INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
WAS SUMMER NAMM 1 / 2 FULL OR 1 / 2 EMPTY ? | Bruce Adolph
[ WM ]' s Summer NAMM HANG at Tempo Nashville Load-in day on the convention floor
I know what it is like to be involved in producing live events to benefit communities . Whether it is our annual Christian Musician Summit Conferences or the three mainstream Guitar Festivals / Shows I do , it is good to see community coming back .
That doesn ’ t mean that it is easy however , nor that it doesn ’ t have its share of “ new normal challenges ”.
Summer NAMM in Nashville was a portrait of just that . It was great seeing some old friends that work for the musical instrument companies . And then you realized that some of your other friends weren ’ t there , because their companies chose not to travel and gather .
Both attendance and the exhibit numbers were down this Summer NAMM . The floor plan of exhibits had quite a large number of spaces in between them and wider aisles . All things you would do to make an event look larger than it was . I must admit that I have done similar things myself with floor plans at my guitar events before . It is just using the space you have most intelligently with the participants at hand .
What hurt the most - literally - was the absence of carpeted aisles . Bare cement isn ’ t kind to someone like me that walks down every aisle of the Music City Center convention center all day long , but it is a calculated decision when faced with high expenses .
With all that said , Summer NAMM 2021 was still a good success for us . Our Wednesday night [ WM ] Summer NAMM HANG is a meet n ’ greet ‘ mingler ’ of Christian and Worship music artists along with several gear sponsors . We held it again at Tempo Nashville ( a hip coffee shop run by Javier Solas and family ). Besides us , NAMM heavily promoted it and several companies donated door prizes and giveaways . The place was packed with old and new friends and it was a blast !
The next morning the convention kicked off . One thing beneficial about a smaller crowd is that you get to spent more quality time with the exhibitors that are there . We had several good editorial and advertising meetings in between
catching up with many of our own [ WM ] writers that were there and other artists friends .
This year , Summer NAMM was just a two-day event instead of three . That second morning NAMM allowed us to host our Worship Musician ’ s Chapel like we have done for years now . This 30-minute get together is a mix of 15 minutes of worship and 15 minutes of a teaching . Back again this year leading the music was Carl and Leann Albrecht . Yes , our drum columnist Carl is playing guitar here and his wife Leann is guiding us into a time of genuinely worshipping God through song . Next , our resident guest speaker ( and modern Christian music icon ) Tommy Coomes brought us thought-provoking scriptures in his own causal style . This early morning service happens before the convention doors open and this year our good group of folks walked away feeling loved and empowered .
As we wrapped up the last day we were given an invitation to go to the Gibson Garage for a tour of this new ‘ destination location ’. A short 5-minute walk later and we are immersed in