Q. When will NSSF name a new show management company?

A. We hope to select a new SHOT Show partner in June.

Q: I just made my second payment installment for my 2014 exhibit space.  How will NSSF know that I paid Reed?

A. All SHOT Show payments go directly into an NSSF owned and managed account as they have for several years now. There should be no issue with payments being properly credited.

Q. I recently requested that my exhibit be moved to another area of the exhibit area. When will booth moves take place?

A. All booth move requests that have been filed will be addressed in June in order of SHOT Show Priority Points as we have for the past two years.

Q. Will the show be moving from Las Vegas?

A. We have signed agreements that will keep the SHOT Show at the Sands Expo through the 2016 show.  We are hopeful that the show will remain at the Sands in 2017 and beyond and we will be working towards that end.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print for the moment. Diedra and I will keep you posted as news develops. If you have any further questions, please contact us.

Chris Dolnack is senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisDolnack. 

Reed Exhibitions provided excellent service to NSSF and the customers of the SHOT Show for more than three decades, however, the company’s decision to restrict the sale of certain types of firearms this year at its consumer hunting and fishing show — an event unrelated to NSSF and the SHOT Show — was in conflict with NSSF’s mission to serve the shooting sports industry. As a result, both organizations decided it was in the best interest of the SHOT Show to end their relationship.

NSSF is actively engaged in the process of identifying a new show management company to manage and produce the SHOT Show beginning with the 2014 SHOT Show.

The SHOT Show — the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show — is owned and sponsored by NSSF. It is the largest and most comprehensive trade show for all professionals involved with the shooting sports, hunting and law enforcement industries. The 2014 SHOT Show will be held Jan. 14-17 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas.

That’s why we caution all SHOT Show attendees and exhibitors to be wary of third-party services when booking your rooms for the show. In years past we received reports of unscrupulous hotel room resellers taking payment from SHOT Show attendees and exhibitors without actually booking the rooms.

More recently, NSSF has received word that a company has attempted via email to solicit business from at least one SHOT Show attendee. In its email, the company claimed to offer “flexible cancellation” while providing “hotel direct confirmation numbers.” The SHOT Show has no affiliation whatsoever to this company.

Not booking through the SHOT Show’s official housing bureau, onPeak, can be risky. The safest way to make your SHOT Show hotel reservations is through the SHOT Show website.

We want you to have a great experience at the 2014 SHOT Show and the surest way to start down that path is to deal only with official SHOT Show partners. If you are booking a block of more than 20 rooms, onPeak can help you manage that efficiently.

If you are contacted and receive a similar email or phone call, we ask that you please report it to NSSF’s legal department at jyue@nssf.org. And if you ever have any doubt about anyone contacting you on behalf of NSSF or SHOT Show, contact us right away.

In addition the program will provide marketing assistance and will develop a program to specifically promote individual and group attendance, which may include competitive travel packages, travel and housing assistance to international buyers, organization of delegation trips and tours and production of an Export Interest Directory of those U.S. firms exhibiting at the event.

Acceptance into the International Buyer Program is crucial to NSSF’s ongoing marketing efforts to increase international buyers at the SHOT Show. This is our third year in a multi-year plan to increase international buyer attendance. With the assistance of the Department of Commerce, we look forward to reaching our goal of increasing international buyer attendance by 20 percent by 2014.

All 2014 SHOT Show exhibitors should watch the show website and newsletters as we get closer to the show to take advantage of these new offerings in order to maximize what the International Buyer Program can do to increase their international business.

We’ve warned our exhibitors countless times over the past few years about the company, most recently in February in this blog post.

The Trade Show News Network has more on the FTC’s ruling.

Chris Dolnack is senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisDolnack. 

Chris Dolnack is senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisDolnack.

Though this change clears the way for many companies in our industry that have been on the waitlist for far too long to begin exhibiting at the SHOT Show, it also means that we must “disinvite” a number of long-time exhibitors whose product line no longer fit with the profile of our buyer attendees.  This process is painful for both parties and sparks anger from those exhibitors who have not had their exhibit contracts renewed.

We do our best to research buyer attendee preferences and to include all exhibitors within a category that no longer fits the core profile.  We also give exhibitors who appeal the non-renewal a fair hearing.

The result of this repurposing effort is that 100 new companies have exhibited at the SHOT Show for the very first time in 2012 and 2013.  We expect to invite a similar number of waitlisted companies to exhibit for the first time in 2014.

We’re glad to be able to make so much progress so quickly, although we realize it wasn’t quick enough for some and extremely disappointing for others.  It’s not fun to tell an exhibitor that they can no longer exhibit at the SHOT Show, but it is necessary to ensure a healthy future for the SHOT Show, and the industry.

The directory solicitations appear harmless, asking companies simply to update their information (which supposedly already exists in the directories and has been published for free). However, upon closer examination of the fine print, listings in the directories are far from “FREE.” By signing and returning the solicitation form with or without updating business information, companies will actually be entering into a three-year, irrevocable agreement that automatically renews and will require them to pay a significant amount of money with no foreseeable benefits. As the owner and sponsor of the SHOT Show, the National Shooting Sports Foundation itself has been targeted by these deceptive and misleading trade show directory scams.

The SHOT Show has no relationship with the FAIRGuide, Expo-Guide or any of their other branded directories, and they are not authorized to use the “SHOT Show” name and registered trademarks on information they send to show exhibitors and attendees. There is reason to believe that the FAIRGuide and other branded directories are part of a larger international syndicate composed of multiple trade show directory publishers all operated by the same conspirators. I know, we all love a conspiracy theory but the facts bear this out.

We strongly warn exhibitors and attendees to exercise extreme caution if they receive solicitations from Construct Data Verlag AG or any other suspicious third-party offers in order to avoid unwarranted and/or unnecessary legal and financial commitments.

Show exhibitors or attendees who may have fallen prey to any of these trade show directory scams are encouraged to contact NSSF’s legal department at 203-426-1320 or jyue@nssf.org.