Outdoors expo in Denver expected to draw 30,000 people

Whether you’re a hunter, an angler or simply an outdoors aficionado, there is surely something that will catch your eye this weekend in Denver.

More than 30,000 are expected to attend the International Sportsmen’s Exposition, which has been attracting people to its doors since 1977. Most come from Colorado, but there are also plenty of visitors from Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska.

The expo is being rolled out over 300,000 square feet at the Colorado Convention Center to accommodate the 500-plus exhibitors, including one from the Republic of Namibia in Africa.

According to spokesperson Marta Sipeki, the expo is designed to teach and expose customers to new ideas. Experts from a variety of fields, including fly-fishing, hunting and off-roading, will be on hand to share tips and promote new technology.

Bullseye Camera Systems will showcase its equipment designed to improve the aim of hunters. The company sells a camera that hunters set up at a range. The camera is pointed toward the target and routed to a laptop. While shots are fired, the camera sends data to the laptop so hunters instantly can see the outcome of each shot, whether there are five or 100 shots in the target.

You do not have to leave the kids at home because there is something for everyone at the expo. Children ages 12 and younger can fish at a pond stocked with trout. There also is a 40-foot aquarium and a 9,000-foot archery range.

The convention begins Thursday and runs through Sunday.

Outdoors sports are big draws in Colorado, and Sipeki notes that they contribute $1.8 billion annually to the state’s economy, and that revenue supports 21,000 jobs across the state.