Safari Club International’s annual meeting has ended in Nashville, but despite it being early in the post-mortem process, it feels safe to say that the Music City Center has once again been a hospitable host for the event. SCI officials certainly believe it was a winner, and you can read their summation in today’s news section.
Last year’s challenges were all addressed, and the in-and-out of the city’s largest trade show to date was accomplished far easier than 2023. Attendees from 114 countries saw what seemed to be a seamless event, with the 800 exhibitors offering everything from the latest-and-greatest in hunting gear to luxury furs, diamond jewelry and, yes, even Rolex watches.
But they also saw presentations about anything from fishing, hunting, and shooting to opportunities to Meet & Greet members of the USA Shooting team or hear notable celebrities from the outdoors speak about topics of importance. They also had -and exercised- opportunities to attend dinners and live auctions to benefit the organization’s advocacy and conservation efforts. Those sold-out events raised something on the order of $20 million for hunter advocacy and conservation work.
But the only possible downside of the event -at least among the manufacturing exhibitors I spoke with- had absolutely nothing to do with SCI 2024. It had everything to do with SCI 2025. The dates, January 22-25, 2025, have caused them consternation. It’s no secret that “show season” each year is tough on everyone. This year, manufacturers told me the proximity to SHOT Show created “challenges” when it came to shipping exhibition materials (think guns) from Las Vegas to Nashville. The time between SHOT teardown and SCI erection was short -and that meant expedited shipping of their new products.
It will be considerably more challenging next year. The dates for SHOT and SCI actually overlap. SHOT is set for January 21-24, 2025. SCI’s dates January 22-25, 2025 overlap. And for some exhibitors, that’s a real issue.
“I’m not sure what we’ll do,” one PR director told me, “we have the booths to do two shows, but the people will be the big issue for us. We just don’t have the manpower to essentially shut down our sales and marketing departments and staff both shows. But we certainly don’t want to lose either opportunity.” It was the same story with other exhibitors who “do” both SHOT and SCI.
SHOT Show is an “industry only” trade event. SCI is aimed at avid hunters, birders, shooters and other outdoor participants. Both require serious commitments in time, resources and manpower. As a fellow “old-timer” observed: “may be time to revisit the idea of having models to supplement manpower.” If you’ve been around the industry long enough, you’ll remember the days when the booth assistants weren’t all “subject matter experts.” Will the overlap between these two events lead to the return of the “talent” of yesteryear? Too-soon to tell, but we’ll keep you posted.
One topic of conversation that resulted in spirited debates among attendees had to do with another three-letter organization: NRA. With the Second Amendment Foundation and other 2A advocacy groups in attendance, it appeared to some industry insiders that “the game’s on” to see if another organization, sans the NRA’s dubious management, can replace the beleaguered organization.
Another great conversational topic for which there is no answer.
The NRA is back in Judge Joel Cohen’s New York City courtroom this morning. Defense attorneys for the organization and its individual defendants will continue to make the case to jurors that, despite all the admitted abuses of the past, the organization has sufficiently put its house in order to eliminate the need to put additional outside supervision on the organization.
According to Judge Cohen’s initial estimates for the time required for the trial, we’re still a very long way from the case going to the jury.
We’ll keep you posted.
—Jim Shepherd