Salt Lake Hunting expos...

[ruttinelk393]

I was considering obtaining a booth for a new product I brought to market and wondered if you guys from UT could tell me whether the International Sportsman Expo is better or worse than the Western Hunting Expo. Thanks! Rob

 

[Deerlove]

IMO the Int is worse, but that could change in a couple of years if the expo loses the FREE tags.

 

[Blank]

Rob: Is your product strictly hunting-related, or outdoors in general. That is one thing to consider.

My son gets a booth every year for his boat business, and it sees more traffic at ISE shows (SLC, Denver, Sac) because of the wider audience base.

 

[elknr]

My friend sales wood furniture,and he has sold at ISE shows,ive tried tellin him to sale at the western expo,and still havent.but i think the western expo has alot more booths and alot more traffic,Yes some people dont even come inside,they put in for tags and go home.But still alot bigger show in my opinion.

 

[deadibob]

I do probably 20+ shows a year. The ISE organization is the worst of them all when it comes to vendor service. They will lie to you. I've had them change booth spots after the contract was signed. One year in Sacramento I paid for 3 booths and realistically ended up with 2, their response was, too bad. I have done all the ISE shows except for San Mateo and they cancelled that one for next year.

ISE does get a crowd but it's not a hard-core hunting show. It's an all-around outdoor show like fishing, boating, camping, atv, and hunting. Shows in general have steadily declined over the last 8-9 years I've been doing them and I've done them from California-Pennsylvannia, Texas and Florida to Alaska and a lot of places in between.

To go on the road and travel to shows is very expensive and you need to move a lot of product or services to make any money. If you're just doing a local show in your hometown it's not so bad.

The same show can be great one year and dead the next, you just never know what kind of mood the crowd will be in. If you have any more questions pm me.

 

[deadibob]

My product is hunting related and this year my sales were probably triple at the Mule deer/SFW show compared to this year at the southtowne ISE show. Plus my booth cost less at SFW and they treated the vendors much much better and even had a concert/dinner for us.

 

[ARROWHNTR]

The sportsmans Expo is a ton of varity I would think if your audiance is more hunting then do the Western Hunting Expo but if its more outdoors based do the ISE Show. But in all honestly either way I would skip them both and just do the Eastern Sports and outdoors show in Harrisburg PA. Its like 9 days long and jammed packed every day I believe it pulls in over 1,000,000 people

 

[ruttinelk393]

Thanks for the info guys. My product is a bracket for European mounts and so it is strictly hunting related. Good point on the ISE shows being more of a overall sporting show and not just hunting. They brag of huge numbers of attendees, but I guess one needs to disect that crowd for what they are selling. I would be curious (for hunting only related product vendors) how you guys would rank the shows you go to. Last year we debuted the product at SHOT to establish wholesale/retail contacts and only did RMEF as a test for sales purposes. So any suggestions/opinions of other shows would be welcomed.

 

[llamapacker]

EXPO = strictly hunting related show, with hard core hunters in attendance

ISE = General outdoor show, with a lot of fishing, some hunting, ATV's, etc. General crowd of outdoor recreation folks, but many aren't hunters.

Each show has its place. Pick your show bassed on target audience.

Bill

 

[eurosbyRT]

PM sent

Skull Designs: Quality European Mounts at affordable prices

 

[deadibob]

The Eastern Sports Show (Harrisburg) is the largest outdoor sports expo in the U.S., It is in 5 buildings and is 9 days long. They don't divulge actual gate #'s but claim it's close to a million. Honestly I think it's probably about 600,000-700,000. Plus most people go to it several times and are being recounted.

Either way it is a huge show just beware of the Harrisburg flu. The sickest I've ever been in my life came from the Harrisburg show. All the vendors in my building got sick, they say it happens every year. Nine days breathing the wet musty air in a livestock building.

I've done the Harrisburg show twice. The first time it was great. I did it again in '09 and it was really bad. Nobody was spending any money at all. The economy is even worse in that area than out here in Utah.

If this is a product that you want to use retailers as a distribution outlet then you might want to look at Shot or the ATA shows. If you just want to sell direct then consumer shows are a good venue. Just remember it is very hard to cover your expenses selling only one or two different items (I learned this the hard and expensive way).