Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Denver Fly Fishing Show & ISE International Sportsman Expo is Here!

What's Your Pleasure?
Fly Fishing Shows RecapLink


Happy New Year to all my fishing addicts out there and I hope you enjoyed the Holidays either dreaming of fly fishing, or better yet, entertaining oneself hopefully out on the water.

It's that time of year again when the weather turns cold, snow is falling and thoughts of a much needed escape soon takes over. Most are back to work this week and I can only imagine how much work is getting done, or lack of that is and computer screens are suddenly filled with Fly fishing videos as well as upcoming Fly Fishing shows to attend.

January kicks off Colorado's season for Fly Fishing shows and it couldn't have come any sooner! Just the thought of spending my weekends stuck inside working, outside shoveling snow or down in my man cave fly fishing room cleaning up has me excited to attend anything fly fishing related.

One problem that keeps showing its ugly head, and yes it's an ugly one is The Fact that we have two shows the exact same weekend to attend. Most fisherman and addicts would only be too happy to have this late Christmas present arrive, myself not so fast! I've been fortunate over the years to have worked at both shows but still prefer the The Fly Fishing Show hands down.

When is it ever a good thing to have two fly fishing shows compete with one another especially the Powerhouse of the ISE to make their 2nd annual show the same time as the Industry's favorite "The Fly Fishing Show?" Now this I'm sure will be a topic worth discussing for quite some time and I'm all for it, but when I'm friend's with the guy who has been putting together the Denver Fly Fishing Show (also the MA/NJ/PA/NC and California shows) this is never a good thing. I have noticed a bailout of sorts with companies, speakers and attendees which will only get worse if this continues. Last year it was not a good site to see the show less crowded compared to years before and also the vendors who normally attend with great regards, found themselves making a difficult decision to go with the ISE. I do not fault the vendors or companies at all, you have to go where the business is so it's just the organizers of the ISE I have a problem with. I fault the ISE for once again trying to shove out the Fly Fishing Show for their own personal gains and to dominate an open Industry that needs all that it can get to survive.

If you want to attend the ISE International Sportsman Show that's cool and I will be there as well (one of my 3 days split between the 2 shows) and I'm looking forward to it. I have many friends speaking and attending this great show as well; I just do not agree with the way this was scheduled and hope that they are able to change things next year, as was told to me last year due to a ski show conflict, this year not so much.

One thing is for certain, you can get your fill at either show and if you're lucky enough, attend both shows and support both causes.

Denver Fly Fishing Show
Friday-Sunday January 7-9th
Merchandise Mart
9am-5:30pm each day

ISE Show Denver
Thursday-Sunday January 6-9th
Colorado Convention Center
Thursday Noon to 9:00 pm
Friday, Noon to 9:00 pm
Saturday, 10:00 am to 8:00 pm
Sunday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm


More Great Fly Fishing Show Links


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FTOTHEA

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Well this is just silly. Why schedule both of these for the same weekend? There are plenty of cold weekends left, and attendance would ultimately be better for both shows if they were on different weekends. I for one would love to go to one of these, but can't this weekend. Unfortunately bad scheduling on their part leaves people out.
Two weekends = more exposure = good thing.

-stephanie

Troutdawg said...

Yeah I couldn't agree more with you. It just makes common sense really, schedule on a different weekend and get more people, why compete with one another? Sorry you can't make it this year, I'll do a recap of the shows and hopefully it will be another good showing!

ISEguy said...

Folks--As one of the organizers of ISE Denver, and the guy whose title is Director of Communications, let me set straight a BIG error in this blogger's statement. ISE DID NOT CHOOSE the conflicting dates--the Colorado Convention Center (CCC) did, forcing us to the only open dates in January. Chuck can have the first weekend for his conclave. Why? So close after the holidays I know my wallet is thinner! Is yours? ISE is in business to promote our exhibitors--to make them successful. If they don't do well, we go out of business! We'd prefer dates later in January and are trying to get the CCC to put us there. Please don't make us into bad guys. Chuck's conclave is a nice one, but we're not in the same category, really. If you'd like to contact me, email to info@SportsExpos.com

Troutdawg said...

Thanks for your Post and explanation as to the ISE scheduling. As you can imagine this topic hasn't gone over well. With the Fly Fishing show loosing many vendors and speakers to the ISE it's tough to see. Most of the Fly Fishing companies I spoke with also noticed a decrease in interest from their target markets. Now I know both shows have much to offer and do great for the sport, it's just a simple question of what can we do to showcase these two great shows two different weekends? I guess we'll just have to wait till next year to see...Thanks for posting your side of the story