NAMM - What to expect?

[Perry Ormsby]

We are attending Winter NAMM 2016. Double booth booked, hopefully Hall D.

Would love some feedback, tips, and comments from those that have attended. Do's and Don't's. What should we expect? Preparations?

We have a couple joint ventures locked in with boutique amplifier companies and hardware suppliers, ie: they supply us with gear, we do the same for them. We have an active 'street team' that will assist with some promo prior. What else?

[David King]

Pace yourself. It's a very loud environment and if you need to do a lot of talking you'll lose your voice the first day. Be very willing to see money blow away from you in large wads as every little thing at NAMM will cost you between load-in, setup and take down, load-out. Try to get through all your appointments in the first two days and brace yourself for an exhausting Saturday with gigantic crowds of sight-seers and hangeroners who are there to make as much noise as they can. Then again I haven't been in 14 years so perhaps it's gotten smaller, quieter, better since but I have my doubts.

[Simon Magennis]

Good luck on that Perry. I visited the Frankfurt fair as a visitor. Similar scale I believe. Huge and exhausting. A lot of exhibitors are selling on a container scale. I saw some nice guitar cases from China or Korea. Minimum order was a 20ft container full. However, there were also some much smaller businesses represented. I don't know if NAMM does it but the Frankfurt one is open to the general pubic for a very small proportion of the event - it is essentially a "trade" fair.

[Perry Ormsby]

That's what we are looking for Simon, mass production distribution via stores. 450 sold since April, but none through dealers. It's time to step up

Hoping to have 10 dealers pre-NAMM, 30 by end of 2016. USA, EURO, JAPAN.

I went with a double booth, but after measuring it out, might have been a bit overenthusiastic :O Figured 15 guitars should be enough to show off a decent range, plus some couches to let people (me) relax a little.

[Michael Lewis]

Perry, are your guitars acoustic or electric? For acoustic I would recommend hall E downstairs, it's a bit quieter and still very busy. National resophonics and Santa Cruz guitars are always down there. There are electrics and some amp booths there also. The upper halls are definitely noisier.

[Perry Ormsby]

Electrics. We have teamed up with KSR Amplification for amps, and Positive Grid for ipad based (headphones) setups.

Just signed a Euro dealer, another Aussie dealer, and a USA dealer. Things are moving along nicely!

[Jason Rodgers]

Electrics. We have teamed up with KSR Amplification for amps, and Positive Grid for ipad based (headphones) setups.

Just signed a Euro dealer, another Aussie dealer, and a USA dealer. Things are moving along nicely!

Good on ya!