On the Horizon

Well before the first person walked through the doors of SHOT Show 2022, held last January in Las Vegas, Nevada, the naysayers were out in force across the social media landscape. No one is going to come because of Covid! A complete disaster in the making! The place will be like a prison because of Covid restrictions!  Might as well stay home!

On and on the naysayers went. And then a funny thing happened: people and exhibitors actually attending SHOT Show 2022 began posting their own very positive experiences to social media. The actual in-person SHOT Show, they said repeatedly, was a huge success, and they were very glad they’d attended.

“With our largest floor plan in history, more than 2,400 attending exhibitors, and thousands of buyers here to make new and meaningful connections, we couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome of this SHOT Show,” said Chris Dolnack, NSSF Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, shortly after show’s end. “This is a very tactile business, and it meant a lot to buyers to be able to see and handle our industry’s products in person.”

That largest floor plan ever included the long-awaited expansion at Caesars Forum that provided hundreds of companies the opportunity to move from the show’s waiting list to booth space on the show floor. Small- and medium-size companies, in particular, benefitted by being able to reach thousands of potential customers. This new venue received high marks from exhibitors and attendees and provided a spacious area for the show’s New Product Center as well.

Overall attendance to the show was down about 22 percent, Dolnack admitted, and some exhibitors did pull out due to Covid concerns for their employees.  “But almost all of those exhibitors have re-signed for SHOT 2023,” Dolnack says. “And based on the surveys we did after the last show, the somewhat smaller crowds actually improved the engagement quality between attendees and exhibitors.”

SHOT Show 2023, January 17 to 20, 2023, promises to be an even better experience. Held at the Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum, the show will host an estimated 2,400 exhibitors and more than 45,000 attendees, providing all the standard SHOT events and venues.

SHOT Show 2023 will also provide a retail sales area, where exhibitors will be able to sell product to attendees. This new attraction will be located right outside Caesars Forum on the Caesars Plaza (aka the Great Outdoors Pavilion). It will be limited to 20 spaces reserved on a first-come first-served basis and will be limited to products that do not require an FFL transfer.

Exhibitors can let the world know that their brand and products will be on display at the 2023 SHOT Show by posting an official exhibitor social media graphic available for download in the Exhibitor Marketing Toolkit. This graphic can be repeatedly posted, too, to tease any new products. The kit offers many tools to help an exhibitor promote their booth, including an official exhibitor logo, customizable web graphics (where the company’s name and booth number can be added), customizable customer invites, and more.