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The economy has gone subterranean, the trade show is becoming a devalued commodity and even Las Vegas has been coming up snake eyes lately.
With all of that working against us, wouldn’t you know that it added up to the March 2009 ASD Military Tactical Outdoor Show bringing many smiles to the aisles?
“It’s funny, but despite another down traffic count, it seems like all of the right people made it to our booth,” said Hy Slavin of Alpha Industries.
It was a pretty good show, we can’t complain,” said Jeff Daniel of Sturm.
Daniel explained that the show compared favorably with those of the past three-four years but like many other exhibitors, he believes that the best days of the show are long gone - mostly as a reflection of the industry,
It has seemed for years that the ASD/MTO show (which, by the way, will officially drop the /AMD portion of its moniker effective with the August 2009 show) has morphed into the “quality but not quantity” category of trade show. That is, less boots on the ground, more orders in the system.
The aforementioned economic challenges facing our ever-shrinking band of intrepid surpies at this show was perceived as a threat to the “quality” portion of the formula but lo and behold, the quality aspect came through loud and clear.
The general consensus was that any buyer willing to spend the time and money to hit town in times like these was fully prepared and energized to open the checkbook.
While traffic flow was never overwhelming, it was consistent and kept exhibitors occupied at a comfortable pace.
About the only major disappointment was the dearth of Asian buyers, however understandable given the economic hard times in that region of the world.
Danny Fox of Fox Outdoor was pleasantly surprised by the results of their efforts.
“Not a record breaker by any means, but we did much better than expected and were happy to meet with many buyers that we did not anticipate would attend,” according to Fox.
Some exhibitors cut back on their usual allotment of booth space. Those that did reported no negative impact on their sales.
