Many Happy Returns: The 2022 NAMM Show

“It was incredible to see our members and industry partners come together for our first Anaheim gathering in two and a half years,” says NAMM president and CEO Joe Lamond. “The excitement of being connected again, in-person, was palpable. Business was done, new products found a welcome buying and media audience, the educational offerings spanned every industry segment and the networking with new and old friends, peers and customers was perhaps more appreciated than ever. As I said in my opening remarks, half of life is about simply showing up, and the NAMM Members who were there epitomized the animal spirits that will, and have always, prevailed through good times and bad.”

Lofty sentiments, to be sure, but as nearly all we connected with this June in Anaheim would agree, pretty spot-on. The metrics paint one picture – just over 1,000 exhibiting members representing 3,500 brands, and 46,627 registered attendees from 111 countries and territories (compared to 115,301 attendees in 2020) – but the true story was best told via the many upbeat conversations, smiling faces, boisterous concerts, instructive educational offerings, and brisk booth activity that defined these three days in Orange County.

What the future holds for all such industry get-togethers is the topic of much debate, but whatever size, dates, and locations are in store for NAMM Shows to come, the 2022 return of the MI industry’s largest gathering more than demonstrated its continued relevance – and importance – for many.

Voices from the Show Floor

MMR chatted with a number of attendees to the 2022 NAMM Show to get their take on a few topics. First off, how was it to be back in Anaheim after such a long time? How did exhibiting members feel about some long-time Show ‘regulars’ who opted not to make the trek this year? Did the timing – June rather than January – have an impact on how successful the gathering was? Does it seem like having both the NAMM Show and Summer NAMM will make sense going forward?

“I thought the show was great! It was a strong reminder of how much personal connection means and how lucky we are to be in an industry where the friendships are as important as the business being done. The show drove home to me the importance of gatherings, I am very happy that we were a part of it!

“I was extremely happy to see everyone that was there, along with understanding the trepidation that existed and led to companies not attending. Exhibiting at NAMM is an expensive and time intensive endeavor to prepare for. In hindsight, I wish NAMM would have done more to incentivize exhibitors to come, as there was a lot of extra space that could have been filled and would have made a better experience for the attendees thus driving them to attend in future years.

“I loved the fact that there were so many music educators attending this year. I hope that the show continues to evolve in bringing in more influencers groups such as these. I like the idea of one [annual] show. As for the perfect timing, that is a big debate due to so many other industry group gatherings that take place in the spring. For us, I like it being a little later in the year versus January, as that allows new product releases to be more relevant and ‘new’ for Q4.”

Crystal Morris, President/CEO, Gator Cases

“The show was buzzing. The one over-riding factor was meeting friends, colleagues, old and new business partners – FACE TO FACE. It was a joy to leave Zoom and Teams aside for a few days and get back to good old personal contact.

“Yes exhibitors and numbers were down. However, those that were there were there to network. Rather than 30 minute back to back meetings, we had extra time to meet with our customers, discuss new opportunities and secure new business. While we saw less international customers, we did see representation from most countries that were permitted to come

“I think COVID has taught us we can use other means to achieve the same goals, not to mention the cost. However, nothing beats seeing your customers and consumers face to face, picking up industry titbits, trends and opportunities. I hope NAMM builds on the success of this year and we see a number of the absent exhibitors return in 2023, even if they take smaller booths.”

Iain Wilson, CEO, IBC Trading Ltd.

“It was great to ‘be back’ and to engage with consumers, dealers and distributors, suppliers, artists, peers, and the media in person, and to discuss and conduct some business. There was a good energy level and vibe in and around the show. NAMM continues to offer a platform to showcase new products and services and to provide a snapshot of the state of the industry. The MI industry continues to roll out lots of new high quality products and services, so from a consumer perspective this is the best time ever to take advantage of that. There were definitely fewer manufacturers, channel partners and suppliers at the show, and there seemed to be a lot more consumers attending this year, relatively speaking.

“Our Martin booth had great attendance throughout with a good mix of consumers, artists, channel partners, suppliers, and the media, and many of our Martin attendees had opportunities to participate in the various NAMM sessions and to connect with our peers. We got great exposure from it.

“I think the NAMM Show will need to evolve in order to maintain or increase its relevance and to grow. How, that is the big question, but I would imagine it would be around NAMM’s role and purpose, its audiences, and its value proposition

“As an intermediary step, [having the 2023 Show in April] kind of makes sense, yet it will be interesting how that timing impacts attendance. I don’t think it makes sense to have a winter and summer NAMM show going forward if the format is the same for both.

Thomas Ripsam, President & CEO, C.F. Martin Guitar & Co.

“This year’s show reinforced the importance of face-to-face gatherings with our customers and key partners. The music business, like music itself, is a communal culture. We need to be together to collaborate, inspire, and be creative together. Another take-away for us this year is that our NAMM presentation doesn’t need to only be about product, but more focus on strategy and programs to grow the market. In a digital age, our customers get new product info in real-time and it’s more productive to use their precious time at NAMM to focus on bigger topics.

“I think it was a big mistake for those exhibitors and retailers who chose not to participate this year. They not only missed out on close personal connections to the industry, but in my opinion, they bailed out on NAMM and the industry as a whole during a time of transition when we needed everyone’s support. Some benefits are not measured in days or months, or dollars or ROI. The NAMM Show experience is bigger than that.

“We think the NAMM Show will eventually return to prominence, albeit in a different shape and a broader experience. The Show needs to be more inclusive of pro-sumers and music educators, who are all stake-holders in our industry. The Show will need to continue to improve itself as a social media platform so that the energy of the NAMM Show can be amplified for suppliers and retailers via their own social media reach. I don’t love the 2023 April date, but it had to be done to ‘bridge’ our way back to January 2024. I think Summer NAMM, as it is currently conceived, will likely not have a very strong future, but rather will evolve into a different professional development event, which would be a good second platform for NAMM and the industry.”

Larry Morton, CEO, Hal Leonard

“First of all, I was pleasantly surprised by the attendance. We had a steady, busy stream of people stopping in the booth. It was great to have face-to-face interactions with customers, retailers and more and get their initial spontaneous reactions. I also found it very valuable to meet with partners in person to bounce ideas and build energy. I think we were all excited to be back together!

“It’s a weird world right now, Everyone needs to make a decision for themselves – a business decision, a personal decision. I will not deny it was a bit nerve-wracking to be around that many people, many of them unmasked. But for us it was a great show and we were excited to be a part of a forward-thinking MI contingent that shows up!

“Personally I like this show as a winter show. We are super active with artists, influencers, and other publics, and doing this show during [summer] touring season – there are just many missed opportunities. As far as how the show will evolve – I wish my crystal ball was fully functioning! As an innovator in the industry we are always thinking about how to surprise and delight with new ideas and activations; I’m sure NAMM will do the same. There’s nothing wrong with looking at new partners and new ways to interact. I’d love to see some kind of networking event that just pairs us up to chat – maybe like industry speed networking. I love connecting and exploring ideas with new people so anything that helps facilitate that is a good thing.”

Laura B. Whitmore, SVP Marketing, Positive Grid

“The key takeaway from our team was just how important the face-to-face and hands-on elements are in the pro audio and MI space. Whether it was a touring engineer who needed one final deep dive training session with an Allen & Heath dLive before they commit to it (otherwise sight unseen) for an upcoming tour, a DJ checking the build quality for herself on a Xone mixer, a keyboardist getting a read on the key action for a keyboard controller for their studio, et cetera, we witnessed many instances of the “I just needed to see it / touch it / feel it for myself” across the American Music & Sound booth. To that point, we offered packed training sessions for the live sound crowd, special small scale concert events, the AM&S ‘petting zoo’ booth, an Avantis console for the Loudspeaker Demo in the Arena, intimate meeting rooms, larger ballroom team gatherings, etc. so that everyone was able to experience those unique in-person elements at the show. We’ve been committed to expanding and enhancing our online marketing tools and CRM system and live streaming rigs for our sales team since the first COVID shutdown hit, but even with the best virtual online processes and tools that you can buy, that last step in creating a new customer often will require an experience that only a show like NAMM can deliver.

“We made a number of strategic decisions around how we approached both NAMM and InfoComm since we have brands that are major players in both the MI/pro audio as well as the commercial audio/install segments. It seems quite clear to us that the benefits of attending shows in a big way as we did outweighed the risks and costs of attending, but for other companies who decided to pass the calculus may have been different. I think it comes down to how each company views tradeshow attendance from a tactical standpoint and whether they missed out on achieving particular sales and marketing goals by deciding to skip on attendance. I guess the short version is that we are glad that we went all in – and we weren’t too bothered by those companies in our space who decided to scale down drastically or pass entirely.

“This is a bit of a personal take on the matter, but I think that one show in January is ideal. Play up the ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) factor and drive attendance of that single NAMM instance up. Go big in January and hopefully other trade shows will get their schedules set so things pace out better than ’NAMMfoCOMM 2022’ did. However it lands, I’d vote for not being on the road in full tradeshow mode for weeks at a time again.”

Jeff Hawley, Marketing Director, Allen & Heath USA

“Attending NAMM 2022 this year had one main takeaway for me and that was a refreshing reminder why we as audio technology manufacturers do what we do. To create products for our customers and then get the opportunity to meet and chat with them while exposing our products to thousands of new potential customers in the process, there’s nothing quite like that feeling, and I definitely missed it.
“I think for companies like Flock, having some of the larger brands not attending shifted more focus and attention onto us during the show. Even with the smaller numbers in attendance, it felt very busy on the show floor. I would have liked to see more California-based companies attend this year to support the event, especially since it’s right in their own backyard, but I understand that there are a lot of considerations that factor into their decision.
“ It will be interesting to experience NAMM in April next year, but no more than it was to have it in June a couple weeks ago. I think if this past experience at NAMM has taught me anything, it’s that it doesn’t matter too much when the show is held and it’s just a pleasure to be back on the show floor reconnecting with our fellow brands and customers. I do personally hope that Summer NAMM in Nashville returns in 2024 as it was a different vibe entirely than Winter NAMM and always gave us an easy excuse to visit one of our favorite cities… Nashville.”