On July 10, one day before the Summer NAMM show in Nashville TN, 165 Owners and employees of nearly 70 independent music stores had the opportunity to sharpen their skills during Retail Boot Camp. Held in the spacious Renaissance Ballroom adjacent to the Nashville Convention Center, the event was seven hours of intensive fine-tuning for retail music stores. The one-day class was directed by Bob Negen, the creator of WhizBang Training courses and the Retail Mastery System. The event was sponsored by the Independent Music Store Owners (iMSO) group, which, with tremendous support from NAMM, made the training session a strong opening to this year’s Summer NAMM show. Working with NAMM, the iMSO was able to present this pre-show session to attending stores and their employees for free.
Participants were treated to a delicious Southwestern lunch (courtesy of NAMM), and several training modules were given away as door prizes. Topics covered in the Retail Boot Camp included finding the right employees, loyalty programs, time management and a host of other material that kept the audience fully engaged. The response to the event was so overwhelmingly positive that it might be offered again at another NAMM show.