Denver Fly Fishing Show Homeless Now?
A CLOSE CALL in MAY
According to local news reports, the Denver Mart will be closing the doors this spring.
News reports report the building will be closed no later than May 30, 2021, so that leaves time for the Denver Fly Fishing Show to happen, (April 30-May 2) but there may be a few burned out light bulbs, or cranky escalators. HINT: Avoid elevators and escalators if that’s an option.
My history with that building suggests that a lot more than that will be missing from the building by May. Let’s just say that if you imagine one of the Marts here in Dallas? With all due respect: Denver isn’t that, not even close.
Just about every “mart” related business of the past is reassessing their need and ability to do “shows” in this new era rapidly advanced by COVID-19. My days of going to shows at marts were memorable. What makes them memorable is meeting huge personalities and people who are essentially “peddlers” selling their wares one-on-one, taking orders to give them hope and float for the future. New products were exciting, and shows gave us the first shot at hands-on testing, touching and feeling of those great “newer, better” and “next generation” items we had only read about in magazines so far. Some were duds, and some were hits. That’s how it goes, or how it went.
The fly fishing industry isn’t the only one having their retailing traditions turned on their heads. Of course not.
But, it isn’t very likely an industry, like the fly fishing industry, which was dragged kicking-and-screaming into the digital age through the second decade of the 21st. Century, will lead the way into a new golden era of business-to-business, industry-to-retail innovations that other industries will adopt and applaud. NO, it is more likely that we in the fly fishing industry, like we in the media (newspapers and magazines and free-standing websites), will LEARN our means of survival from other much larger industries leading the way through these uncharted times. It’s easy enough to believe the days of “shows” are over and done. But what comes next?
Category: Industry
