The first Airsoft Expo held in the UK was held over the weekend. For those who have been used to attending the Airsoft Arms Fair, the Airsoft Expo is a different trade fair, as it is held at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre in Leamington Spa and organised by a different group. It was a fully indoor event with around 24,500 square feet of exhibit space available for any interested airsoft business or organisation.

I got to the Airsoft Expo on the second and final day, almost not being able to make it due to personal commitments. We actually have assigned a pair to cover the event, but just a few days before the Expo, something important came up at the work place which needed their full attention, since they work for the NHS. This meant that I will have to do this myself and cancelled my Sunday affair.

As posted by the organisers of the Expo, Meridienne Exhibitions, there were exhibitors which backed out at the last minute, leaving the Expo with around 10 exhibitors. This also made some airsoft players who planned on making the trip to see airsoft guns and gear in one area to cancel their trips, disappointed that a few airsoft vendors showed up.

Nevertheless, the exhibitors and visitors who were on the first day told me that there was a good number of visitors to check out the different exhibitors such as Airsoft International Magazine, JD Airsoft, SOCOM Tactical, Enola Gaye, Airsoft Assault, Component Shop, Cloud 9 Combat, Incentive Designs, Badger Tac 2, and Infiltration Airsoft.

Of the exhibitors, two are new blips in our UK airsoft radar --- Airsoft Assault and Infiltration Airsoft. Airsoft Assault is a free airsoft ads/classifieds site which allows anyone looking for or trying to sell a product or even barter to freely post their ads. It provides a more organised way for smaller sellers, such as individual airsoft players wanting to unload unused or unneeded airsoft guns or gear, as compared to the buy and sell sections of airsoft forums. Infiltration Airsoft organises "airsoft experiences" and their events are not the usual weekend skirmishes or milsim events as we know it. Their stories are more elaborate with players needing to join factions and from there they will battle it out at different airsoft site and given different missions. Players who sign up are given a pack that will get them started includes a RFID member wristband that holds information about the member.

Gunman Airsoft also had their scenario area called “Flying Lead, Walking Dead” where visitors got to play with airsoft revolvers and shoot it out in a Wild, Wild West-setup in a town called "Redemption" (which reminds of the Red Dead Redemption video game). I was just poor in timing to take photos of them in action, so no in-game photos at Last Chance Saloon.

The second day saw lesser visitors than the first day, which also gave me more time to talk to more of the exhibitors with the Monafs who were manning the Airsoft International Magazine booth and are always a constant presence at airsoft exhibits and trade events. At the Enola Gaye booth was Jim Rose where he was busy with the constant enquiries from visitors and I just helped myself taking photos of their booth which is always an interesting setup. Their new MK5 Thunderflash was on display as well.

Badger Tac 2 was manned by younger guys who were also busy as visitors checked their guns and gear. Too bad the Kombat Fleece on display and being sold at 25 quid didn't have any small size left remaining or else I could have got one for myself.

The busiest amongst the airsoft guns retailer was JD Airsoft, which had a well-stocked booth and players were able to check out some of the latest airsoft guns such as the ASG CZ EVO 3 A1 and nicely done custom Honey Badger with a Systema PTW as base gun.  I asked Dave Manning on the sales they had for two days and he was definitely satisfied. They even had 5.11 Tactical apparel at 50% which unfortunately, they seemed to not have some TDU trousers available. Component Shop also had a lot of batteries and components for powering up your AEG including balancers and chargers on display and airsoft players found the connectors and batteries that they needed for their AEGs.

As mentioned above, there were lesser visitors on the second day and by 1400H there were no more visitors arriving. The exhibitors decided to pack-up their displays as some of them still had  long drives to do just to get home. The last booth I visited was Incentive Designs which just overwhelmed the exhibit hall with the sound coming from their S.M.G Rattle which was already loud enough to hear from a distance outdoors, just imagine it indoors. I had a long talk over coffee with one of their designers, Kevin Jay, at the cafeteria about the designs they are doing; and Jason and Andrew showed me the Tracer Magazine they are intent on releasing which they claim is much better than the tracer magazines from other airsoft manufacturers.

By 1315H the Exhibition Centre was almost empty and with the guys of Whiskey Delta from Ireland we waited for the taxi that I called that will bring us to the train station. Discussions about the Airsoft Expo with its low participation rate became more of an academic thing, looking at it objectively.

My experiences attending and reporting about airsoft trade fairs around the world is that a dedicated Airsoft trade fair would only generate only few exhibitors, which also will mean fewer visitors as they only have a small variety of airsoft vendors to find products they want and also meet with the owners and staff which they usually correspond with online. The big "airsoft events" such as the SHOT Show, IWA & Outdoor Classics, or the British Shooting/Airsoft Show, airsoft is just part of a larger event, and thus have can have more foot traffic from curious visitors of these trade fairs. The level of participation of the airsoft vendors and players at the Airsoft Expo was not surprising to me at all.

There are ways to increase visitors for an airsoft show such as adding related industries and services given that the airsoft industry is not as massive as other industries. More efforts will have to be made to invite outdoor vendors as they also have something to offer to airsoft players. There is also a larger number of tactical gear vendors so why not invite them too? It can be combined with an outdoor component which the Airsoft Arms Fair did before and a bigger example was the War and Peace Show which have the reenactment series that the general public can watch.

Moreso, there are always two major stakeholders in such an event such as the Airsoft Expo apart from the organisers --- the business side and the customer side and they have to be engaged thoroughly. However, both should realise that without their wholehearted support to this event would also show that there's not much solidarity to help promote airsoft to the larger public. It is still the first year for the Airsoft Expo and whatever are the results as based on the evaluation from the organisers will affect their decision to hold or not to hold another one (with profitability and attendance being the main considerations for them). For both the vendors and the airsoft players, the chance to see more of both in a single location in more occasions than one may be harder to come by.

Still, kudos for Meridienne Exhibitions for organising the Airsoft Expo and trying to bring both airsoft vendors and players under one roof where the Airsoft Arms Fair have left off.  We don't know if they are now in the planning stages for a 2015 edition as it's too early to say. If the UK Airsoft Community want them to hold another one, the time to reach out to  them to level-off expectations is now so each can do their part to come out with an even bigger and more well-attended one.  The airsoft community needs a really good trade event it can call its own, rather than piggybacking the other trade shows.

More photos of the Airsoft Expo at the Popular Airsoft Facebook Page.