By Gabby & C-Mag
Lately, you may have heard folks at the range or gun store say to one another, "will you be at SHOT?" or "see you at SHOT!" You may have even had your shooting lesson canceled due to "SHOTShow" and felt confused and frustrated.
You might be thinking, What is this "SHOTShow"? And what's the big deal anyway?
I completely understand, that's how I felt early in 2012. I was new to the world of firearms then, ArmedCandy was in its infancy, and just as we were developing momentum, every one in the industry took off to "SHOTShow".
On twitter, well-known gun-bloggers were, "coming to you live from Vegas!" A fellow newbie tweeted, "am I the only one not at SHOT?" and we quickly bonded over commiserating. To my fortune she was also able to fill me in on what exactly I was missing.
SHOTShow is a five day long trade-show held every January in Las Vegas. Manufacturers from every aspect of the outdoor and shooting sports, bring their latest products to exhibit. Retailers come to buy for their shops, law enforcement agencies come to place orders squads, and the media is invited in order to get the word out. It is a true trade-show, with a strict "industry-only" policy.
Once aware of what I was missing, I scoured the web for bits of information, believing that technology could make up for my not being on site. However, the feed coming out of the show was spotty at best. It was later explained to me, that the hall chosen for the convention, was twitter-incompatable. It was not yet clear to the industry how useful, blogs and social media could be. Further, though promises had been made to the contrary, female shooters were still barely a blip on manufacturers' radar. After hearing all of this, I made it a goal for ArmedCandy to not to be left out in 2013.
Major media outlets like, Guns & Ammo, will attend SHOTShow 2013, and along with them will stand, little ArmedCandy.net. I feel honored and humbled. Not only will I, Gabby, be representing ArmedCandy, but I'm lucky enough to share this experience with my friend and contributor, C-Mag aka Chris. SHOT is likely to teach us everything we ever wanted to know about, real-tree camo, duck calls and reloading your own ammo, but we intend to stay focused on products best suited to the ArmedCandys among us. As the most rapidly growing market segment in the shooting sports, female-specific products should be everywhere this year, but we will also think outside the box when it comes to any product that might benefit a new shooter. We couldn't be more excited to bring you photos, news and interviews about all the cool stuff we find. Keep up with our FaceBook and Twitter feeds this week, so we can share up-to-the-minute discoveries. (This year, organizers have made a point of making SHOT, twitter-friendly.) Then we'll bring it all home and share the details, over the following months. Feel free to connect with us through Facebook and Twitter while we are at the show. Send us a specific request, and, who knows? We might find a solution! Shoot safely this week and wish us luck!
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