innovative meetings Jennifer N. Dienst
Hitting All the Right Notes
The NAMM Show is a huge, rock-star–packed, decibel-bending, four-day mix of all things music — with a surprisingly simple pricing model for
exhibitors.Convene was on site in Anaheim this year to see what makes the entire production rock.
E
ach year, more than 90,000 attendees converge on Anaheim for the NAMM (National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants) Show. It’s a 520,412-net-square-foot trade show for the $16.3-billion global music-products industry; a four-day series of concerts by hundreds of performers, from Sir Elton John to the Grammy Award–win- ning Mariachi Divas; and an educa- tional bootcamp on the latest in music developments — all rolled into one. But more than anything else, it’s a reunion. That became apparent the day before the 111th NAMM Show, which was held on Jan. 24–27, opened. I was standing in the lobby of the Anaheim Convention Center (ACC), looking out at a gray sky. The ground was wet from the drizzling rain forecasted to continue throughout the next few days. This was an anomaly for perpetually sunny Anaheim, and on this particular day, clearly bad timing. Tomorrow, the ACC was set to cut the ribbon on its brand-new Grand Plaza — a beauti- fully landscaped, 100,000-square-foot outdoor event space — and kick off the NAMM Show with soul group Tower of Power and about 12,000 friends. But Kevin Johnstone, NAMM’s director of trade shows, didn’t seem fazed. In fact, he seemed calm, even ebullient, about the days ahead as he took our group of journalists around NAMM’s show floor. In between taking calls, dodging forklifts, and saying hello to longtime friends that he was seeing for the first time in a year, Johnstone told us which celebrities to watch out for (Randy Jackson and Eddie Van Halen) and replayed some of the crazi- est moments from the last 18 years that
36 PCMA CONVENE APRIL 2013
he has produced the NAMM Show. We’d been there five minutes, and we were already part of the NAMM family. Music is big business, and the tight-knit, tattoo-emblazoned, band-of- brothers vibe we sensed at the show’s outset demonstrated that it’s an indus- try rooted in relationships. The NAMM Show “is not just a place for people to come and write and take orders,” John- stone said. “It’s a community reunion. Our members see the majority of these people once a year at the NAMM Show, so we try to enhance the experi- ence with live music and after-hours events so they can not only do business together, but renew their friendships every year.”
CAN YOU TURN THAT DOWN, PLEASE? Such a huge production comes with its own special set of challenges, and chief among them is the issue of sound. As we walked through the show floor, we
passed row after row of every kind of instrument imaginable, along with all of the accessories and amplifiers that can make them Jimi Hendrix–level loud. Add to this a roster of live-music performances that kick off and end the show every day, and it’s easy to see why sound-control officers — “noise narcs,” as Johnstone calls them — would be necessary. Not only do they patrol the show floor to make sure that exhibitors aren’t exceeding 85 decibels when dem- onstrating their products, they keep an ear on the live-music performances scheduled throughout the day inside and outside the convention center, to ensure that they don’t drown out important business deals. “We’re a music show,” Johnstone
said. “There should be live music and you should be greeted with live music. The challenge is making sure the live music isn’t having a negative impact on the exhibit experience. Our exhibitors
PCMA.ORG
ILLUSTRATION BY BECI ORPIN / THE JACKY WINTER GROUP
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164