For those looking for gear talk, please check out my lengthy Geartalk blog about NAMM.  This is more just musings on the show itself.

This year, I had a lot of work to do there for the publishing company I work for, so there wasn’t as much time to just wander and enjoy.  But as ever, I love NAMM as a social event, meeting exhibitors that I really only get to see at these trade shows.  And it is fun to walk around and feel the enthusiasm—and I don’t mean the manufactured enthusiasm of the exhibitors (although, to be fair, some of manufacturer enthusiasm is quite real), but the enthusiasm of full- and part-time musicians and users of these great tools and toys, who have that “kid in a candy store” joy at being there.

I have gone to so many NAMM shows at this point that the novelty of it is mostly gone.  That’s not to say it’s “just a job” at this point, I still enjoy going, both for the reasons above and just to keep up to date with the latest and greatest.  But I’ve been going long enough to judge each NAMM against previous NAMMs.  And this one was noticeably smaller than previous shows.  That makes sense for a number of reasons.  First, the economy wasn’t good.  I’m sure many exhibitors who wanted to go, couldn’t.  And it was impossible not to be surprised at how much empty exhibitor space there was this year.

But there’s something else in effect as well.  As time marches on, trade shows themselves aren’t nearly the focal points they used to be.  The original point of the NAMM show is that the organization’s buyers would invite the organizations sellers (manufacturers, developers, distributors) to show their wares, so that the buyers could see them and then make agreements to purchase them.  These days, the Internet serves as a more immediate, and usually more thorough, way to check out what a company is selling.  Not only that, but many companies tend to have online purchase order systems as well, so there may not be the need to go to Anaheim to sign a physical purchase order.  Due to these factor, many companies that weren’t there—Apple, Adobe, Native Instruments, etc—simply gave up on trade shows altogether, not just NAMM (and not just this year).

On the other hand, for smaller companies, sales reps, etc, there is still quite an advantage to being able to network, and that requires meeting in person.  And especially for smaller companies, having so many bloggers and media reps running around can result in attention that your product might not receive otherwise.  So trade shows like NAMM aren’t quite redundant yet.  But clearly, times are changing.

For now, however, I’ll continue to enjoy going, to meet business contacts and associates, to meet up with friends from far away…and yes, to look at the cool toys, too.

I didn’t get to post nearly as much as I’d hoped.  I’ve been busy with my editing duties, writing (both in the pro audio world and my own speculative fiction…look for orrenmerton.com to get online sometime in Q1 2010), and of course writing Ember After songs.  There is another song in progress, and it’s pretty good.  In fact, the song, “Shallow” began as an extra track to help fill out the Misery EP that is nearly finished.  I like the new song so much that now the EP itself will be called the Shallow EP!  So things are definitely happening, although it may not look like it from here.

Work on the EP is on hold for a while, as you might have gathered if you read the most recent posting in the News blog.  Ember Member Barry and myself will be at the NAMM show, so that will mean we won’t be at our respective studios.  Nonetheless, the hope is that this song will be completely by early February, the whole EP finished in February, and new music to share and purchase in March.

Okay, back to NAMM preparations!

Here we are, a week before the music instrument industry’s big debutant ball (or candy store, depending who you ask), the NAMM show.  This show manages to attract tens of thousands of people every year—exhibitors showing their musical instruments, software, and technology; buyers representing retailers shopping for what to order; non-exhibiting companies who are attached to the industry and therefore attend the show; and of course the MI industry media, eager to get the blogosphere and magazine reading public super-excited about all the new toys.  I work for a publishing company as an editor in the music and music technology field, and that means NAMM isn’t just a candy store for me; I am there for work.  I email a lot of people, but this is where we can seal the deal, face to face.

And I think that’s why so many companies are still exhibiting at NAMM this year, and so many industry professionals attend, even though the global economy is in the toilet.  This is where you can meet with your distributors and partners, you can establish new business relationships and see what the competition is up to.  This is where you can talk to representatives in person and maybe nail down, face to face, that deal that you talked about over the phone and in email but never quite got solidified.

But I have to admit…my favorite part is the social nature of it all.  I’ve met some great people over the years I’ve been coming to NAMM.  And especially with Europeans I’ve met, trade shows are some of my only chances to see them.  It’s the same with everyone—ultimately, trade shows are about personal interaction far more than simply unveiling new products.  And so there are lots of dinners, lunches, and coffees that double as both business events and social events.  

Clearly, the business value of the trade shows are diminishing thanks to the immediate availability of information (and usually higher quality information) on the Internet, and how easy it is to get ahold of people online and on mobile phone.  That’s one reason the big boys like Apple, Adobe, and others have given up exhibiting.  But the social value—and the social business value—remains.

So I gladly take my more serious business meetings in.  Because I learn a lot, I meet people, and because you never know: today’s “serious” business meeting could be tomorrow’s coffee partner.  Because the truth is, most of us do have at least one thing in common—at one point, we also viewed NAMM as one big candy store…