Beaverton, OR – “We certainly ended on a high note”, said Bill O’Loughlin, President of O’Loughlin Trade Shows and producer of the Washington Sportsmen’s Show, Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show and Central Oregon Sportsmen’s Show. “Consumer purchases at our shows were brisk as record sales were posted for hundreds of our exhibitors. And the last show of the season, The Central Oregon Sportsmen’s Show, saw record attendance and show inventories drained thanks to unprecedented purchasing.”
“We didn’t know what to expect this year. We were one of the few that produced shows of any kind in 2021 and those we produced performed well. We entered the 2022 show season with other show producers cancelling their events and some strong headwinds with COVID cases spiking in the Pacific Northwest. Thankfully, we were able to manage all of it with strong exhibitor space sales, a relentless advertising and promotions campaign and we targeted younger attendees that showed in numbers we haven’t seen in decades.”
John McOmie of McOmie’s Custom Lures shared, “the Washington Sportsmen’s Show was my best show ever. We brought the right product for the market and it sold at a record pace.” Wendy Herrera of Gorge Outfitters Supply said, “Portland (Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show) was amazing…we crushed it.”
Dozens more exhibitors had similar stories of record sales from this year’s shows which appeared to cut across all categories. Camping, fishing, hunting, boating, RV’s, ATV’s and UTV’s, artwork, apparel, outfitters and guides, destinations, food products, everything seemed to be in high demand.
“We were very fortunate to buck the national trends which saw several sportsmen’s shows severely down in attendance. Our Washington Show was our most difficult but it performed exceptionally well even with the challenging state mandates we had to follow for COVID. Those mandates meant attendees had to either show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test within 72 hours of attending AND they were required to wear masks. Needless to say, that created some real obstacles for our show but thankfully we were able to pull it off and our exhibitors did very well”, O’Loughlin said.
“We had several takeaways from this year’s events. We tried a lot of new things at our shows that worked and that we can continue to expand on, like our new evening events that drew younger crowds. We had a few large manufacturers sit out this year and we filled those spots with new smaller manufacturers and retailers which helped the show look and feel different. They will all be back in 2023. Producing the shows we did in 2021 really gave us a leg up and some momentum coming into 2022. This year’s shows proved to us there’s a real appetite for our style of events and that even with COVID we haven’t lost a step. And finally, we’re keenly aware of the fact that in this business you need to continually evolve your events to keep them relevant and productive…and we’re doing that.”
“Our planning and sales for next year’s show has already started. We’re grateful for the demand in exhibitor space coming out of these shows and we have dozens of ideas we’ll be working on this spring and summer. Given the progress we made this year, 2023 is going to be exceptional.”
Show dates for 2023 have been set.
- Washington Sportsmen’s Show – February 1-5, 2023
- Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show – February 15-19, 2023
- Central Oregon Sportsmen’s Show – March 9-12, 2023
For information on the Sportsmen’s Shows visit TheSportShows.com.
O’Loughlin Trade Shows has been producing trade and consumer shows since 1940 and is based in Beaverton, Oregon. O’Loughlin Trade Shows currently produces 8 events including: The Portland Fall Van & RV Show, Tacoma Fall RV Show, Portland Holiday Market, Portland Boat Show, Tacoma RV Show, Washington Sportsmen’s Show, Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show and Central Oregon Sportsmen’s Show.
