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By most accounts, the Army Navy Military Expo (ANM Expo) has been re-born and has found its home at last.

The changeover from a twice-yearly show opposite the ASD Show to an annual event running parallel to the SHOT Show in Las Vegas seems to have given the ANM Expo the traction it has been seeking since its inception in August, 2007. The change of venue from miles outside of town to a couple of blocks off the Strip, less than a mile from The SHOT Show also was very positively received.

The SHOT Show, which is fast becoming an important trade event for the army/navy industry, is like the Sun - the challenge facing the organizers of the ANM Expo was to orbit that Sun closely enough to benefit from its warmth and light, but not get too close and get absorbed into it.

By opening the ANM Expo one day before the opening of SHOT, The hope was for the Expo to have the universe all to itself before the SHOT Show drew away of the majority of the buyers. This theory worked to the extent that the first day of Expo was, in the words of some exhibitors, more successful that all of the previous shows over their three-day run.

According to show management, buyer registration for the Expo approached 1,300 firms. That was a new high for the Expo.

However, buyer traffic moving from the SHOT Show to the Expo was somewhat of a disappointment. The SHOT Show was probably just too massive and time-consuming to afford an opportunity for interested buyers to spare the time necessary to check out the Expo.

With that in mind, the 2011 ANM Expo will expand to four days from three, and will open two days prior to the opening of SHOT. Show dates are January 16-19, 2011. The new schedule allows for move-in on Friday, January 14, which helps exhibitors avoid overtime and setup and drayage charges.

Show management has also committed to taking significantly more exhibit space at the Tuscany Suites; there are now 134 booths available, and 25 percent of those are already pre-booked. Management’s goal is to register at least 2,000 buyers for 2011.

Danny Fox of Fox Outdoor Products benefited from the ANM Expo and believes that it is poised for continued success.

“The way the Expo is aligned with The SHOT Show makes a lot of sense. Preceding The SHOT Show by two days, as it will in January 2011, makes even more sense. Essentially, the ANM Expo was a one day show. It was profitable but a show with two days of steady traffic could pay dividends,” said Fox.

Ken Hirsch of Schreck Wholesale credited the gravitational pull of The SHOT Show for a successful ANM Expo experience.