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President's NoteRetailNOW 2010 Brings Opportunity for Members
September’s issue of connect is a recap of this year’s gathering of our industry at RetailNOW. For the association, RetailNOW 2010 was a huge success. The exhibit hall sold out two months ahead of schedule with a waiting list of 20 exhibitors; we had a record number of attendees and a record number of reseller members at RetailNOW. Best of all, reseller and vendor attendees all commented that the show was good for their respective businesses. Several commented that it was the “best show yet”. One of our members stated that our tag line to RetailNOW – Where the Industry Meets was no longer a slogan but now a fact. Based on member and attendee feedback we were very pleased with the results and will continue to make the event even better each year.
Bottom line - record attendance, good momentum and a feeling of optimism – my take away is, that spells opportunity for our members.
The expo floor was packed because there were many new and exciting products and technologies. IP based security and mobility technologies provide excellent business opportunities for our members’ current customer base. One of our education sessions featured a broad spectrum of industry leaders from BlueStar, HP, IBM, Ingram Micro, Micros, NCR and Scan Source. These CEO’s and top executives exhibited their collective support for RSPA and shared valuable knowledge with the 400+ attendees at their session. Key points of the discussion were the opportunities for new business with new technologies, the need to employ new and efficient business practices to reach and support customers and that RSPA is right on with our channel sustainability initiative. All of this spells new business for our reseller members who step forward to grab the new opportunities. The call to action was clear; get educated, up to speed or get run over.
A session on PCI facts brought together NRA, NACS, the PCI Council, RSPA and Carla Yarbrough (a restaurateur who was featured in our DVD 'Are you at Risk'). We got down to the cold hard facts with some very candid discussion on the PCI issue. The opportunity here is to become a trusted advisor for your customers through continuous communications and information. In the meantime, we are all trying to find a solution to the problem (see the article on association initiatives on page 20).
Finally and most importantly RetailNOW brought the opportunity to build business relationships - reseller to reseller, vendor to reseller and vendor to vendor. There were face to face connections being made at our networking events such as our “Birds of a Feather” luncheon where members gathered to discuss like topics of interest and electronic connections being made at RSPA’s social media boot camp.
RetailNOW 2010 was productive, provided attendees with a great ROI for their time and multiple possibilities to advance their collective businesses. Exactly our goal for the show… bring opportunity to our members.
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