2010 Summer NAMM Closes Leaving Members Optimistic and Re-Energized for Improving Economy

NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- NAMM recently announced final registration and exhibitor numbers for 2010 Summer NAMM. At show close, NAMM reported a four percent decrease in registration from last year's event, with 12,463 total registrants for the three-day event. Exhibitor numbers were slightly up at the Nashville Convention Center during this year of economic recovery, with 383 companies displaying and demonstrating products.

"In addition to some of our industry's largest manufacturers and distributors, Summer NAMM appeals to the new and emerging companies, and there were 70 brand new NAMM exhibitors this year," said Joe Lamond, president and CEO, NAMM. "During the show, the independent dealers, along with the largest buying and marketing groups, were able to see exciting new products to stock in their stores for the fall and holiday selling seasons. We continue to hear Member feedback about how Summer NAMM is valuable to them, especially in this challenging economy."

Exhibiting companies of all sizes experienced strong booth traffic and sales during all three days of the show.

"Anytime we can get dealers and have a chance to sit down and talk to them is an awesome show, " said Brad Smith, Hal Leonard Corporation. "Clearly the numbers weren't the same as previous years, but the quality here has been great so we're very pleased. And we always find that this show tends to be a little more independent-oriented, and we like that—great opportunity to kind of decide, especially for Hal Leonard, we're known for certain products, we're expanding some of our product lines—and this is a great show to sit down with the dealers and say, 'How will this work with your account?' Some of them are kind of surprised and it's a good opportunity to have a dialogue so the show's been great for that. We write orders here, and we've certainly written orders, so definitely a success and we're committed to this, so we're happy."

"Given the light attendance, which was expected, our overall show was quite good," said Rick Young, Yamaha. "Winter and Summer NAMM for us are important vehicles to introduce new products and be able to obtain immediate feedback from retailers of varying sizes, on how it will fit into their assortments. Even with the amount of research we do in creating the product, the dealers comments confirm our work. We introduced a new drum set series, ultra portable digital pianos, acoustic/electric guitars, electronic drum kit and powered speakers, all at very competitive price points. Dealer comments were very positive, so for us it was definitely worth being in Nashville."

"Summer NAMM was surprisingly strong for us," said Michael Santucci, Sensaphonics.  "There was a lot of interest in high-end ear monitors and we are very glad that we came."

"I think the show has been really successful," said Richard Galime, Dansr. "We've made a lot of great contacts. The quality of the people coming to the booth are really good, they're very interested in the products, they're very interested in the sales, so traffic is not super heavy, but the traffic we're getting is such a good quality of a customer, that we're able to actually show them the products, they're very interested in what we have to say, what the products can do for them and their store. I think a lot of the people today are checking out in particular the Uni-Stand because it was mentioned as a product at 'Best in Show.' It's given us a chance to talk to a few people that may have otherwise overlooked our booth. It's also given us an opportunity to talk about the other great products we have."

On Sunday, the show was open to music enthusiasts, students and parents as part of the first "Wanna Play Music Sunday" at Summer NAMM. Approximately 1,000 people attended the show with wristbands purchased online and at the door.

"It was exciting this year," said Bob Taylor, Taylor Guitars. "We had a lot of traffic in our booth and it was like that for the entire show. We need more public attendees coming in.  Where I'd like to see us go is having so much public in here that we don't know what to do with them. But I'm excited about the first step in the direction of creating a public day."

"We've been so busy, there are very few times when we've gotten to take a break," said Steve Skillings, JamHub LLC. "We are so fortunate—we had a bunch of industry partners help us out with this booth, and it's been a blast. At this show, we have literally signed up more dealers than we did all of winter NAMM this year and even more than the first Summer NAMM. This NAMM show has been exactly what we hoped for—times ten."

New exhibitor Don Oriolo of Oriolo Guitars said, "If we continue to have as much fun as we did at this, our first NAMM trade show, you'll be seeing us here for a long time to come."

Providing flood relief for the city of Nashville was a theme of the show, and the economic impact of the show along with NAMM's efforts in partnership with Next BIG Nashville, American Songwriter magazine, the Nashville Musicians Association and MusiCares brought millions in much-needed aid to the city through events, a silent instrument auction and donations from caring NAMM Members.

For complete reports from each day of the show including photos, please visit http://www.namm.org/summer/2010

NAMM's next event will be the 2011 NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif., January 13-16, 2011.

About NAMM

The National Association of Music Merchants, commonly called NAMM in reference to the organization's popular NAMM trade shows, is the not-for-profit association that unifies, leads and strengthens the $17 billion global musical instruments and products industry. NAMM's activities and programs are designed to promote music making to people of all ages. NAMM is comprised of more than 9,000 Member companies. For more information about NAMM, interested parties can visit www.namm.org or call 800-767-NAMM (6266).

SOURCE NAMM