One-on-One with
Joe Lamond
NAMM President & CEO
NAMM PRES . & CEO JOE LAMOND
CMT caught up with NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond in mid-May to discuss plans for the coming Summer NAMM show , as well as preliminary plans for The 2022 NAMM Show , lessons learned from Believe in Music Week , and more .
CMT : What are you expecting at this point , in terms of the size and scope of this coming Summer NAMM as it ’ ll compare to pre-pandemic shows ?
Joe Lamond : This will definitely be smaller , it ’ s just a matter of how much smaller . Whether that ’ s 30 % or 40 % smaller , it ’ s just hard to tell right now . This one is going to be a late-breaking show for sure . We ’ re seeing there was a group that was going to go no matter what happened ; we ’ ve already got them . There ’ s a group that ’ s not going to go no matter what and we ’ re not going after them . Then there ’ s a large number of companies in the middle who are still trying to decide , and those decisions are coming down to economic progress , supply – if they have things to sell , because exhibitors are really constrained right now on supply – and then what the current situation is with the pandemic at the time . As we know , it ’ s really a moving target , but in general it ’ s improving .
So , based on those three factors , we ’ ve got companies who said a month ago that they ’ re not going to go and then Korg just today said , “ Yeah , we ’ re coming .” They said they weren ’ t going under any circumstances and then Dan Moylan , [ NAMM ’ s director of trade show sales ,] just walked in and said , “ Oh , Korg is back .” So , that ’ s how I expect a lot of this to go in general .
I will add that , from my perspective , what was important about this was gathering the key decision makers . There ’ s been lots of things that the pandemic has created , but one of the biggest things it created is the inability to make decisions quickly . People are on multiple Teams and Zoom calls . My real thought was , it was important to get the industry decision makers together face-to-face in Nashville so that we could come out of this in a much quicker way than if weeks had to go by before someone could get to someone else before a decision was made . So , I was less concerned about having tons of new products and exhibits and everything , but more about let ’ s get the buyers and sellers together so that they can actually meet and solve problems and plan for a better future .
I think regardless of how big the show floor is – like I said , it could be 30 % to 40 % smaller than 2019 – what I was more interested in was making sure we had the right buyers and sellers there . So , we created this Networking Pass . It was a way for a non-exhibiting manufacturer to legitimately come to the event , bring samples , have a meeting place , be able to store goods on-site so they could do business if they didn ’ t want to be having a big booth for the full show . There were some like Taylor who said , “ We want to exhibit and we have a lot of new guitars .” But some were like , “ I want to come but I don ’ t have any new products to bring , but I definitely want to meet with my retailers .” And so that ’ s really what we are creating with this Networking Pass .
CMT : Over the last year , we ’ ve certainly seen a lot of trade shows get announced and planned only to be cancelled . At least in Canada still , any currently-planned show is still facing a lot of uncertainty . So , just how confident are you that Summer NAMM is going to happen ?
Joe Lamond : Great question . We were more confident than we should have been last year , right ? We underestimated the severity of the pandemic last year . I think we and many others in the world are now equally underestimating the recovery . So , I think we ’ re wrong on both sides .
I mean , I ’ m an old road manager for bands , and I can tell you that advancing the gig was the key role of a production manager . I ’ ve always felt you ’ ve got to go advance the gig . So , I flew to Nashville last week just to see it for myself . I spent two days there , met with everyone I needed to meet with from the city and the convention centre , and walked around at night and just saw the place . There is no pandemic in Nashville . They have decided , I guess , not to participate in the pandemic [ laughs ]. It was as open as any city I ’ ve ever seen pre-pandemic . People were polite indoors and at restaurants , you ’ d put your mask on , but then you ’ d take it off at the table . Downtown , there was live music coming out of every doorway in the downtown clubs . I just felt so excited to see crowds and live music and all the things that our industry is really invested in . But it felt good to see it . I can ’ t tell our members to go there and not have seen it myself . I can say right now , Nashville is ready for us .
On Friday , [ May 14 th ,] the state of Tennessee drops all COVID restrictions . Many states have already done that . So , there will be no restrictions on capacity in the rooms , there ’ ll be no restrictions on restaurants or distancing or anything . But we ’ re going do a lot of that in our safety plan , like space out booths and do some things , but there will no longer be any restrictions or requirements to do so [ from the municipal or state governments ].
CMT : In terms of international participation , either as attendees or exhibitors , what are you expecting ?
Lamond : Yeah , it ’ s a tough barrier if you ’ ve got to quarantine for two weeks . People won ’ t do that and we totally recognize that . The Canadian border has been very strict . I mean , I talked to Andy Zildjian and every time he goes home and back to the factory , he technically has to quarantine for two weeks . So , that has been a huge burden on cross-border traffic . Unless that opens before July , I think it ’ s going to be tough for someone to come down .
We ’ ve got some European members , specifically Germany , and what I ’ ve heard from several of the large distributors and retailers in Germany is they ’ re eager to get out . I mean , you got to realize that people just have cabin fever . What I ’ ve heard from several of the bigger companies is that they ’ ve always wanted to go to Nashville , they generally don ’ t , and this may be the year that they ’ re going to go . One , because of cabin fever and they want to get out , and then this is an opportunity for them to see Nashville . You know , Nashville ’ s a swinging place and it ’ s one of the coolest cities in the world right now . So , for some it ’ s an opportunity to get out , do some business , but also maybe take a little break , and spend a couple days in Nashville and see the city . Having fun in a Music City is maybe the best medicine for a lot of what ails us …
So , I think we ’ re going get some good international attendance on the larger retail side and larger distributor side , but maybe not the smaller guys who may find it more difficult to travel .
26 CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE