Life in a Shrinking Fly Fishing Market: The Trade Show Wars Begin

There’s nothing like a stagnant (or shrinking) market to bring out knives (and the spears, and the teeth).

Fly fishing is just such a market, and already, the national trade association has started to eat its own:

The American Fly Fishing Trade Association announced last week it will launch The Fly Fishing Expo at the Colorado Convention Center on Jan. 4-6, the exact same dates that an exiting event, The Fly Fishing Show, is scheduled at the Denver Merchandise Mart. The latter affair has been held at that location since 2001.

Ha! There’s no greater feeling in business than having the national trade organization target you for termination, and later in the Denver Post article, the war of words heats up:

The announcement produced an immediate protest from Chuck Furimsky, a partner in a Pennsylvania-based firm that produces 11 versions of The Fly Fishing Show nationwide.

“They targeted me without a doubt to blow me out of the water,” Furimsky said. “But it’s not going to destroy me. The public still will come to my show, but it will cause me to lose certain customers who get confused.”

Furimsky promised to stand firm with his event and threatened to form a trade show to compete with the September AFFTA expo.

Can’t you just feel the love?

As a Certified, Card-Carrying Industry Outsider, I can’t speak with any certainty as to what’s really going on, but rest assured, there’s plenty of fighting to come over this one — and damnit, we’ll be there, snark gun at the ready.

See you at the trade show wars, Tom Chandler.

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