Ah, Las Vegas. I must admit that I look forward to SHOT Show in Vegas more than in Orlando, Florida. Borelli will give you the usual, “I hate Las Vegas.” diatribe, but Vegas handles the influx of people better than Orlando ever could. I heard some people complaining about all the walking they had to do to get from their hotel room to the convention center, but they seem to forget that you had to DRIVE from your hotel in Orlando.
Of course there are a few things I can do in Orlando (or pretty close by) that I can’t in Las Vegas. Florida has more drop zones than any other place on the planet and the scuba diving on either coast of Florida is reason enough to stay an extra few days. What could be better than a week of guns, knives and skydiving followed up with a few days of scuba diving? Maybe laying on the beach in Hawaii with nothing to do but surf, eat and drink.
This year I was fortunate enough to borrow a friend’s condominium for the week. It was a tad strange not staying on the strip like I usually do, but it turned out to be pretty cool. The drive was only 11 minutes from door to door (if the convention center had a door) and I got to see the part of Vegas that the tourists miss… where the people actually live. I had a full kitchen to have my breakfast in every morning (rather than blowing $10 on coffee and a donut) and a fridge to put leftovers (hotel rooms in Vegas apparently don’t have refrigerators anymore).
Every year we try and figure out the most expedient way of seeing everything new and exciting while putting as little miles as possible on our feet. This year I printed up maps of the entire convention floor (36”x40”) and marked who and when we should be there. This lasted about two days and because of appointments and meetings the whole thing went to crap. On the last day I more or less just wandered around seeing and talking to people with no real plan of action. This may be the way I do the entire show next year.
Speaking of appointments! I can’t tell you how many people I made plans to meet to see their new/improved/better/faster/stronger product that weren’t there when I got there. Plus the people that totally ignored me when I tried to get some information about some item. If I had something I wanted to sell, I would probably pay attention to the individuals with PRESS or MEDIA badges. I fully intended to list all the morons that stood there talking about the weather rather than answer my questions but Frank threw the list away (probably a good thing).
Another unique occurrence this year was having a Media Representative make an appointment to show me a product line, only to find out they aren’t even at the show. At this point I’m directed to someone that “should” have an intimate knowledge of the company’s line and feel comfortable talking about it. I say should because it didn’t happen that way. Ever.
For the most part I like going to SHOT. I get to see people I haven’t seen for sometimes years and reminisce about the “good old days”, and talk shop. I suppose I can feel lucky that my wife isn’t a fan of Vegas (although she would probably be fine seeing a couple shows each day) and the thought of talking guns and knives has absolutely no appeal to her. When I go to SHOT I have no schedule other than the people I meet to check out their “stuff.” Getting out of the office is never a bad thing and sometimes I get to shoot some really cool hardware (although the Kriss from two years ago was the most noteworthy piece of late).
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