Austin Gets 2007 Summer NAMM
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 9/25/2006
NAMM, the Intl. Music Products Assn., will hold its next NAMM Summer Session in Austin, July 27–29, 2007 — just as it did last year — instead of Indianapolis, as originally scheduled. The show was held in Indianapolis in 2005 and the group's plan was to alternate between the two cities for the indefinite future. But things changed.
"It's not Indianapolis' fault," said NAMM Director of Trade-shows Kevin Johnstone. "Indianapolis had it all: excellent convention center with plenty of space, good hotels and a beautiful downtown. But NAMM members didn't perceive it as a music city."
Johnstone said Austin works because of its reputation as a music city, its convention center capacity and a hotel package that works for NAMM participants.
"We might not have had this problem if the show had moved around," Johnstone said. "Our members loved Nashville, but we outgrew the Nashville (Tenn.) Convention Center and the hotels, and the first year in any new city would have been a challenge."
Attendance in Indianapolis in 2005 and Austin this year were down from previous shows held in Nashville (where it had been staged the previous 12 years).
Nashville could be back in the picture in the future too. Johnstone said NAMM members told him they liked Austin, but they still favor Nashville, even though space there is an issue.
The fact that some exhibitors in the Nashville shows were in satellite exhibit halls in the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center and some attendees had to stay in distant hotels was a problem. NAMM recently joined a coalition of groups supporting Nashville's planned Music City Center project, which will add a convention and entertainment center to the downtown area.
