NAMM University Sessions

NAMM University is proud to offer the ever-popular free Breakfast Sessions each morning in the Grand Ballrooms of the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.

This year, we will discuss the State of the Industry on Friday morning, learn what makes Guerrilla Retailing so successful on Saturday morning and confirm that we have seen all the hottest products in the Best in Show session on Sunday morning.

Once the show floor opens, the NAMM Idea Center (Booth #837) will host a series of short, focused sessions starting every 30 minutes. These sessions are designed to share the industry’s best practices—proven promotions, techniques and strategies that are working for NAMM Members in the current economy. Topics are organized into six main categories: Sales/Marketing, Lessons, Retail Ideas, Store Design, E-Commerce/Web and Music Education.

All NAMM U sessions are loaded with great business-building ideas that you can put to use right away. Catch as many as you can and take the opportunity to learn what is working—and what isn’t—in retail stores today.

2008 Summer NAMM Offers Must-Attend Sessions!

Two of this year’s NAMM U sessions will feature speaker Elly Valas, co-author of Guerrilla Retailing and president and CEO of Valas Consulting Group, LLC:

Guerrilla Retailing: Unconventional Ways to Make Big Profits from Your Retail Business—Breakfast Session, Saturday June 21, Grand Ballroom, Renaissance Hotel. Breakfast served 8–8:30 a.m.; first come, first served. Session runs 8:30–9:30 a.m.

Creating a High-Performance Sales Team—Idea Center, Booth #837, Saturday 1 p.m.

Elly Valas served from 1992 to 2003 as president and CEO of The North American Retail Dealers Association (NARDA), a trade association providing training, consulting and business services to independent retailers. Her consultancy firm serves to help retailers build progressive, profitable businesses, increase their market share and take their businesses to the next level. As the co-author of Guerrilla Retailing, Elly offers music dealers a fresh perspective on building their retail business.

E-Commerce and the Web—back to back dedicated sessions: On Sunday, NAMM U will host three and a half hours of back-to-back sessions focusing on e-commerce and the Web. These sessions will offer all the ideas, all the techniques and all the strategies you need to exploit the e-commerce revolution and level the playing field for your business on the Web. 10:30 a.m.–2:00 p.m. in the Idea Center.

Friday, June 20

BREAKFAST SESSION
8 a.m.
State of the Industry Address
Joe Lamond, NAMM President/CEO
Grand Ballroom, Renaissance Nashville
8–8:30 Breakfast (first come, first served); 8:30–9:30 Session
In the annual State of the Industry Address, NAMM President/CEO Joe Lamond will explore the current state of the industry and discuss the trends, challenges and opportunities that will influence the music products community during the second half of the year and beyond.

IDEA CENTER SESSIONS (BOOTH #837)

10:30 a.m.
How Your Web Site and Your POS Can Produce Hot Buyers, Keep Warm Prospects and Manage Cold Leads (E-Commerce/Web)
Presented by Gordon O'Hara, Managing Partner, Retail Up! Music
The Web and your POS have always been about connections. In the retailer’s case, it’s how to keep prospects and customers connected to your store. We're talking about the cream—mid- and upper-end guitar buyers, fine keyboard and piano purchasers, sound system users, band directors, professionals and more. All of these people have one thing in common: They want your Web site to connect them to your store's expertise and product knowledge. We'll explore how your site can serve them and develop leads and profits for you. A must-attend session for anyone doing business today!

11 a.m.
How to Turn Zero-Cost Marketing into Big-Budget Results (Sales/Marketing)
Presented by Bob Popyk, Founder of Bentley-Hall, Inc., and Columnist for Music Trades Magazine
If you don’t have a mega-store marketing budget tied together with a big checkbook and a bigger crystal ball, this is the session for you. Learn some ideas to bring more customers into your store immediately without having to go to the bank. Find out lots of easy ways to generate more store traffic each day by getting everyone in your store involved. If you want to give your sales an immediate boost by using a little creativity coupled with some initiative and ambition, check out this program.

11:30 a.m.
How to Sell Your Toughest Customers ... 90% of the Time (Sales/Marketing)
Presented by Bob Popyk, Founder of Bentley-Hall, Inc., and Columnist for Music Trades Magazine
Are customers getting “tougher” to sell? Competition today is more than just the dealer down the street—it’s the Internet, catalogs, the classified section of your newspaper and anything else that might prevent a sale. Learn some simple ways to close a high percentage of those “tough” customers who beat you up over price, tell you they’re “shopping around” and walk out of your store without buying. Just a couple of these ideas put to use could take your sales up a notch right away.

Noon (One-Hour Lunch & Learn Presentation)
Case Study: An Innovator's Perspective on Store Design (Store Design)
Presented by Gayle Beacock, Vice President, Beacock Music
For the past few years, Beacock Music has taken its store design to new heights. Join Gayle Beacock and merchandising expert Michelle Webb to hear their perspective on design, their latest creations and their passion for these projects. They will take questions in the second half of this one-hour session.

1 p.m. (One-Hour Presentation)
Panel Discussion: “Ask the Experts” (Retail Ideas)
Moderated by Zach Phillips, Editor, Music Inc.
You, the music products retailer, asked the hard-hitting questions. Now, you’ll get answers. Join this panel of Music Inc. magazine's esteemed columnists to learn solutions to your finance, sales, marketing, merchandising and staffing issues. These specialists will respond to questions submitted prior to Summer NAMM but will also take audience questions in the second half of this one-hour session.

2 p.m.
NAMM's New Member-Only Insurance Portal with Discounts for Health and Lifestyle (Retail Ideas)
Presented by Christine Lee and Chad Zenner, Principal Program Business Leaders, Mercer
Don't miss your new Member benefit, the insurance services and products offered through NAMM's Smart Business Interactive Portal from Mercer. This session discusses the new program, which offers a free prescription card for all Members, family and employees. In addition, the program offers options for savings on health services, including alternative medicine, dental, vision, chiropractic and doctor visits, as well as movie tickets, dining, hotels and more.

2:30 p.m.
Panel Discussion: How to Increase Profits in Your Female Drum Market (Retail Ideas)
Presented by Percussion Marketing Council
Learn how to understand the tremendous sales and marketing opportunities that exist in targeting the female drumming market. This panel will address how to drive existing female percussion players, as well as non-players, into your store.

3 p.m.
The Value of Store Design (Store Design)
Presented by Chris Miller, President, Pacific Store Designs, Inc.
When properly applied, design is one of the best returns on investment in retail today. But how can you prove it? Let Chris Miller show you! This session will reveal how retailers can develop a shared understanding of the return on investment of design, so that its value as an effective business tool can be convincingly communicated.

3:30 p.m.
Your Lesson Program—The Heartbeat of the Community Music Store (Lessons)
Presented by Pete Gamber, Owner, Alta Loma Music
Everyone's selling gear—from national retailers to gas stations. And everyone's got a Web site. So what makes you special? Your lesson program! It creates, develops and encourages musicians of all ages! Your lesson program can make you unbeatable in your community, and that's where it counts. Pete will show you how to create a fantastic music lesson program and grow it during the next five years!

4 p.m.
Get Out of Your Store! Get Out in Your Community! (Retail Ideas)
Presented by Pete Gamber, Owner, Alta Loma Music
Forget MySpace, You Tube, Facebook and all that trendy hi-tech stuff! Nothing beats getting out of your store and meeting musicians and potential musicians! The Internet can't put a guitar in someone's hands for the first time, or encourage a person to start playing an instrument. You can, if you get out of your store! Find out what Pete does when he's not in his store. His ideas will increase new customers and students for your business without hitting your checkbook!

4:30 p.m.
Your Lesson Rooms—Your Best Place to Market to Your Students! (Lessons)
Presented by Pete Gamber, Owner, Alta Loma Music
Do you use the lesson room as a place to market to students? Do your students get dropped off, beeline it to the lesson and then haul buns back out to mom, who has to get the next kid off to soccer? If so, listen to Pete's ideas of how to sell more gear and services to your students!

Saturday, June 21

BREAKFAST SESSION
8 a.m.
Guerrilla Retailing: Unconventional Ways to Make Big Profits from Your Retail Business
Elly Valas, President and CEO of Valas Consulting Group, LLC
Grand Ballroom, Renaissance Nashville
8–8:30 Breakfast (first come, first served); 8:30–9:30 Session
How do you fight back when you’re outnumbered, outgunned and outspent by the competition? This program will show you how to survive, and thrive in today’s hyper-competitive world of retail. Learn how to increase footsteps to your door, how to create a great customer experience and how to invest your time, energy and money more effectively. You’ll leave this session with concrete ideas to take your business to the next level and with the energy and enthusiasm to implement them.

IDEA CENTER SESSIONS (BOOTH #837)

10:30 a.m.
How to Give Your Web Site More Curb Appeal (E-Commerce/Web)
Presented by Kevin M. Mitchell, MMR Associate Editor and Web Wise Columnist
The reality is that your Web site is now your new storefront. Over 70 percent of customers in your hometown do research online before ever getting in their car and driving to a brick-and-mortar shop. So as your Web site is now their "first impression" of your store, is it all that it can be? Does it inspire your customers to get out of their chair and drive to your store? Kevin will show examples of sites that have real "curb appeal" and offer five important ways to make your site better, more appealing and more likely to bring customers into your store.

11 a.m.
How to Enhance the Customer Experience and Drive Up Profitability (Sales/Marketing)
Presented by George Hines, President, George's Music, Inc.
The state of the retail industry is in flux. The days of competing on selection and price are gone. Increasingly, consumers are choosing where they shop based on their in-store experience. This session will highlight how retailers can improve service for their customers and increase the bottom line.

11:30 a.m.
5 Ways to Financially Fix Your Store (Retail Ideas)
Presented by Alan Friedman, CPA, Friedman, Kannenberg & Company, P.C.
Today’s independent music retailers face an endless barrage of challenges, ranging from external factors beyond their control like rising gas prices, falling real estate and stock markets, and discounting from mass merchants and online retailers—to internal factors within their control, such as the constant need for inventory management and monitoring of operating expenses. Yet, despite the unpredictable landscape, music retailers can survive and even flourish by implementing some time-tested practices that have proven to generate profits and improve cash flow. Join industry CPA Alan Friedman for a look at five essential practices to financially improve store operations for all music stores.

Noon (One-Hour Lunch & Learn Presentation)
Panel Discussion: How to Redesign Your Retail Store on a Dime (Store Design)
Moderated by Danny Rocks, Catalyst, The Company Rocks
Even if you are not considering a store remodel, you need to attend this session! Join Danny Rocks and his panel of experts as they examine actual music store remodeling projects. See the “before and after” photographs of these remodels. You will even have a chance to win a prize: an estimate for the cost of the remodel and the expected return on investment!

1 p.m. (One-Hour Presentation)
Good to Great: Creating a High-Performance Sales Team (Sales/Marketing)
Presented by Elly Valas, President and CEO of Valas Consulting Group, LLC
It's no secret that the best teams in sports are those that are the best managed and the best coached. They attract the best team members, who clearly understand their goals. Find out how you can recruit the best players to your team and set goals that motivate them to peak performance. Learn how to increase your margins, improve your close rate and raise your average ticket.

2 p.m.
How to Beat Today's Retail Challenges (Retail Ideas)
Presented by Al Slivinski, President, Retail Business Solutions
In this session you will learn seven tips to help you profitably manage your business in today's highly competitive retail environment.

2:30 p.m.
How to Level the Playing Field on the Internet (E-Commerce/Web)
Presented by Jim Norris, President, Norris-Whitney Communications
This session will discuss how innovative uses of technology and data insights can help retailers reach out to customers in a more meaningful way and level the playing field on the Internet.

3 p.m.
How to Weather Recessionary Storms (Retail Ideas)
Presented by Ken Murray, CEO of Amazing Saint Coaching and Consulting
Economic indicators point to a slow down. Fewer customers are coming to the store. The "R" word is on the tip of everyone's tongue. Good news is on the way. Ken Murray will offer practical solutions.

Implementing cost saving strategies
Driving sales with fewer customers
Controlling on-hand inventory
Investing resources in your greatest asset

Attend this remarkable session and enlarge your umbrella in the recessionary storm.

3:30 p.m.
How to Make the Most of In-Store Events and Double Your Press Coverage! (Sales/Marketing)
Presented by Myrna Sislen, Owner, Middle C Music
How often have you wanted press or television coverage for your store events but couldn't get a bite from even your local newspaper? Learn some new and old tricks for pitching the media that will help you gain the coverage you so richly deserve. Develop unique and catchy story angles that will make the media beat down your door. And remember: Life is a Press Release.

4 p.m. (One-Hour Presentation)
It Worked for Me! (Retail Ideas)
Presented by Alan Friedman, CPA, Friedman, Kannenberg & Company, P.C.
You don’t have to look far for new ideas—they are all around us. The trick is to take someone else’s great idea and adapt it to fit your store’s situation. This could be a sales promotion or a merchandising plan—even a hiring and training procedure. See it, adapt it, implement it and document it so that you can use it again! Alan Friedman and his panel of retailers will share the practical ideas that have worked in their stores. Join us for this fast-paced session; bring ideas that worked for you and be prepared to take away some winning ideas that you can implement next week!

5 p.m.
How Your Lesson Programs Can Give Your Store a Competitive Advantage (Lessons)
Presented by Ravi, Columnist, Clinician and Consultant to the Music Products Industry
Despite the increase of Internet retailers and mass merchants selling musical instruments, "Mom & Pop" can still count on lessons to pay the rent and consistently bring in customers, right? Wrong! Chains, renowned music colleges and fully Internet-based music schools now offer online instruction. Not all of it is good, but some of it is great—even offering instruction from famous musicians. In this session, Ravi will discuss how to create tangible value in your lesson program to lock in the students you have and "sell" that value to potential new students and customers. Learn how to expand your teachers' resources, techniques and recruitment abilities, and create winning lesson programs.

Sunday, June 22

BREAKFAST SESSION
8 a.m.
Best in Show: This Year’s Hottest Products
Frank Alkyer, Publisher, Music Inc., and Panel
Grand Ballroom, Renaissance Nashville
8–8:30 Breakfast (first come, first served); 8:30–9:30 Session
With thousands of exciting new products at the show, it is sometimes difficult to make sure that you have seen all the important new items. Join Music Inc. publisher Frank Alkyer and his dedicated panel of retail buyers, media and gear heads as they scour the aisles and dig into the merchandise to find the best products, ideas and trends from the hidden depths of the show. You know as soon as you get home, someone always says, “Did you the see the new … ?” and you feel like you’re the only person who missed it. This is your opportunity to change all of that in this rapid-fire, 60-minute snapshot of what to see before leaving Nashville.

IDEA CENTER SESSIONS (BOOTH #837)

10 a.m.
Panel Discussion: Indy Music Retail Groups—The Why, the What and the How (Retail Ideas)
Moderated by Harry Gillum, Showtime Music Co.
Learn why it makes sense to participate in a buying or sharing group and how to go about joining or forming a group.

10:30 a.m. (One-Hour Presentation)
How to Build Your Web Site Community—Take Advantage of Free Advertising! (E-Commerce/Web)
Presented by Jen Lowe, President, BoomBoom Percussion, LLC
Marketing your products and services can't be an afterthought or the line item you cut when money gets tight. From Google to YouTube and beyond, you have low-cost, high-impact marketing options at your disposal. Learn from real-life best practices how to differentiate your business and win customers.

11:30 a.m.
How to Create a Great Web Site (e-Commerce/Web)
Presented by Bill Walzak, President, and David Hall, National Sales Manager, Pro-Active Websites
Want your Web site to stand out from the crowd? With no prior programming experience, you will learn how to:

Pre-populate your site with over 100,000 products
Take advantage of drop shipment, which is available from leading suppliers
Build in a rental/lease-to-own module!
Create the same look as the big chains
Add your own products and custom pages

Noon (One-Hour Lunch & Learn Presentation/Part I)
Web Site Success—It Starts With a Plan … (E-Commerce/Web)
Presented by Bee Bantug & Gordon O'Hara, Managing Partners, Retail Up! Music
There is no doubt the Internet has become an essential part of your store's operations. The question is, how do you make all the Web opportunities: e-commerce, online rentals, leads production, social networking, blogs, auction sites, content and supply lines all work together to produce profitable results? It all starts with a plan. In this session, you will review the process and methods to build a plan for your store that will help you manage and grow all aspects of your Web-based efforts. Gordon and Bee will walk you through the planning process step-by-step so that you can start managing your Web site more profitably.

12:30 p.m. (One-Hour Lunch & Learn Presentation/Part II)
... and Follows Through with Action! (E-Commerce/Web)
Presented by Bee Bantug & Gordon O'Hara, Managing Partners, Retail Up! Music
In Part II of this session, learn how to put your plan into action throughout your store. Every person on your team plays a role in the success of your Internet efforts. From the shipping person to accounting, from road reps to sales staff to management, we'll review the roles each person plays to help make your plan a success. Most important, we'll show you how customer feedback can contribute to periodic updates of your Internet strategy.

1 p.m. (One Hour Presentation)
Industry Panel Discussion: Ask the Technology Experts (E-Commerce/Web)
Moderated by Danny Rocks, Catalyst, The Company Rocks
You have asked the hard questions. Now you will hear some answers. Join this panel of Web and technology experts to learn solutions that will keep you on the right side of the digital divide. These technology experts will respond to questions submitted prior to Summer NAMM, but will also take audience questions. Submit your questions to asktheexperts@namm.org.

2 p.m.
Music Industry Panel: Building Local Alliances: Keeping Music Education Strong in Your Community (Music Education)
Moderated by Mary Luehrsen, Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations, NAMM
Healthy, sustainable music programs depend on community commitments and the involvement of decision-makers, including school board members, administrators, legislators, teachers and parents who believe in keeping music and the arts as part of the school curriculum. Join the discussion and strengthen your role in helping music education stay strong in your community.

2:30 p.m.
Music Industry Panel: Teaching Music with Technology: New Tools for the Music Room (Music Education)
Moderated by Sandra Jordan, Associate Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations, NAMM
Technology is transforming the way music is composed, performed, promoted and taught. Music educators are exploring this frontier and succeeding through partnerships and support from the music industry. Join a discussion about how music and technology create a bridge to engage student learning.

3 p.m.
Music Industry Panel: Far Out Strings: Going Beyond the Traditional School Orchestra Program (Music Education)
Moderated by Sandra Jordan, Associate Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations, NAMM
Alternative styles, new methods and innovative designs are reshaping and reviving string programs in schools. Join the discussion and learn more about new methods and approaches that are invigorating school orchestra programs.

3:30 p.m.
Music Industry Panel: More Music in Schools: Now, EVERYBODY Play (Music Education)
Moderated by Sandra Jordan, Associate Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations, NAMM
Music teachers are expanding access to music education by offering guitar programs and expanding access to music making to children who may not have been drawn to traditional music education offerings. Learn from organizations that are leading this new opportunity for every student to learn music.