NAMM Strikes a Chord With Anaheim Signing
The International Music Products Association show, known as NAMM, is Anaheim’s largest convention at more than 70,000.
It struck a high note with Anaheim officials in July when the group signed a six-year contract to bring the convention to Anaheim every year through 2010.
The new contract is expected to generate future economic impact of more than $84 million.
Greg Smith, executive director of the Anaheim Convention Center, noted that NAMM’s influence is felt far beyond the weeklong convention each year.
The show, he said, was a “driving force behind many of our expansions.”
“It’s absolutely the largest in square footage of any trade show in Anaheim,” Smith said.
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle credited the entire Anaheim community for coming together to make the contract happen.
“This represents Anaheim seizing a Super Bowl for the next six years,” he said.
In 2005, NAMM will host its 28th convention in Anaheim.
The first was held at the Disneyland Hotel in 1976. In 1981, the show outgrew the hotel (though it has almost 100,000 square feet of exhibit space) and moved to the convention center.
NAMM had just about outgrown the convention center in the late 1990s when the center undertook its most recent expansion. During the expansion, NAMM moved temporarily to Los Angeles, but said it was happy to be back in Anaheim when the newly expanded center opened in 2000.
NAMM chief executive Joe Lamond called the new contract a “true community package.”
“It will benefit everyone,” he said.
Among those that have benefited in the past: local school children who have received donated musical instruments from the organization.
“The numbers don’t tell the whole story,” Lamond said. “For one week every year, Anaheim is the music capital of the world.”
,Sandi Cain
