WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!

In the first of our new series focusing on the airgun industry, our expert in the field, Mat Manning, gets the lowdown from Tony Belas on the recent Daystate and BRK experience days.

I was at Oakedge Shooting Ground in Staffordshire for both days in early July — Daystate-themed on the Monday and BRK-themed on the Tuesday — and, judging by all the smiling faces, the events certainly seemed to deliver. But how do the people behind this ambitious airgun extravaganza feel it went? I caught up with Tony Belas to find out.

Matt Manning: What was the inspiration behind the experience days?

Tony Belas: For the last 15 years, Daystate has been running two-day trade training courses covering the repair and servicing of our airguns. After the completion of our online workshop guides, it was felt these attended courses were no longer relevant. However, the experience we had gained in running 35 or so courses seemed a lot to give up, and so it was decided that we would convert the training courses into experience days. The initial idea was to provide workshop training to the end user, but that soon expanded into a whole lot more.

MM: What was actually on offer to experience day guests?

TB: The final lineup included a have-a-go range, with a chance to shoot every Daystate and BRK rifle currently being made, as well as workshop repair and servicing techniques demonstrated by the actual people who build the rifles. The Sub-12 Airgunners team were on hand to discuss tuning and customisation, and Gareth Egarr from the official owners club gave detailed talks about the history of Daystate and BRK. Yourself and Richard Saunders from Airgun World gave talks about hunting techniques and how to acquire a shooting permission, and we were also joined by red squirrel conservation experts from Grey Squirrel Management Training. There was hunter field target and the Airgun Training and Education Organisation (ATEO), air rifle coaching sessions with Ian Price and also a long-range Extreme Benchrest demonstration by Chris Jensen from Airguns of Arizona, who was over from the USA.

On top of all that, there were also areas where people could buy accessories and access expert advice. Finally, people who bought the platinum package got to join the team for a meal out after the first day.

MM: The two days must have taken a lot of planning. Who were the main people involved in organising the event?

TB: It took three months, and we were still planning right up until just a day or so before the event. It was a lot more involved than we envisaged, but mainly because of the complexity of scheduling all the different activities and the movements of what was to be around 200 people.

The lead was Olivia Tideswell, who is our Customer Relations Manager. Olivia has been with us for just a year and really wanted to get to grips with something more overtly customer focused. Of course, she was heavily supported by everybody in the Daystate and BRK teams.

MM: You had a lot of expert guests and speakers from across the airgun shooting scene — from benchrest shooters to red squirrel conservation workers. How did you manage to garner such strong support for the inaugural experience days?

TB: We are an incredibly well-established UK factory and have huge number of friends around the industry who are just as willing to support us as we are to support them. In addition, this is not our first event, although it was our first open to the public.

Many of the people asked to attend had previously been invited to closed venues with us. For example, the Wolverine launch at Greystoke Castle, the Time for MTC launch at Greenwich and, more recently, the Daystate 40th anniversary event at Leeds Armoury. They knew that when we do something it is usually extravagant and worth attending! Pretty much everybody we asked made the effort to support us. Quite frankly, we could have had double that number if we had had the capacity.

MM: What feedback have you received from guests who bought tickets for the two days?

TB: I am very happy to report we haven’t had a single complaint — everybody seemed to have a great day. There was just so much to do, and possibly the only complaint we could get was that there really wasn’t enough time to do everything.

MM: How do you feel the days went in terms of promoting the Daystate/BRK brands?

TB: From a customer relations standpoint, it was a fantastic success. We now must use all the photographs and video footage that was captured by the team of three professional photographers and convert that into promotional content for next year. I hope that now people can start to see what a great time was had, they will be more inclined to enrol next year. To expand the event further, we need even more people to attend.

MM: What was the highlight for you?

TB: There was a huge buzz and a lot of very excited people. A lot of that excitement came from the 20 or so staff, including our Airgunners’ Support Pack, who were invited down to help. The level of excitement was noticeably higher than I’ve seen at any other show, and I’ve probably done hundreds during my time in the airgun industry.

MM: Apart from the rainy start to the second day, is there anything you would change about the experience days?

TB: Actually, I would like to do something about the rain. Oakedge Shooting Ground was a fantastic venue, but we did have to rely on tents as part of our wet weather programme — an essential ingredient in any show in the UK — and of course on the second day these tents were needed. At future events with perhaps more people we will need more permanent structures to give better rain cover.

MM: I have already heard rumours about plans to repeat the experience days next year. Can you tell us anything about when they will be happening and what people can expect from them?

TB: I think it’s fair to say that the event went almost better than we expected, and it was also a lot more involved, so we will definitely be running the event again next year. We have had some feedback that people would prefer it at a weekend. We will try to achieve this for next year, but with many venues, the weekends are where they make their money and they would charge more which would drive up the costs. For now, it’s likely to remain a weekday event — most people can get time off work or arrange their circumstances given enough notice.

As for activities, the bigger the event the more there will be to do. Some of this year’s activities were noticeably more popular than others, and we will certainly be expanding on them. Nothing is confirmed yet, but we will make sure that details are on Daystate and BRK websites and social media when we know for sure.