Game Fair Shooting Village Offers Hand-on Opportunities

The Shooting Village at Safari Club International Foundation and Quail Unlimited’s EPIC Outdoor Game Fair will offer unique and broad hands-on opportunities for Game Fair participants. Headlined by Shooting Sportsman Magazine, Beretta, Laser Shot and John Rigby & Co, the shooting sports program will fulfill every aspect of the event’s goal to foster Education, Participation, Instruction, and Competition. The EPIC Outdoor Game Fair will run from September 23-25, 2011 at the Foxhall Resort & Sporting Club outside of Atlanta, GA.

Legendary shotgunner and sporting clays course designer, Marty Fischer, is helping to organize the shooting components of EPIC Outdoor Game Fair and is designing the new, 15-station championship sporting clays course at Foxhall. The shooting village will cater to every level of shooting sports enthusiasts. From complete novices who will receive an introduction to the shooting sports from some of the top shotgun instructors, to experts looking to shoot a Marty Fischer course, to gun collectors and wingshooters searching for unique shooting opportunities, this event will have it.

“The course that I’m designing at Foxhall will truly be first class and will be one of the finest courses in the country – and I’ve built a bunch of them,” Fischer stated. “With this course, the Beretta 5-Stand and Wobble Trap areas and the Laser Shot simulators, as well as the unique capability to test fine guns that will be available in the Shooting Sportsman Fine Guns and Wing Shooting Pavilion, we are creating one of the most comprehensive shooting areas open to the public at any sportsmen’s show.”

Equally enthusiastic is Shooting Sportsman magazine that will headline the Fine Guns and Wing Shooting Pavilion within the shooting village. Featured within that Pavilion will be some of the top fine gun manufacturers, including John Rigby & Co., as well as wing shooting lodges from around the world. Associate Publisher, Terry Bombeke, says that the ability to work with such well-established groups as SCIF and QU were his draw to taking a lead role on the event.

“Our goal was to consolidate the wing shooting and fine gun area so that all of these companies can exhibit together in one defined space featuring the best in guns and wing shooting opportunities around the world,” Bombeke commented. “We believe that combining our brand, that brings a readership of over 60,000, with the broad memberships of SCI and QU, will make EPIC Outdoor Game Fair a one-of-a-kind, must-attend event.”
“The EPIC Outdoor Game Fair’s goal of introducing the next generation to sporting traditions, and ensuring our future in the outdoors, is important. Rigby fully supports the new EPIC concept, and we’ve been pleased to be able to watch this idea develop and be put into action,” said John Reed, President of Rigby Ventures. “The Game Fair is designed to add new dimensions of participation to sports shows, where attendees can touch, feel, and even use a variety of sporting products instead of just seeing them on the store shelf. We are pleased to be able to bring a little ‘Rigby Tradition’ to this fine event.”

Although Game Fair participants will be allowed to bring in their own, cased guns to shoot the courses, Beretta U.S.A. will be providing shotguns at the wobble trap and 5-stand areas for those who would like to try something different. In addition, Beretta will be featuring its Trident Program that rates lodges around their world for their sporting amenities by bringing in some of its accredited lodges to exhibit at the event.

“Beretta is excited to be a part of the EPIC Game Fair and continue its partnership with SCIF,” said Carlton Nether, Shoots and Events Manager for Beretta USA. “We look forward to making this one of our premier events every year.”

Beyond traditional shotgunning opportunities will be a simulator area, sponsored by Laser Shot, Inc., where Game Fair attendees will have the chance to virtually “hunt” on some of the most challenging (and basic!) computer simulations. Laser Shot is renowned for its hunter education as well as military and tactical training simulators.

“Laser Shot is excited about the opportunity to participate in the Epic Outdoor Game Fair Event with SCIF and QU as a sponsor showcasing new laser detection technology and games,” concluded Alan Winslette, Laser Shot Vice-President & COO.

More information about the event and sponsor opportunities is available on the EPIC Game Fair website, www.epicgamefair.org or our blog, epicgamefairblog.org.

Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that funds and manages worldwide programs dedicated to wildlife conservation, outdoor education, and humanitarian services. Since 2000, SCIF has provided $47 million to these causes around the world. Visit www.safariclubfoundation.org for more.

Quail Unlimited® is the oldest national, nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to the management of America’s wild quail. Known as “America’s Leader In Quail Conservation SM,” our overall vision is to restore America’s quail populations for future generations. Our core values include the wise stewardship of our land and its resources, and the continuation of our proud heritage of conservation, therefore, leaving a legacy and firm foundation for our youth and families to build upon. Visit www.qu.org.

What Are We Doing Here?

I was lucky in my draw of genes. As is typical of her family, my mother has only a few grey hairs at an age when most people have more salt than pepper.  She has fewer wrinkles than most of my friends from high school, and it certainly wasn’t from living a cushy life. So if being in the shooting industry for 25 years and owning a PR business for 20 hasn’t given me grey hair and too many wrinkles, what have I gotten out of it?  Well, I ache in a few places I didn’t know I had when I started, and, oh yes — I’ve learned a few things about how this complex relationship between manufacturers and the press works. Or how it ought to. 

I’m not one of those PR people who think outdoor writers have their hands out for “free stuff.” On the contrary, most of the writers I know have more “stuff” than they have room in which to store it. I’ve always considered it a privilege to help writers and editors with their projects, and that’s what my PR philosophy centers around: I want to help you do your job. Sometimes that takes the form of overnighting products to you, writing copy that will exactly fit your 7¼-inch sidebar, or creating a makeshift studio on my credenza or fence post to quickly set up exactly the photo you need. It’s my job and my pleasure.

But times have changed. In the same way that digital photography, email, and the internet have changed the manner and speed with which we can fill your editorial needs, they have changed your jobs. Your editors have different expectations of you. You have more competition among other writers, photographers, and editors. A tight economy means magazines are closing or getting thinner, dropping writers, paying less for your work, or requiring greater rights for what they’re paying.

I’ve made a genuine effort over the years to stay abreast of trends so I could service my accounts and help writers in the way they need to work — but at the same time, to bring them along to new ideas and new and better ways of working. In the 1980s, I insisted that many writers buy fax machines so we could improve our communications. In the 1990s, I walked writers through the process of setting up email accounts, sending and receiving attachments, and other activities you now do with your eyes closed. Now I consider myself a social media evangelist bent on bringing outdoor writers and organizations online and in real-time communication with their readers, customers, and colleagues.

So that’s what we’re doing here. I want to help you do your job; in some cases, just to help you see things through another set of eyes, and in other cases, to give you ideas of new ways to do your job easier, better, and more competitively. How can I help you?