WH’NAMM - Make it Big!

Made it to NAMM 2019 this year after a decision to go there irrespective of how busy I am back home. There are things one must do sometimes and I not just did not regret it but also simply loved it.

The best things about trade fairs are that they are a human zoo of creator & enterprise all talking to each other for a better technological future and what gripped me the most about this show is that the organizers have everyone in the sonic food chain take interest in coming to the show, this meant that there was artists, producers, engineers, dealers, distributors, buyers, exhibitors, publications, press, musicians & manufacturers and the list goes on.

Now here is the difference we aren’t attending specifics, we are all communicating with each other, learning of each other and socializing and getting to know each other better than we did because at the end of the day its about relationships that take businesses to greater heights the products are a pile of dumb metal without the people.

Every show has its own charm and pros and cons and if there are a few cons it’s only how we draw parity to the other shows. The one thing that was simply amazing was the AES@NAMM Symposium is the manner in which the workshops, trainings, lectures & panel discussions were organized is the thing that impressed me the most about the show. I just could not attend all I wanted to, there be so much to learn. I barely made it to the exhibitor halls, I would only finish at around 2 to 3 PM at the NAMM learning center, needless to say that the instructors were simply the best, icons and leaders in their craft. Even the panel discussions had me learning so much about the business yet, we were all in splits with the anecdotes.

The only thing that’s good about our industry is change and its constantly evolving to make better audio and better music. Taking from here I just wanted to highlight the most important aspect of what we do. Most of us who joined the sound industry, almost all of us did because we are passionate about this and we have made our passion our business, nobody told us at the time we started that by the time we grow we will have to manage an organization, take care of our accounting and administration and loose a lot of our valuable time in account receivables and client related matters. We can all agree we never signed up for this and now we all have to talk ourselves into doing this correctly.

So how do we make money at the end of the day? I personally never got into this racket to make money, money has always been the byproduct of my efforts so guys like me will always shell out our savings to buy a better piece of hardware and the honest truth is that we cannot change that, its in our DNA. I am trying to answer these questions just like a sage is looking for enlightenment. Do you want to hang your boots and say your done or do you want to die in the battlefield working till the last day you can, it’s the choices we make.

Moving up in India the times have changed, accounting, taking care of your books, companies valuation has become an integral part of ones framework, making statutory payments on time and keeping our debt realistic has become so important post GST era that “in the long run those who take care of their back-end and bottom line will make it to the finish line”. Wanton decisions on purchases, making procurements without a plan or work in hand will be detrimental to ones success and I am talking from experience too.

Now what I would like to see that if everyone in the ecosystem come together in one big show discussing tech and business, why don’t trade fair organizers form their own trade fair or consortium of discussions and panels and workshops as to how they can make their shows better, exchange and share knowledge and work with each other just like AES globally works with many shows as well as conduct some of their own. Now this will be the best thing in the future and hey then we can have these out of bound brands and eminent speakers in our end of the woods. How about that thought organizers?

I too would love to talk about emerging markets on panels globally and how manufacturers grow their businesses in India and understand holistically pricing and entering into the Indian market. It’s always the case that the manufacturers are beginning initial talks with their potential distributors and not their customers. I am sure in the near future these things will happen, what definitely changed is that now even top tier audio manufacturers are putting up our testimonials on their products, endorsing our artists and engineers and the India story globally is growing.

Rewards and Recognition is very important and PALM has initiated that with their own awards namely the PALM Awards for the live industry & XYZ. For the recording. Just like NAMM have the Parnelli for Individuals and TEC for products? Only over the years one will realize how important are these calendar dates.

We all want recognition and respect for what we do and awards validate our efforts. I was happy to be invited at Parnelli this year and there were a lots of learning’s from the coveted awards and the manner in which the show was conducted and whilst I attended it dawned upon someone that I should be invited to the TPI awards in the UK and invited me so that there would be are greater global reach to the awards function. How wonderful and I gladly accepted.

See you soon PALM & TPI it will be a privilege and honor to attend the same!