LAS VEGAS — After a two-year hiatus, The Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show), owned and operated by the National Sports Shooting Foundation (NSSF), the firearm industry’s trade association, drew more than 2,400 exhibitors and more than 43,000 attendees from 100 countries to Caesars Forum in Las Vegas January 18-21. Organizers are triumphant, saying this was the largest SHOT Show ever.
“With our largest floor plan in history, with 804,000 net square feet, we couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome,” Chris Dolnack, NSSF Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, said, and credited his team and partners at ConvExx, Freeman, CSG Creative, Venetian/Palazzo, Caesars Forum and Maritz. “We never quit, we persevered and we delivered a high-quality trade show. We’re also appreciative of the leadership and guidance from IAEE, CEIR, SISO and UFI over the last nearly two years.”
In addition to partnerships and perseverance, Dolnack attributes the show’s success to two factors: The growth of his industry and the fact it requires a live event for buyers to experience the products.
From 2020 through 2021, background checks related to firearm sales reached 40 million people. “Our industry is poised to have another year of strong growth as there are over 8 million new firearms owners since the beginning of the pandemic, and interest in hunting has increased for the first time in decades, fueled in part by the field-to-fork movement,” he said. “This is a very tactile business, and it means a lot to buyers to be able to see and handle our industry’s products in person.”
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An expanded venue for the show, Caesars Forum provided hundreds of companies featuring products for target shooting, hunting, outdoor recreation, personal defense and law enforcement the opportunity to move from the show’s waiting list to the show floor. The new venue provided spacious areas for the show’s New Product Center and the new SHOT Show eXtra table-top exhibitors section.
The SHOT Show, which is not open to the public and is for industry professionals only, is the largest trade show of its kind in the world. The 2023 show will be held January 17-20 at the Sands Expo Convention Center.
Reach Chris Dolnack at cdolnack@nssf.org
