The NAMA programming year will start officially in less than a month (on Thursday, September 2), and the new Board of Directors and volunteers are working hard to get ready for it.
We have a new website – and a whole new brand. Karen Cronin of Cronin Creative designed our logo and clean, modern look. Laura Creekmore of Creekmore Consulting led the charge to get the site up in record time. Many thanks to Laura and to Megan Morris of Hammock Inc. who did the site programming.
Laura acknowledges below the contributions of the team she’s been working with to revamp the site, build a NAMA community site and overhaul the registration system. I want to extend my thanks to the tech team as well: Jeremy Gossett, Affinion Group, our Marketing Technology Chair; Nick Holland, CentreSource, our Programming Co-Chair; and Bob Duthie, Bytes of Knowledge, our Database Chair.
David Green, of David Green Communications and Alphanumeric, is our Communications Chair, and he and his team are now turning our new technology into true communications tools. David will be working closely with our Marketing Chair, Jimmy Chaffin of DVL. Marketing is a new committee for NAMA. So is Networking. We have tapped Adam Small of Strategic Business Network to be our first Networking Chair.
Our Programming committee and our SIGs, Special Interest Groups in Healthcare, eMarketing and Nonprofit Marketing, are busy planning an active year. So are Membership, Communications, Collegiate Relations, Research, Sponsorship, Volunteer Recruiting, Hospitality and AIM.
Speaking of AIM, you’ll hear a lot about our Achievement In Marketing Awards all year long. We’ll start at our September 2 luncheon, which we’re incorporating with an abbreviated version of our postponed AIM Awards gala. The original date was May 5 – three days after the Cumberland crested. That 2nd Avenue stalwart, the Wild Horse Saloon, was to be our host. Obviously, the event didn’t happen. We decided to start our new year off by honoring the AIM winners at a luncheon meeting where the guest speaker is Dan Rogers, the Senior Marketing Manager of another flood victim, the Grand Ole Opry.
It’s going to be an exciting year. I hope we’ll see you often, at our luncheons, mixers and SIG events. If you have just recently found out about NAMA, I hope you’ll consider joining us. (Talk to Membership Chair Larry Norton, larry@flashmind.net.) And I hope you’ll think about volunteering. It’s a great organization, but you’ll never know how great it can be – for your career, your network, your development as a marketer – until you jump in, join a committee and help out. Volunteer Chair Holly Rooks Grenvicz, holly@werkshopmarketing.com, is waiting to hear from you.
Don’t hesitate to contact any of us on the Board of Directors.
Mary Pollman
President, Nashville Chapter, American Marketing Association
