Europe’s IWA Outdoor Trade Show Postponed over Coronavirus Fears (UPDATE: New dates announced)

In view of the increasing spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and taking into account the principles for risk assessment of major events adopted by the crisis management group of the German government and the current recommendation of the Bavarian State Government for international exhibitions, NürnbergMesse has decided to postpone

IWA OutdoorClassics 2020 to Thursday, 3 September until Sunday, 6 September 2020.

For the planning reliability of all exhibitors, visitors, partners and media: IWA OutdoorClassics will continue to take place in the period at the beginning of September in the following years, and no longer in the previous period at the beginning / middle of March.

EnforceTac / U.T.SEC 2020 will take place Tuesday, September 1 and Wednesday, September 2, 2020.

(via The Firearm Blog)


ORIGINAL POST:

News broke this morning that the IWA Outdoor Trade Fair is being postponed over Coronavirus fears. The announcement states that they plan to reschedule this year on a date to be determined.

From Fieldsportschannel.tv:

The gun trade was just about to start its ‘build-up’ in the Messe at Nuremberg. IWA officials are believed to have met a delegation from the German ministry of health yesterday (26 February 2020) to dscuss the rapid spread of Covid-19, the coronavirus that originated in China.

IWA informed exhibitors: ‘NürnbergMesse has decided to postpone IWA OutdoorClassics 2020 from the planned date of 6-9 March 2020 to a date in 2020, which has yet to be specified.’

It is hard to overstate just how big of a deal this is. While not quite as significant as SHOT Show, it is the closest thing the rest of the world has. The show was supposed to start in just over a week.  According to the NSSF, the SHOT contributes $88 million to the Las Vegas economy, so this will be a substantial hit to Nuremberg. Perhaps even more so to small vendors who may have non-refundable tickets and hotel bookings, and may have even gone all-in on their biggest opportunity to pitch their product(s). For some it could be absolutely devastating on the micro-economic level. Even if the show is rescheduled as planned, it may be too late for some, and will certainly not be the same show if it had gone off as usual.

This might not be the last domino to fall. There is already scuttlebutt among my media colleagues that May’s NRA Show in Nashville may be considering the same thing.

For those not familiar with the IWA Show, Knife Magazine writer Jim Phillips went to last year’s show, and chronicled his experience in our June 2019 issue.

Click the Blue Box to launch the flipbook.

IWA Show 2019


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