SHOT Show Exhibitor Guide 2027

Updated September 7, 2026.

Your SHOT Show booth has to let buyers examine products while your team keeps the display organized and secure. The decisions start before a designer draws the first counter: which exhibit space you have, which products you will bring, and how those products can be displayed.

This SHOT Show exhibitor guide helps you turn those decisions into a workable 2027 plan. It covers the official new-exhibitor fees, venue-specific service orders, product-display preparations and dates that affect when your booth can be built and delivered.

If Your Booth Is Confirmed, Do These Five Things Next

1. Confirm the building, hall and booth number in your space assignment.
2. Select the products buyers will handle and decide where spare display samples will be stored.
3. Ask your designer whether your booth needs Exhibit Design Notification.
4. Assign responsibility for ordering electrical service, booking freight and completing exhibitor-appointed contractor (EAC) paperwork.
5. Complete or update your Buyers Guide listing by September 25, 2026, as listed in the Venetian checklist and Caesars Forum checklist.

SHOT Show 2027 Dates and Exhibitor Eligibility

SHOT Show runs January 19–22, 2027, at The Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. The published exhibit hours are 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Friday, local time. These are buyer-facing exhibition hours; your setup and dismantling schedule is separate. See the 2027 exhibitor prospectus.

The show serves the shooting, hunting and outdoor trade, including commercial buyers of law-enforcement and tactical products. It is closed to the general public, and show management must approve exhibitors. A product’s connection to outdoor recreation alone is not enough to settle whether the show is a good commercial fit: identify the dealers or other professional buyers you need to reach before committing to the space. The official policies explain the admission boundary.

New applicants should use the 2027 exhibitor inquiry page. Space assignment follows application, company approval and the required deposit. While placement is pending, develop a layout that can be adjusted; hold off on fabricating walls that depend on an unconfirmed footprint or aisle opening.

If You Sell to Manufacturers Rather Than Dealers

A company supplying components, materials or manufacturing services should also examine SHOT Week’s Supplier Showcase. Its customer is the manufacturer sourcing inputs, so it serves a different conversation from a finished-product brand meeting dealers.

The organizer currently lists the January 18–19, 2027 Supplier Showcase as sold out and advertises Supplier Showcase Reloaded for January 20–21. Check current availability before planning around either option. These programs have their own packages and schedules; the main-show planning details below should not be applied to them automatically. Both options appear on the new-exhibitor inquiry page.

SHOT Show Booth Costs for New Exhibitors

The published 2027 new-exhibitor offer lists $43 per square foot, $1,000 per corner, and a $1,995 New Exhibitor Package. Member discounts depend on membership category and eligibility. Ask show sales to confirm your discount and corner charge in the agreement before payment; an existing exhibitor should use its own renewal terms. The example below uses the published 2027 new-exhibitor offer.

For an illustrative 10×20-foot space with no charged corner and no membership discount, the published charges calculate as follows:

This example does not establish space availability. It also leaves your booth itself, freight and onsite services to be budgeted. A corner merits the extra spend when the second opening gives buyers a useful approach to the display; filling that opening with a tall cabinet would undermine the reason for buying it.

The New Exhibitor Package includes mobile-app lead retrieval, a New Product Center entry and marketing benefits, as described in the 2027 prospectus. Review those entitlements before ordering another lead-capture package. Your team may still need additional access or devices, but that decision should follow a check of what the fee already covers.

Ask your exhibit partner to price the actual display and installation separately from organizer and venue charges. For a product range that needs secure cases, include the cases and their daily handling in that discussion. A lower structure price is of little help if the working display requires substantial additions after approval.

Order Services for Your Assigned Venue

The Exhibitor Resource Center separates forms for The Venetian Expo, Caesars Forum and the supplier programs. Use the 2027 SHOT Show floor plan to locate your assigned space, then put the building, hall and booth number on every drawing and order. That small step helps prevent a correct service request from reaching the wrong venue team.

Electrical orders illustrate why this matters. The Venetian’s ERC entry directs you to the venue’s ordering system; the Caesars Forum entry directs you to Encore. Send the actual equipment power requirements with a floor plan showing where each powered display will sit. A general request for “power in the booth” leaves the installation team to resolve positions onsite. Use the Venetian electrical entry or the Caesars Forum electrical entry.

Keep one order record showing who places each order, who pays it and who checks delivery. For example, if your exhibit company includes screens but the exhibitor must order venue power, both teams need the same equipment list. Record an order confirmation when the service is booked so it cannot be mistaken for a line that was merely discussed in a quote.

An outside installation company uses the exhibitor-appointed contractor, or EAC, process. Ask the contractor to complete the required registration and insurance paperwork, and keep its onsite supervisor’s contact with your show documents. The EAC application page is the appropriate starting point; hiring a contractor does not automatically give its crew access to the floor.

Design the Booth Around Product Handling

A buyer comparing optics needs a different interaction from a dealer reviewing apparel or protective cases. Decide what visitors should physically examine, then make that action easy to supervise. For a counter-based display, leave a place to set down the product and discuss it without blocking the next visitor.

Choose a small set of products for those conversations and keep spare display samples out of the active demonstration area. This is especially useful when one salesperson needs to retrieve a size or variant while another continues the conversation. A storage door opening directly into that working space can interrupt every demonstration, even when the rendering looks tidy.

Give your exhibit partner the product list, handling needs and daily storage plan while the layout is still being developed. Ask the team to walk through a demonstration on the drawing: where the buyer stands, how the salesperson retrieves a sample and whether either person blocks the aisle. Resolve those points before approving fabrication.

Review the Display Rules Before Fabrication

Give your designer the current display and height regulations for the assigned exhibit area. Check the proposed wall heights and any overhead structure against those rules before production. A design accepted at another Las Vegas show still needs to be reviewed for SHOT Show.

The ERC identifies an Exhibit Design Notification for booths of 400 square feet or larger, including a 20×20-foot footprint. Build that submission into the design schedule. A smaller booth still has to comply with the applicable display rules; the notification threshold is not permission to ignore them. See the design-notification entry.

Settle Firearm Display and Overnight Security Early

For exhibitors bringing firearms, SHOT Show requires display firearms to meet its deactivation and safety-inspection rules. Personal firearms and live ammunition are prohibited. Have your product team review the proposed display with the show’s safety staff before shipping; booth construction does not replace that review. Refer to the official show policies and firearm display instructions.

Agree how each display item will be supervised during the day and secured after closing. The organizer describes overnight options that include approved security arrangements and secured storage. Your choice affects the fixtures you need and the staff time required at opening and closing, so it belongs in the design conversation. Confirm the current arrangements through the firearm security program.

Make one person responsible for the inventory handoff. If products leave the booth for secured storage, that person needs to know what was checked in and what must return before the first buyer appointment. Keep room locations and collection instructions in the team’s current show documents so everyone follows the same arrangements.

Key 2027 Preparation Deadlines

The official deadline checklists give you dates for planning backward from the show. The selected entries below were checked on September 7, 2026. Confirm the deadline on the actual service form when placing an order, particularly if your booth assignment changes.

Sources: Venetian deadline checklist and Caesars Forum deadline checklist.

The September listing date gives your marketing team an early task while the booth is still being planned. Confirm the company description and product categories with sales so buyers can recognize what you supply. Later, set internal design and ordering dates ahead of the official deadlines, leaving time to resolve a rejected drawing or an incomplete equipment list.

Schedule Freight and Installation Together

Give the carrier the shipping instructions for your specific exhibit area. Delivery to Las Vegas is only part of the route: onsite material handling moves the shipment through the show’s freight operation to the booth. Keep that service distinct from the carrier’s transport charge when reviewing the budget.

For Venetian exhibitors, the current checklist lists December 15, 2026 as the first advance-warehouse receiving date and January 8, 2027 as the last day for receipt at the standard rate. Confirm the correct address, labels and cargo eligibility with Freeman before dispatch. Those dates refer to the Venetian advance-freight schedule; use the Caesars Forum forms for a booth in that building.

Direct-to-site freight follows an assigned target schedule. Book installation around when freight is expected at the booth, allowing for unloading and delivery through the hall. Starting a crew when the truck reaches the marshalling yard can leave you paying labor while the crew waits for the crates.

Move-in opens in stages by building and hall. Use the Venetian schedule or Caesars Forum schedule together with the target time confirmed for your booth. Do not book the same arrival date for every supplier just because one hall is already open for installation.

Firearm shipments require their own security handling. Follow the organizer’s instructions for separating and labeling them, and agree the receiving handoff with show security. Keep graphics, furniture and other ordinary booth freight out of that security route. The firearm shipping instructions explain the distinction.

Plan the outbound shipment before the show starts. Your supervisor needs the carrier booking and the instructions for releasing packed freight, including any separate firearm-security handoff. The 2027 rules restrict teardown labor access until 5:00 p.m. on January 22, after the 4:00 p.m. show close. Confirm the assigned move-out schedule before booking labor or return travel; the empty containers and crew may not be ready as soon as visitors leave.

Prepare the Staff Who Will Work the Booth

For SHOT Show exhibitor registration, use Staff Registration in the Exhibitor Dashboard and check the allocation for your actual space. The current 2027 table provides seven badges for 200–299 square feet, so a 10×20-foot exhibit falls in that band. Exhibitor and exhibitor-guest registrations share the allocation, and additional badges are listed at $200 each. Each person must collect their own badge. See the 2027 badge and allotment guidance.

Use that allocation to plan useful coverage. Someone must keep the display attended when a colleague leaves for a meeting, and the person handling products needs time for opening and closing checks. Contractor access is handled separately through the EAC process.

Before the show, rehearse a buyer conversation at the actual display. The salesperson should be able to present the selected product, explain the commercial offer and record the buyer’s next request without abandoning the counter. Prepare the wholesale information your team is authorized to discuss, rather than relying on a general brochure to answer specific dealer questions.

For each promising discussion, record the product of interest and the agreed next action alongside the badge data. A contact record becomes much more useful when it explains whether the buyer expects a price list, a product review or a call about distribution. Assign that follow-up to a named salesperson while the conversation is still clear.

Frequently Asked Questions