors saw less people to promote their products too. In the end the vendors start leaving E3 because well no one came to see their products.

What end up happening was many new gaming conventions started taking over what E3 used to offer. Now instead of going to one big gaming convention every year, the vendors are going to multiple gaming conventions each year.

Becareful what you wish for, E3 was not the only one that fell for it. Comdex comes to mind

[joffe]

They might just need to hire new people. There are plenty of huge trade shows, especially within consumer electronics and computer games, that manage to organize very effectively and draw crowds and praise every year. Maybe they could poach some of those people?

[Stickman]

Poor overall management may be a part of it.