Show season is upon us, and with it comes the busiest time of the year—especially for the companies, and their staffs, attending all these shows.
This past week was Archery Week, with the Archery Trade Association’s annual gathering taking over Indianapolis. The festivities started on January 6 with the Archery Range and Retailers Organization (ARRO) Hot Show in the morning, followed by the National Archery Buyers Association (NABA) event in the afternoon.
Then, on January 7 and 8, it was the ATA Show, immediately followed by the consumer-facing Archery & Bowhunting Supershow on January 9–10.
Those attending these shows got only a slight break before having to prepare for the industry’s largest gathering: SHOT Show.
The annual Las Vegas event kicks off on Monday and Tuesday, January 19-20, with the SHOT Week Supplier Showcase. This is the show within the show where SHOT Show exhibiting companies go shopping for the materials, coatings, services, machines and machining—not to mention the engineering help—to manufacture the products that will hopefully be on display at SHOT Show 2027.
SHOT itself runs Tuesday through Friday, January 20-23.
The overall size of SHOT is becoming overwhelming, spanning two venues—the Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum. The show covers an estimated 810,000 net square feet, which officials say is equivalent to more than 18 acres, or enough space to park 2,586 M1 Abrams tanks.
No word on whether or not there will be an M1 Abrams tank on the show floor.
After SHOT, like immediately, comes the Wild Sheep Foundation’s Sheep Show, which overlaps SHOT January 22-24 in Reno, Nevada, while Houston Safari Club Foundation’s Worldwide Hunting Expo & Convention January 23-25 in The Woodlands, Texas.
Both big game hunting shows will draw several companies that also exhibit at SHOT, making life a challenge for staff bouncing from one show to another across the country.
A few days later, the Mid-States Winter Rendezvous returns to Phoenix, Arizona, January 30-31. This is a smaller show, but an important one that is focused on the key Farm, Ranch and Home segment of retailers.
That’s followed by the Worldwide Buy Group Show, February 3–5 in Reno. The Dallas Safari Club Convention & Sporting Expo runs in Atlanta February 6–8. Then come the final two buy group shows: the Nation’s Best Sports Spring Semi-Annual Market in Oklahoma City, February 10–13, and the Sports Inc. Buy Group Outdoor Show in Phoenix, February 18–20.
The show season concludes with two significant shows. The first is Safari Club International’s SCI Convention in Nashville, February 18-21. That’s where the finest of the finest guns will be on display along with bookings for the best of the best hunts across the world.
Then it’s off to Germany and IWA OutdoorClassics in Nuremberg, February 26 through March 1. If you ever get the chance to go to IWA, take it. If for no other reason than to see how our European counterparts approach the outdoor market compared to how we do it at SHOT.
While this is “show season,” for those participating it’s more like the Show Season Gauntlet, with 39l show days to work—not including travel days.
Obviously no one can be in the same place at the same time and attend all these shows, but there will be those required to attend many of them. I do not envy them, because if fatigue doesn’t get them, some form of trade show pathogen likely will.
What the industry really needs this time of year is an Ironman Award to recognize the exhibitor staff member who has logged the most days at the most shows…and lived to tell about it.
Maybe a giant, gaudy, cup-style trophy from which the winner could drink a quart or two of some cold-busting concoction…like they just won the Indy 500, but without the milk.
— Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network
