Trade show “silly season” is upon us. Many of you reading this have already taken part in a whole host of trade show activities and you’ve been traveling like mad as the 2020 sales season gets into full swing. I wish I could alleviate that pain for you all, but it won’t get much better until after IWA in March, and then only just a slight reprieve before we’ll be back at it for the annual NRA event in April. As I’m writing this, and surely as you read this, many of you are putting the final touches on your 2020 Shot Show preparations.

As you do that, I want to take just a moment to wish you all a Happy New Year! I know a number of you, who had a difficult year last year, would prefer to never think of 2019 again. So, let’s all resolve to make 2020 a fantastic year in our industry and put 2019 into the dustbin of history.

As we get set to see you all in Las Vegas next week, the NASGW is feverishly planning to get to work on a great year as well. We’ll be hosting an NASGW Futures Taskforce gathering for our distributors, as they come together to consider new and innovative ways to enhance and expand the 2-step distribution channel. It’s the next step in a process the wholesalers began last summer. We’re excited about many of the ideas they’ll be tackling, and we hope that by the time we gather in Texas for this year’s NASGW Expo, we’ll be able to share with you some great plans for the future.

We’ve also got a very special data-related announcement planned during Shot Show week as well. In cooperation with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), we will be kicking off the next level of our efforts to bring meaningful, actionable and informative data to the industry. NASGW’s SCOPE™ program is taking the next step and the entire industry stands to benefit. If you are interested to connecting with Easton at Shot Show to chat data in 2020, you can schedule a meeting by emailing him at scope@nasgw.org. We’ll have a lot more information for you on that announcement in future editions of the InSight newsletter as well. 2020 is shaping up to be a tremendous growth year for us.

In a recent meeting, the phrase “everyone wants progress, but no one wants to change” came up in our conversations. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a more appropriate way to describe the idea of using data in our day-to-day business lives. The whole concept of reviewing, interpreting and then acting on data is intriguing to many individuals and companies. But the thought of actually enacting a culture or business process that includes important data, is daunting.

Fortunately, we’re not the first industry to have embraced the use of data and we’ve been able to learn from many others who’ve discovered the incredible power and benefit of using tremendous amounts of valuable information to drive business decisions. That was the impetus of our SCOPE™ initiative and it’s the same philosophy driving our newest evolutions as we continue to bring clarity to the use of data for business decisions.

Until then, I hope you all have a fantastic 2020. Safe travels. I’ll see you next week in Las Vegas for one of the nation’s largest annual tradeshows… Shot Show 2020!

See you in Vegas,

Kenyon Gleason
NASGW President