With more quiet announcements of companies holding back from SHOT Show, the questions continue to circle on whether or not Nevada or Las Vegas are going to give our largest trade show the pass to keep going.
The NSSF shows no signs of not wanting to hold the show, vendors want to show off their new toys, but everyone seems to be quietly looking at the government and waiting for them to say, “JK, no show for you guys.”
Even with companies holding back to safeguard employees and limit disruptions, SHOT is still looking to be well attended. Companies have held remote events in the past and some are probably going to hold them still, even if they don’t put a crew on the show floor itself. The amount of communication that the industry as a whole initiates during that week is hard to quantify. The effect of everyone tuning into one place (tuning, for the younger crowd, is something
But even with the shorter quarantines, and whatever the CDC is recommending this particular hour of the day, the process makes it a monumental effort for a company to get into Vegas and out again with their teams. Masking, testing, and the requirements of the Vegas strip are going to clash with the normal traffic flow of a trade show.
Many a team a ready to get together and make it work anyway, I think this is all going to rest on the .GOV side. Omicron is still surging in its infection arch, and while much less dangerous than Delta was when it was the dominant mutation everyone is sick and tired of being sick and tired… and quarantined for 5, 10, 14, X*Y/3Z number of days.
Remote work is great, but certain things need the office and the shop floors up and operating. Period.
So I don’t blame companies for making the call to not take the disruption. Can’t blame them for pulling back to skeleton crews and setting it up so that they can control the disruption as much as possible, especially if their teams do catch something, Omicron or otherwise. Based upon quarantine alone, the time sink for SHOT is doubled from years past. There is nothing NSSF or anyone else can do to change that, the CDC and the states are the ones doing the driving.
I’m hoping we see the show. I’m hoping the vendors get the turnout and we see business starting to flow back forward in a more normal fashion. But the long and the short of it is until we’re through the door, it isn’t known.
