Hunkered Down For Last-Minute Moves

[Ed Ely]

Friday, the last chance to qualify for the final two days of a PGA TOUR event, is called "moving day". For some, it’s the chance to move up the leaderboard and cash a paycheck for the full 72-hole event. For others, it’s the day you pack your locker and move on down the road to whatever it is you do when you don’t make the cut.

These last few days before SHOT Show 2008 are the industry’s equivalent of "moving day".

Across the industry, futures are literally hanging in the balance. Some of those futures are companies; others are individuals.

If SHOT Show is a reasonable success, some individuals will find their jobs secure -at least the time being. Others know a mediocre performance will mean being unceremoniously shown the door. For some companies, a bad SHOT can prove to be their final shot at survival.

At one SHOT a few years ago, the marketing team of a major firearms manufacturer came in and did the preliminary setup for the SHOW. They were sent home – unemployed – just before the show opened.

Today, those marketing execs, although no longer operating as a team, are still in the firearms industry. The executives that cold-bloodedly axed them are forgotten.

This year, a man who’s career was pronounced over after an ill-considered (and factually inaccurate) remark on a blog appears on at least one company’s list of celebrities appearing at SHOT.

He’s not back to serve as a party piñata. He’s back because it seems the industry can forgive a single wrong – provided years of substance precede the error. He acknowledged his wrong, cured himself of his ignorance, and proved that doing the right thing occasionally is, well, the right thing.

Not everyone has forgiven the insult- some never will – but that’s life.

At this year’s show, we’ll see many of the same things seen at every trade show. Companies once viewed as iconic will be there, quietly marking time, talking with their loyal customers and reminiscing about the "old days".

There will be the usual bellicose newcomers, challenging all comers with the latest, greatest something or other. And for every one of them, there will be the "what ever happened to" question about last year’s bellicose newcomers.

It’s an accepted fact in the trade show industry that a big splash in your first year only means you have money and are burning it to get noticed. It says absolutely nothing about your product or service.

Here’s another trade show gem: most of the real innovation doesn’t come from the big booths. It’s the companies whose owners have their retirement plans, life savings and futures on the lines who are usually the innovators. If the investors in the "big splash" booths are involved; these folks are committed.

Unfortunately, many of those "all-in" people don’t make it for a second year.

Having been to more than my share of trade shows, I appreciate those exhibitors who do have a second year. I celebrate those who hang in there to the point their booth actually grows. They have brought something good to market.

In a world where consumers are regularly told that "fresh metal" makes better equipment or that addition of another color swatch is described as "revolutionary" true innovation stands out like a flare fired in Mammoth Cave.

Fidgeting nervously in a ten by ten booth, hoping to catch someone’s eye so you can tell someone – anyone - about your product, a trade show can be a very scary experience. The first people who stop and listen are indelibly etched in your memory. They were the first people to listen to your patter – and even after you’ve delivered it a few hundred others, their every response remains vivid. Years later, you might find yourself beaming at someone simply because they were one of the first people you spoke with.

I remember my first Trade Show as clearly as my first date. I’ve attended nearly 50 others since, and I still look forward to them, despite knowing from experience they generally leave me feeling like I’ve been in an accident.

Trade shows combine elements of a college homecoming, a carnival and high-stakes gambling. Fortunes are won or lost, and there will be unexpected winners – and losers – among the hopefuls crowded into several hundred thousand feet of exhibition space.

SHOT Show is no exception, and we’ll be there.

We’ll keep you posted.

--Jim Shepherd

FYI

Ed

[rufusdog]

Very nice read.. Hope to see you out there...