To say the SHOT Show is big is an understatement. With more than 2,200 exhibitors between the main show floor, the Supplier Showcase and the NEXT Pavilion filling the 660,000 net square feet available at the beautiful Sands Expo & Conference Center, the SHOT Show is the fifth largest trade show in Las Vegas and the 17th largest trade show in North America—and if space allowed, it would be even bigger. It’s the largest law enforcement trade show in the world, as well as the largest cutlery trade show.

And there’s a very good reason for all that. As Chris Dolnack, senior vice president and CMO of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, put it, “It’s Christmas Day and the Super Bowl all wrapped up into one for our industry.”

For attendees, the SHOT Show is not just a place to see all the latest products. It’s also where retailers and range owners can gain a leg up on their competition.

“The SHOT Show is the one place where buyers and range operators can see everyone and everything that they need to have a competitive edge,” Dolnack explained. “It’s the one place where you can meet the engineers that designed the product. You can meet the owner or the founder of the company. You can meet the CEO. It gives you a competitive edge because when you go back to your shop or your range and talk to a customer about a new product, you can tell them, ‘The engineer who designed this told me A, B and C.’ Or, ‘The president of the company told me X, Y and Z.’ And if your competitor down the road didn’t go to the show, they don’t have that information.

“With more than 60,000 professionals in attendance, the insights you can gain and the networking opportunities are just off the hook.”

Added Value

In addition to what attendees can gain from the show floor, there are a number of special events that take place during the week of the SHOW Show.

“We have Industry Day at the Range where we have 800 invited buyers in the morning and 800 invited media in the afternoon,” Dolnack said. “They get to go out and actually try the products, getting information they can take back and impart to their customers.

“We have a golf tournament on Sunday that we sponsor in conjunction with Honored American Veterans Afield, which is an industry-run nonprofit to benefit wounded warriors and their families. It’s 100 percent run by the industry. That golf tournament will raise $30,000 to $40,000 for programs.”

On Tuesday night, the SHOT Show will offer the yearly state-of-the-industry address, as well as entertainment from Mike Rowe, which Dolnack described as “more of a keynote.”

On Monday, the day before the show opens, and Tuesday, the opening morning of the show, OEM suppliers will be on-hand in the Supplier Showcase on Level 5. On Wednesday, a new 1-day event will be held in that same space.

“We’re going to have an event for companies on our wait list who are likely not to otherwise gain access to the show floor in the immediate future,” explained Dolnack. “Our tier one companies are companies that are firearms or ammunition. Then anything that goes in, on or around the gun is tier two. Tier three is more non-core shooting sports and hunting. For this event, we’re looking at companies that might be more lifestyle sort of brands or non-core footwear or apparel companies.”

Get Your Learning On

There is an impressive array of educational opportunities available at the SHOT Show, offering information on everything from general management practices to industry-specific issues.

“On Monday, we have a 1-day executive management seminar,” said Dolnack. “It’s sort of like a 3-day American Management Association executive course on steroids and condensed into 1 day. Many companies don’t have the budget to have a high-potential employee fly to a city and stay three to five nights at a regular seminar, but they can pay for one extra night and a very modest registration fee. The seminar touches all the bases: leadership, management, marketing, current trends. It’s focused on developing leadership and management skills.

“We have our 1-day comprehensive SHOT University. There are two tracks. We have one for counter staff, and we have another one for founders and owners. That’s on Monday. Then on Wednesday and Thursday, we have retailer seminars on a variety of subjects.”

Qualified Buyers

If you’ve been attending SHOT for several years, you may have noticed that attendance is down. Not only is the team at SHOT not worried about that, they’re actually pleased about it. In fact, those lower attendance numbers are deliberate.

“When we hit 67,000 attendees several years ago, we looked at each other during the event and said, ‘If we ever hit 70,000, we’ve done something horribly wrong,’” Dolnack said. “It was palpably uncomfortable on the show floor. It was hard to get around, the booths were really jammed.”

To correct that problem, the SHOT team began the process of requalifying its attendees.

“We requalify 20 percent of our alumni attendee database every year,” said Dolnack. “So every 5 years everyone that continues to attend the SHOT Show has to requalify with credentials. That’s allowed us to go from 67,000 attendees to 60,000.

“By requalifying we’ve helped to increase the quality of the attendees. There are 7,000 fewer people at the show than 5 years ago, but there are more buyers than ever. We want to give our exhibitors every confidence that when they see someone with a red-striped badge that they’re talking to a qualified buyer.”

The Future is Bright — And Big

With the Sands Expo Center completely full, the only way for the SHOT Show to get any bigger is to expand into other venues. And that’s exactly what’s on tap for the future of SHOT.

“We’ve announced that we’re expanding to the MGM Conference Center for the 2020 show,” Dolnack said. “That will give us an additional 150,000 net square feet of space. Then in 2021, we are expanding to the new Caesar’s Forum, which is right next to the Sands. That will give us an additional 150,000 square feet. We’re in talks with two other venues, one that has yet to break ground and one that is currently under construction, for 2022 and beyond.

“That will be about a 45 percent increase. Hopefully we can get some of the more than 1,000 companies that are currently on the wait list into the show and allow companies that are bursting at the seams with their exhibit to get larger.”

That growth is exciting, especially considering how important the SHOT Show is for the industry.

 “The show provides the bulk of the revenue for the association,” Dolnack explained. “It helps us keep dues low, and it also allows us to fund the customer recruitment initiatives and advocacy and communications initiatives. It’s the gas that goes in the tank.

“We’re very pleased with the direction our show is headed in. We’ve hit all-time highs in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty the last 3 years. So I think our arrow continues to point up.”

Click here to learn more about the 2019 SHOT Show.