EVENT REPORT
#NOTGOINGTOIWA 2020
I
WA 2020 was expected to be a great
show for airsoft, but the outbreak of
Covid-19 showed that even the best laid
plans do not survive first contact! Luckily
Airsoft Action has many friends within the
industry, so Bill reached out to find out
just what “new and improved” products
we can expect to see
from our friends in the
coming months in an
exclusive inside look!
There’s an ancient
proverb that allegedly
originated in China,
“May you live in
interesting times”,
which is actually more
of a curse; whether
we like it or not, we
live in interesting
times right now,
and although they
could be viewed as
times of danger and
uncertainty, they
are also times of
unbridled creativity
and innovation in the
airsoft industry!
Usually at this time
of the year I would
be hammering out
my usual “Show AAR” in order to hit our
publishing deadline, especially now we are
putting new digital issues up every 15th of
the month, but due to the postponement
of the show I decided to speak to our
industry friends to pull together a special
report to showcase what we would have
seen, as there are some pretty fascinating
developments that will be heading our way
8
APRIL 2020
during 2020!
When the postponement was called
there was huge disappointment in the
airsoft community, as IWA is not only a
trade show where we get to see all the
new “shiny things”, it’s also a place where
we all get together face to face and have
an opportunity to discuss all things airsoft.
With the Airsoft Meetup and the now-
traditional “MealSim” we have a chance
to gather and share ideas and information
in person, rather than just messaging or
emailing one another.
But such is the resilience and dark
humour of my friends in the community
that soon after the announcement of
the postponement I was soon seeing the
“#notgoing” symbol appearing in chat
groups, and this has taken on a life of
its own; like all of you, we are not fazed
by adversity, we merely find another way
to deal with a problem. This set me to
thinking and the idea of a “#notgoing”
article formed in my
mind.
Now sadly I cannot
cover every tiny thing
that we might have
seen at the show in
Germany, but I hope
the following pages
will give you some
idea of new directions
and products that will
be appearing in your
favourite stores soon!
Also sadly, some were
not able to meet our
publishing deadline,
and others, like ASG
and Valken, appear
to have made the
decision to hold over
their new product
launches to the
new show date in
September.
My thanks go
out to all our industry partners that did
get information to me to collaborate on
getting news out in a timely fashion; just
simply click on the website address on the
relevant page to take you direct to all the
latest news! Without further ado I’ll get
into the meat of things, and for now I’ll
just say to you all, friends old and new,
“See you at IWA in September”! AA