Shot Show 2021 cancelled

[Greg1953]

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shotshow.org

 

[Mr. October]

I think you’ll see a lot of conferences and trade shows go away. Such events have been losing participation for years. COVID has just shown further that the same things can be accomplished without the huge expense of attending.

 

[Jsusic]

Oh wow, thats unfortunate but I'm not surprised. Any idea if the Western Hunting Expo is canceled to?

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[BigPrince]

Shot Show had a running flu joke before covid. I got sick as a dog the year I went. Not surprised.

Was hoping to go to western hunting expo this year. Their sites says they are still a go but we’ll see.

 

[wind gypsy]

Shot Show had a running flu joke before covid. I got sick as a dog the year I went. Not surprised.

Was hoping to go to western hunting expo this year. Their sites says they are still a go but we’ll see.

Utahns are immune to COVID.

 

[Jsusic]

Looks like Western Hunting Expo is still a go for now, I guess we will see. Keeping my fingers crossed, it was alot of fun last year.

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[jspradley]

Shot Show had a running flu joke before covid. I got sick as a dog the year I went. Not surprised.

Was hoping to go to western hunting expo this year. Their sites says they are still a go but we’ll see.

Just about everyone I know who goes to or has gone to SHOT has gotten sick. I can't even imagine the clusterfug that it would turn into with the rona... smart of them to cancel, as much as it sucks.

 

[Bdjones]

Shot Show had a running flu joke before covid. I got sick as a dog the year I went. Not surprised.

Was hoping to go to western hunting expo this year. Their sites says they are still a go but we’ll see.

No lie, every time I came home fighting some sort of virus.

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[MuleyFever]

Was hoping to go to western hunting expo this year. Their sites says they are still a go but we’ll see.

I hope it is cancelled and SFW doesn't get a dime.

 

[bluetick78]

Oh wow, thats unfortunate but I'm not surprised. Any idea if the Western Hunting Expo is canceled to?

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The bling Jean factories and American Fighter t-shirt factories have been closed because of Covid....so I'm guessing the Expo is off.

 

[BigPrince]

I hope it is cancelled and SFW doesn't get a dime.

Well I hope something you want doesn’t happen either? To each their own I guess. I don’t know anything about SFW.

 

[wyosteve]

The Sheep Show and Grand Slam Club convention are cancelled as well. Sheep Show is going to try a virtual convention.

 

[RyanT26]

My God.......The bedazzled jeans, smedium t-shirt, and gun bunny industries may never recover for this. When will the carnage of 2020 ever stop.

 

[amassi]

What will influencers post about on the gram? Shot show is kind of silly the way they tease products that aren't ready to be distributed complete with "range reports" from media day. Good riddance

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[Sevens]

So, can we just go ahead and see what’s new for 2021 and start the group buys!

 

[Spiral Horn]

SCI and ATA cancelled as well.

 

[Mr. October]

What will influencers post about on the gram? Shot show is kind of silly the way they tease products that aren't ready to be distributed complete with "range reports" from media day. Good riddance

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And with social media outlets companies can actually release products via video and livestreams when they are ready. In archery, companies like Mathews stopped attending the ATA show (SHOT Show equivalent) because they just weren't getting a return on the investment and that was long before COVID-19 came along.

 

[BigPrince]

Some products don’t lend to virtual window shopping though. The feel and fit of a new fabric in a technical piece of clothing or the fit of a backpack frame vs another. You can say you’ll never know until you use it but some purchases are just more jinformed in person. Like the first Schnee’s I purchased. took paying for shipping 3x to get the right fit. I may just fly up and spend a weekend in Bozeman shopping instead. The shows just put it all in one place vs having to go to multiple.

 

[Spiral Horn]

And with social media outlets companies can actually release products via video and livestreams when they are ready. In archery, companies like Mathews stopped attending the ATA show (SHOT Show equivalent) because they just weren't getting a return on the investment and that was long before COVID-19 came along.

Some products don’t lend to virtual window shopping though. The feel and fit of a new fabric in a technical piece of clothing or the fit of a backpack frame vs another. You can say you’ll never know until you use it but some purchases are just more jinformed in person. Like the first Schnee’s I purchased. took paying for shipping 3x to get the right fit.

Completely agree that physical shows are orders-of-magnitude more informative, and there is a lot of key information that isn’t imparted via a webcast or YouTube video. As BigPrince pointed out, a fabric cannot be assessed without touching it - there are countless other examples, such as: Cut and fit of clothing - I never buy high-end hunting clothes without first trying them on at a show; Product build quality and ruggedness - no way to assess that without physically touching the item; Direct comparison - there‘s nothing like having all the stuff in one place - it’s always better to compare in real time vs memory from weeks or months ago; Access to product experts - at Shows it isn’t just all marketing and folks can get questions answered.

A few other key things:

New Products and Companies - Shows are the best place to gain Market Exposure, both to the industry and consumers. I for one don’t want my ability to find gear completely up to Google. Ever notice how you’ll find some exceptional new gear that already has a website but you never heard of them before.

Web and Social Media Censorship - a few well known hunting outfitters and booking agents have had their access locked out.

Relationships Made at Shows - this is priceless and has paid big dividends over the years. Cannot be done via the web.

 

[Pro953]

I know lots of folks had fun at these events and some sort of event will come back but I do not think a lot of the traditional trade show type events will return.

In my industry (packaging) the traditional trade shows stopped paying off and we started winding down our attendance to a couple of a largest shows.

The revenue and lead development have dwindled drastically. The key buyers no longer attend or show up just to glad hand and be treated to a few dinners but the buying decisions are made well before. The never generation of buyers were never engaged in the whole trade show cycle so they are not attending and just look at what to buy based on different metrics/trends.

It’s really just driven but the groups that actually out on trade shows and some of the associations/publishers that need the revenue and means of staying relevant.

The hands on buying experience is still important but a lot of buyers are becoming more confident buying sight unsee especially with some of the generous return policy’s from brands.

Some savvy companies will run more roadshow type events and probably target locations to draw groups but it is certainly changing!


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