I didn’t know where to put this tread so i tried here…
For the last 3 years I have stayed up all night looking all over the internet for the latest news during the shotshow.
being a huge firearms fan, collector and shooter, I have a big problem.
Everytime i buy a new gun or gear I can only read about it online before i order it, since there isn’t that many people that own or stores that have the different models for me to look at.
So this year I am planning to fly in from Norway to attend shotshow, but of course there is one big problem.
As far as I understand there is restricted access to the expo, so my question is…
Does anyone know how to get access to shotshow???
Is there any companys out there that is willing to help out a guy spending all his hard earned cash to travel to Shotshow with an access card???
Part of the problem with SHOT is that it’s becoming increasingly saturated by consumers rather than genuine industry folks. Dilution of product, presentation, and business potential is a logical result.
He runs around with all his bag carriers in tow and almost totally over runs an unsuspecting exhibit.
I find it amazing how many 5.11 pant & black polo shirt wearing, camelbak tri-zip carrrying, mag-pulled iphone using people were wearing rigger belts last year. Y’know, all the people that manage to scam a ticket, go on the first day to collect as many freebies as possible and then disappear to their respective gun clubs, gun shops and garages to stroke the free hats, key rings and brochutes they have managed to collect.
Last year it was the thursday before it was quiet enough for a security guard to even bother asking me to look at my [press] pass. Being the evil ex-military, ex-LEO type person that I am I had figured out within half an hour how to get into the show without a pass - not difficult. And, to be honest, I would guess that on day one there is a good percentage of those who go in that do not have passes.
With that said though, if you are coming from Noggie Land I would make sure that you have a pass to get in as it is a long way to come just to be turned away at the door. My advice:
If you are military or reserve get an official letter written saying that you are a military representative who has input to procurement, or
If you have a friendly gun shop owner ask him to write a letter to say you are his official representative, or
If you know anyone at a local newspaper, magazine, radio staion, tv station get them to say you are a press representative.
The easiest way, in my opinion, is to start an online blog, make sure it has a decent amount of content and then you will get a press pass. It seemed to work for all the airsofters and milspec monkey.
This year I spoke with one of the organising crew and was told that it is all about the numbers. When they moved it to Orlando they had around 50,000’ish attendees, in Vegas they have 75,000’ish.
From a large manufacturers or importers perspective they want to see as many potential buyers either retail or end user as they can. The big boy manufacturers and importers are comfortable in the knowledge that retail operations need to buy product … and where else are they going to go.
The smaller operations need to get out there or no one will even know they exist. They really want to be seeing retail ops buyers to get their stuff out in stores. But, seeing the $$$$ holding public does’nt harm them too much.
I used to attend euro events and help out a journo friend by taking pics on his behalf for a couple of magazines. Now that I am here its the same deal but with the Shot Show - I am classed as a part time photo journo. To be honest the main Shot Show is much more open door that most euro events.
That said, there are a lot of events arranged around Vegas by major arms, ammo and gear companies that you will not even know happen - I don’t mean the parties. These are where the fire power and gear demo’s happen and the big buck contracts start to be arranged. These events are predominantly military (forget if if you are under half colonel) and in some cases heads of major city spec ops departments.
Then for the press you have the shot show press range day which lets all the gun comic and blog writers loose on the range with the main stream retail toys. But all these “serious gun writers” seem to congregate at one particular area of the range where it is just the full auto gear. You can spot the guys there for bona fide gun comics because they are the ones who arrive when the day starts and stay till the end working every stand not just arse licking for an hour to fire a brand name manufacturers new .50 cal rifle.
For any importer or manufacturer the press range day is where they need to book space to show off what they have. That way you have ONLY the un divided attention of about 500 - 700 members of the gun press for a whole day. All the major manufacturers are there because they know that there is control on who gets a press pass - you can’t just go to CNN or the New York Times and get your friend to give you a press pass added to which you need a letter of official assignment from your publisher/editor/owner/blogmeister.
C4IGrant, I feel for you but the organisers need as many people through as possible to make it viable for the manufacturers and importers. I was actually very surprised in the show when it was obvious that a few exhibitors were openly retailing stuff out to attendees. In a euro show I saw a couple of major international exhibitors threatened with stand closure for the same activity. So, if they are already selling stuff off stands now the decline has started and it could eventually turn into the worlds biggest gun show.
This may be true for the SMALL boys, but the big companies that have rep groups, despise it. They spend what limited time they have talking to people that can’t even buy ONE ITEM. There are dealer and distrb.'s there (like me) trying to place large orders and I cannot get any help. :rolleyes:
SEMA, CES, and SHOT all are becoming vacation trips for those only vaguely attached to the respective industries.
The event organizers could put a stop to this, but they want to be able to claim that 130k+ attended the show, so that they can whack exhibitors for a bit more $$.
Marketing folks, who are generally clueless as to what makes a good contact or a worthless one. buy into those numbers year after year, not realizing that a show that had half as many useful attendees would be a much better investment.
Last year, I got some enjoyment out of the wheeled-cart-dragging schwaghounds by kicking their carts while they walked, especially if they just stopped dead in their tracks so that they could answer a damned phone. Absolutely hate the damned “charioteers…”
SHOT is boned because they appear to make very little effort to enforce their own rules. It’s annoying to jump through hoops that effectively don’t even exist in any real sense, more annoying to see the effects of those hoops’ lack of substance. In a town known for having it’s velvet-rope sections, it’s pretty galling.
There’s a part of me disappointed that I’ll not make it this year because I’ll be missing out on rubbing elbows with some very good friends, the opportunity to meet others…new friends and new industry contacts (not always the same thing ).
The bigger part of me is freaking relieved that I’ll not be risking arrest from assaulting the 5gal douchebags they let ooze their in.
And then I remember the post-Xmas/post-SHOT internet halfwit surge… :suicide:
It’s usually fun just to see industry contacts. But I’ve long since followed the belief that if you’re not there to make large purchases for departments, a store, or legit press (not a blog), shut the hell up and let people who need to get the face-time do so.
When it gets horrible is when as stated you have a web-crew roll in and dominate a booth for what amounts to a youtube clip. Especially when they steamroll people there on legitimate business. Airsofters, not guys from the US, but I’m talking the dudes taking photos and sitting there with rulers, who you know are going back and ripping off these companies, are insufferable.
I’ll be going this year, but again as Grant said, there’s people there trying to do business. I’ve got a few projects I’m working on that require I go to discuss them, but I don’t have a budget to spend on a hundred units of a particular gun. And thus I know that the reps time is valuable, and to not occupy their time.
Allow the people to do their business first, and know when to shut up. And yes the swag whoring is awful.
The blogger jackoffs are second only to the hordes of mainland Chinese with their cameras and rulers - you got that one right. Why that shit is allowed is an absolute mystery to me - the SHOT police are running around looking for people handing out flyers and shit, but they ignore the thousands of Asian ripoff artists just because they paid an entrance fee.
This will be my first SHOT show. Pretty much what has been said about jerk offs wasting time and taking up space has been what I’ve been told by fellow coworkers who go there to make orders for the year at SHOT. I’ll be going with my bosses and manager for our little shop here in CA, and hopefully we get to order some neat guns for 2012. I’m really there to do some Vegas buffet hopping.
Any chance for a M4C meetup? Would definitely be cool to meet some of t he more prominent forum members.
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