I’m very happy to report that we held our first (and hopefully annual) I’ll Buy That Retail Forum last Thursday afternoon here in the Brewery. The Labatt Beer Institute was a marvelous host and I like to think that people stuck around for more than a free beer or two at the end. I was thrilled with the turnout as we had over a dozen clients in attendance. They were treated to three excellent speakers who covered a wide range of topics. First, Christine James from the Canadian Retail Council gave us an update on what is going on in her world. Although her presentation touched on a number of issues that were of great interest to the retailers in the audience, it was the current credit card and banking issues that generated the greatest discussion. Christine said she is available to any of you for more information on these or any other issues atlantic@retailcouncil.org.

Some of you may also be interested in a conference scheduled for Toronto in early June. Store09 is a retail conference put on by the RCC that promised to help retailers in Canada to “Survive. Revive. Thrive.” If any of you attend be sure to give the group a report.

Later this week, we’ll give brief reports on the other two speakers from I’ll Buy That, Peter Korecki, president of Pierceys, and Don Khoury, peer leadership and business communication guru.

Before I get back to my paying work, a quick thought on what I found most encouraging about I’ll Buy That and some research leading up to the event. Before the day, we hypothesized that “Recession Is A State Of Mind,” and I think we were right. In speaking with our dozen or so clients, the overwhelming consensus was that there is a “re-shaping” underway. This is not a cyclical recession that will come and go in due course. Rather, this is a period of profound change across all sectors. “I know I can’t just retreat and wait until it’s over and then expect to pop my head back out and find business as usual,” said one attendee. It was encouraging to hear that none of our clients where prepared to simply do nothing. Every one of them is trying new things to keep customers, attract new ones and control costs. They refuse to sit back and observe the problem; rather they are participating in the solution.

Stay tuned.

I've been in the marketing game for almost 25 years now and the most valuable thing I've learned is that I have a whole lot more to learn. I started off in sales and worked my way up (so I thought) to advertising. In hind sight, I realize that sales was the top! You can have sales without advertising, but advertising without sales is just useless art. When Trampoline Branding was formed, we set out with that firmly planted in our minds. Now more than ever we need to keep it very simple for consumers. Good thing, I'm a very simple guy!