INSIGHT NEWSLETTER- JANUARY 2009

Trade Show Preview: All Roads Lead to Indianapolis

Indianapolis stands ready to welcome the ATA Trade Show for its January 8-10 run at the Indiana Convention Center. This marks the sixth time in the past nine years that Indy is hosting the show.

As Cindy Brophy, the ATA Trade Show's director said last year, Indianapolis has become "the heart and backbone of the archery and bowhunting world." That's because ATA research found that at least 40 percent of the archery industry's retailers live within a 400-mile radius of the Interstate 70 corridor between Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, the site of the 2010 ATA Trade Show.

Maybe it's no coincidence that Indianapolis is at the center of archery's retailing network. The city was established in 1820 by the U.S. Congress to be the geographic center of the new state of Indiana. Congress picked the site to take advantage of the nation's westward expansion. Indianapolis proper is now home to about 790,000 people. When the surrounding metro area is included, its population exceeds 1.6 million.

The city's name combines "Indiana" with the Greek word "polis," which means city. Soon after receiving statehood, Indiana's Legislature hired Alexander Raltson -- who helped lay out the District of Columbia -- to design Indianapolis. He modeled it on the nation's capital, sending four broad avenues branching out to the north, south, east and west from the city's central circle.

Unlike most major cities worldwide, Indianapolis does not lie along a major river or other navigable waters. The country's original national highway ran through its center in 1831, and the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad arrived in 1847. Seven more rail lines soon intersected the Indianapolis to give its citizens and businesses access to the Ohio River.

Indy's Downtown

Indy's central location isn't its only attribute, of course. The approximately 8,000 to 9,000 retailers, manufacturers, distributors and media who attend the ATA Trade Show enjoy the city's downtown area. This includes safe, easy access to nearly 75 restaurants, grills and pubs; as well as stores, shops and shopping mall. Whether you're looking for a quick meal at a food mart, or a sit-down meal at landmark restaurants like the St. Elmo Steak House, you're always within easy walking distance of the Convention Center.

For detailed lists and coded maps showing where to eat, where to stay and what to see in downtown Indianapolis, Click Here

In addition to its many historical sites, theaters and museums, downtown Indianapolis is also home to a variety of stores and specialty shops. Even if you've attended every archery trade show ever held in Indianapolis, it's impossible to visit all of its shops and stores. Whether you're looking for artwork, jewelry, thrift clothing or old albums and 45s, you'll be amazed by what you'll find in nearby stores.

If you're seeking good, specific suggestions for specialty shops, check out this article from a recent issue of USA Today:

http://destinations.usatoday.com/indianapolis/shopping/

Attractions

Along with Indianapolis' wide variety of stores and restaurants, it's also home to an impressive zoo, Indiana's state capitol building, professional sports teams like the Colts and Pacers, and international sporting events like the Indianapolis 500. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is open to visitors year-round, and the NCAA Hall of Champions is open Tuesday through Sunday.

For more ideas on interesting places to visit, read this article from a recent issue of USA Today:

http://destinations.usatoday.com/indianapolis/attractions/

Convention Center or Bust!

As usual, the ATA Trade Show will be held in the Indiana Convention Center, which has grown steadily through additions and remodeling projects since 2000. The convention center now covers more than 300,000 square feet of exhibit space and more than 108,000 square feet of meeting rooms. It will grow even larger when it expands into the area that once housed the RCA Dome, which was demolished December 20 when 875 charges brought down the 24-year-old facility's upper floors in about 25 seconds. Its fabric roof was deflated and removed in September.

The RCA Dome was the longtime home of the Indianapolis Colts, who now play down the street inside the Lucas Oil Stadium. The city continues to innovate and renovate as it provides a cosmopolitan blend of arts, education, culture and sports, not only for its residents, but also its visitors. When combined with its central location for the industry's archery retailers, most of whom prefer to drive to the ATA Trade Show, Indianapolis continually demonstrates why it remains such a popular city for archery's big event.

With the show set to open in just a few days, the ATA is looking forward to another successful, impressive three-day exhibit. Cindy Brophy reports that 445 exhibitors have signed up for the show, and they've rented nearly 150,000 square feet of booth space. In addition, more than 2,500 retailers, buyers and distributors have already pre-registered to attend.

We look forward to seeing you in Indy!

It's Africa or Bust at This Year's Great Giveaway!

The Great Giveaway is your rare and unmatched chance to win an African hunt valued at $35,000 thanks to the hunt's sponsors - Wild Game Safaris and Doc's Deer Scents.

The lucky winner will join Kara and Keith "Doc" Ainsley of Doc's Deer Scents/Team Extreme in Africa for an eight-day, 10-species hunt with Wild Game Safaris. The list of huntable big-game animals includes duiker, blesbuck, impala, warthog, blue wildebeest, gemsbuck, bushbuck, busgpig, kudu and waterbuck.

This hunt includes not only travel and taxidermy work, but also all shipping costs for your trophies, which is one of the most expensive items on such hunts. That's reason enough for some people to pack their bags and head to Indy for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Your opportunity to win a life-changing prize keep increasing as sponsors and manufacturers continue donating expensive, high-quality prizes for the greatest of the ATA Great Giveaways at the ATA Trade Show in Indianapolis next week.

The event - sponsored by the Archery Trade Association and The Sportsman Channel -- takes place Friday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Sagamore Ballroom at the Indiana Convention Center. The prize list now exceeds $165,000 in cash, prizes and heart-stopping hunts.

A long list of other great prizes, including dealer dream hunts, will also be given away. Event emcees for the Great Giveaway will be ATA Board Chair Peter Crawford of G5 Outdoors and Board Vice-Chair Paul Vaicunas of Parker Compound Bows.

Keri Collett, the ATA's director of operations and the Great Giveaway's coordinator, said Doc's Deer Scents has also donated an $8,400 Little Guy Trailer to the growing list of prizes. Other recent additions include a $12,000 Lone-Wolf edition Bad Boy Buggy, and a 20-by-20 booth in a prime location at the 2010 ATA Trade Show in Columbus, Ohio.

Why does the Great Giveaway prize list get longer each day? "People realize this is a fun way to get great exposure for their products on a memorable platform in front of thousands of people," Collett said. "It's difficult to find that kind of advertising value with a captive audience anywhere else."

Among the Great Giveaway's other great values is the chance to buy beer tickets for $2 each instead of the usual $5 price. The ATA is selling 3,200 of the $2 beer tickets first-come, first-served at the show's registration desk and the ATA booth on the show floor.

The doors to the Sagamore Ballroom open at 6 p.m., and the Great Giveaway will begin at 7 p.m. After the Great Giveaway ends, the audience will be entertained by country-music artist Bobby Kendall, whose appearance is sponsored by Mike Walston of Lone Wolf Treestands. Soon after, country star Blake Shelton will take the stage for a solo acoustic performance, courtesy of G5 Outdoors, Quest Bows, Parker Compound Bows, Next Camo and FLX Digital.

All retailer/buyer locations will receive one free ticket for up to four badged attendees. The dealer ticket also provides one entry stub for "dealer only" drawings of dealer dream hunts and other great prizes. However, the dealer ticket is not eligible for the $35,000 African Hunt. Dealers must purchase a general-entry ticket to enter that drawing.

Should You Stay or Should You Go?

Get a Feel for the Show

It's the 2009 ATA Trade Show. Should you stay or should you go? Take a look at this video on the ATA home page and find out for yourself.

(video no longer available)

You'll discover why this event is the largest of its kind in the archery and bowhunting industry. If you've already registered to attend, get a feel for what you'll see in Indy this year. Safe travels and we'll see you soon!

Bowhunting Summit 2008 Wrap-up

ATA Summit Reveals Growth, Promotes Optimism

PHOENIX - ATA Summit attendees - nearly 90 representatives from federal and state agencies, archery and bowhunting organizations and the industry - documented progress in recruiting and retaining new archers and bowhunters and in developing shooting facilities and bowhunting opportunities.

"The Summit meeting is valuable because it qualifies money spent," said Ben Summers, Director of Operations for T.R.U. Ball Release Products and an ATA Board Member. "When I can see stats and true accounts of the progress made throughout our country to boost archery and bowhunter numbers, that makes me feel good about the growth of our industry and ultimately my business."

The group gathered in Phoenix, Ariz. for the 6th annual ATA Archery and Bowhunting Summit on Dec. 9-11. Fresh, new leadership such as USA Archery's acting CEO and former Olympian Denise Parker energized the event's sessions and forums. Along with state agency representatives, 17 non-profit organizations were on hand to report achievements in additional programs involving youth activities, archery events and education.

"During this meeting, it's the one time of the year when you get to see all the progress made at one time, in one place," said Michelle Doerr, the ATA's Director of Archery and Bowhunting Programs and the Summit coordinator. "When you throw it all together in review, it's really cool how much the ball has been moved forward and to see how much the state agencies and organizations are doing to add to this progress."

Archery and bowhunting data and information provided at the Summit, including the continually increasing number of students reached through the National Archery in the Schools Program, will be made available on the ATA Web site later this year. A complete Summit wrap-up will also be featured soon in ArrowTrade, a business magazine covering archery and bowhunting's retailers, manufacturers and equipment. http://www.arrowtrademagazine.com/

"These are tough economic times, but I wish everyone in our industry could have seen and heard the great news at the Summit," said ATA CEO/President Jay McAninch. "Over the last several years, we've seen more state agencies increasing staff time and funding to NASP, Community Archery Programs, bowhunting-mentoring efforts, and other outdoor skill programs. I'm stunned to see the funding - much more than just the FET dollars - some states are putting into archery shooting facilities. When you couple that with the major contributions coming annually from the Easton Sports Development Foundation, the future looks bright. These commitments were not being made even a few years ago. If the industry can get behind these efforts, we can make substantial changes in archery and bowhunting the next few years."

Each year the Summit fulfills a vital need: gathering those who are committed to working cooperatively and in a coordinated fashion to grow archery and bowhunting. This year, much like previous years, the Summit revealed great progress in building on existing programs, thanks to ongoing efforts and accomplishments that make archery a recreational activity available to all Americans.

For more information about the Summit, please contact Michelle Doerr at (320) 562-2680

Learn from the Best: Olympic Coach Kisik Lee

If you want to learn shooting tips from the country's top archery instructor, make time to see Olympic Coach Kisik Lee of Team USA next week during his seminar at the ATA Trade Show in Indianapolis.

Coach Lee's seminar, "The KSL Shot Cycle," is sponsored by Easton and scheduled for Friday at 1:30 p.m. in Room 208. Coach Lee will explain how and why his teaching methods consistently win medals. He will demonstrate the proper bio-mechanical techniques for winning archery, including body position, body movement and back tension. Attendees can improve their own competitive performance, and take home Coach Lee's techniques to help their customers become better archers.

Be sure to arrive early, because Coach Lee's seminars fill up fast. When he last presented an ATA seminar at the 2007 Trade Show in Atlanta, he drew the largest crowd of the three-day seminar series.

Coach Lee's headlining seminar is just one of a record 44 seminars scheduled for this year's show. To ensure attendees don't miss the top seminars, this year's lineup includes several encore presentations by the most popular presenters. Some speakers will present their seminars twice and even three times. Therefore, even though there are 44 seminars, there will be only 20 different presentations.

Most seminars begin at 7:30 a.m. each day of the show, with a continental breakfast served at 7 a.m. The schedule also includes eight seminars at noon Saturday and one seminar at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

To see the entire seminar lineup, go to www.archerytrade.org/tradeshow09/index.html, and download the "2009 Tradeshow Seminar Series Information" pdf file.