Yesterday, the National Shooting Sports Foundation sent me a sobering message: “Fifteen Days Until SHOT.”
That’s horrifying news. As is the news that scammers are still with us. Yesterday, I told the fifth or sixth sales person that I wasn’t interested in buying a complete list of SHOT Show attendees. I explained that was “because I knew NSSF didn’t sell, rent, or share that list.”
For the fifth (or sixth) time, I got the identical response. They hung up.
Before you get to Las Vegas is the best time to address the topic of scammers.
Whenever there’s a trade show, there are scammers.
They’re working to get your personal and financial information by offering everything from deep discounts on hotels to “complete lists” of attendees, exhibitors or anything else imaginable.
If you’re new to SHOT, ATA, or any of the mass of trade shows, here’s a piece of advice: if you get an offer of a great deal that doesn’t come from the same people who host/own the show, it’s likely not legit.
Reputable trade organizations gaurd their exhibitor lists like Queen Elizabeth’s reputation.
Here, courtesy of NSSF’s Chris Dolnack -the guy in charge of SHOT Show, is the straight skinny on what’s reputable versus the shady:
Anyone else trying to offer you something should be looked at cautiously.
FYI, no one in authority asked that we offer this unsolicited advice, but one of our goals for January is to come through “show season” without a single report of someone being scammed.
OK, I’m not including the rates for food and beverage, daily “use fees” charged by the hotels and casinos or the “usual” Las Vegas robberies.
No one escapes those.
One of my former associates is in Las Vegas this week for CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show). He’s one of those guys whose job is similar to mine -trendspotting. We wander trade show floors, looking for things that are on their way to becoming “things” in the minds of consumers. You learn to judge “things” by the crowds pushing and shoving to get looks at them, eavesdropping on conversations, or simply asking anyone who’s willing to talk “so, what are you seeing?”
His description of the “things” drawing the most traffic at CES are almost unimaginable.
Hot topics at CES 2020 don’t include Samsung, LG, Sony or “traditional” electronics. 2020’s trends are consumer packaged goods. Things made by companies with names like Impossible Foods, L’Oreal, Neutrogena or Procter & Gamble.
His personal favorite at this point? A mini-robot that will bring you Charmin toilet paper when you’re “in a situation.”
I’m not making this up. And they’re not taking orders -yet.
L’Oreal is offering a device called the Perso- an AI-powered device (buzz phrase) that uses your phone’s camera and your geo-data location to access “local environmental conditions that can impact your skin.”
You add-in your “personal concerns” and the device takes all that data, melds it into an analytic metric, then - viola- dispenses a personal blend of product in a single dose out the top of the device.
He sent me a picture -the Perso looks like an insulated aluminum coffee mug.
Somehow, I’m not seeing the Perso as a top performer at SHOT, ATA or the NRA Show.
But the Charmin robot might be just the ticket for the hunting camp that thought it had everything.
We’ll keep you posted.
—Jim Shepherd