NAMM Hits the Road
NAMM’s four-state Town Hall Meeting tour ended recently on a high note. Many Members took advantage of this opportunity to meet face-to-face with fellow retailers, manufacturers and reps to discuss the challenges facing the industry today and to share ideas and best practices for succeeding despite the conditions.
NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond led the open forums, which covered NAMM’s current activities, including its ongoing work advocating for music education and new retailer opt-in programs, as well as NAMM’s consumer-facing public awareness campaign, Wanna Play?, which is designed to engage people of all ages in making music.
The four tour stops in the areas of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Boston were valuable opportunities for NAMM staff to communicate the association’s mission to music products dealers, to open up a two-way dialogue with Members about industry issues and to discuss how NAMM can better serve its Members and the industry.
“I got a lot out of the meeting,” said Tony Gariaelo of TG Inc. “I’m a new NAMM Member and it explained more about what NAMM is doing. For me, I want to increase my participation in NAMM, and I got to hear a lot of the concerns people are having out there. As an industry, we need to come together as a group to increase the pie for everyone.”
“It’s great any time we can come out and hear feedback from dealers, who are our customers,” said Joey Arias of Crafter USA. “We can take that information back to the office and do business better in the future. I liked the talk about reaching more non-traditional consumers of various age groups, and I think some of those ideas will come in handy to us later this year.”
Pete Sides of Sides Music said, “First of all, it’s good to be at a meeting like this because it always gets my juices flowing, and I’ve been involved in the industry for more than 50 years. I find it just as stimulating and challenging today as it’s been in the past. If you don’t stay in touch through meetings like this, then you’re likely to fall behind because the speed of change in the industry moves faster than ever before.”