Over two and a half days in Melbourne last week, more than 250 newsagents and newsagent suppliers gathered at the Grand Hyatt for the 2009 National Newsagent Conference hosted by newsXpress. From the welcome dinner Wednesday night featuring “Fast” Ed Halmagyi from Better Homes and Gardens and the opening speech of the conference by Shane Jacobsen (Kenny, the movie), the event was abuzz with excitement and opportunity.
While I am biased as I am a Director of newsXpress, I am certain that if you asked any attendee, including non newsXpress members, they would say it was an inspirational conference focused on building a healthier business future for newsagents and newsagent suppliers. The mood was positive and the focus was on the future. There was no discussion of industry politics.
I have been to many newsagent conferences and none has packed so many speakers genuinely relevant to our channel as happened at this conference. Shane Jacobsen, while hilarious, gave us an insight into his journey to success on the world stage, business leader Geoff Lord followed with an excellent presentation on determination. Over the course of the two days, we were treated to excellent presentations including three from key suppliers: Russell Parker, CEO Hallmark Cards, Nick Chan, CEO of Pacific Magazines and James Simades, CEO of Jenlist. Each presented relevant practical insights into our channel and how we can grow core categories in our businesses.
Eric Beecher, former Fairfax editor and publisher and now publisher of Crikey.com and other online properties talked us through the challenges for print. James Manning from MediaWeek outlined how publishers are adjusting to change. Rob Smith CEO of Paper Plus in New Zealand provided an insight into how their group is dominating in key categories, similar to what we have in newsagencies, in New Zealand.
Costa Anastasiadis and Michael Rose from Crust Pizza and Simon Crowe from Grill’d Healthy Burgers talked about competing in traditional channels. Both businesses have reinvented the offers in their respective channels.
As I said, the conference agenda was packed. The social events were equally enjoyable and exciting, the food excellent and the positive networking a real treat.
The details of the 2010 National Newsagent Conference hosted by newsXpress were announced: September 8 through 10 in Sydney. If you want to mix with positive proactive newsagents, mark the dates in your diary now.
Is there going to be some podcast or video of some of the content for Newsagents that couldn’t make the conference?
Mark;
The conference was exceptional, the speakers relevent to our industry, and the entertainment wonderful.
A BIG thankyou to all the people behind the scenes that made it a success.
It was great to see non newsXpress members attend also.
Michael, a DVD of some presentations will be released. I’ll publish the details here once they are known.