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The Summer Shows

 

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  Mid-America DJ Convention

 

Sid Vanderpool-Editor

 

Lisa Hughes

Country for non-country DJs

U-all do have life jackets on this thing?

Exhibits?

Jerry "Icebox" Springer?

Before I start  here is my diclaimer- Jeffery W. Kibbey Attorney

Party People in da house!

Sunset on the Ohio River

Great seminars!

 

"Welcome to your show, the DJ's show." That is how Lisa Hughes opened the second annual Mid-America DJ convention in Louisville Kentucky three weeks ago in a room of 180 disc jockeys that were eager to learn and network. While munching on free Danishes and sipping orange juice, grapefruit juice, and coffee, the crowd was transfixed on this ever smiling, bouncy lady. A few critical people were taken aback by the small amount of people attending the opening seminar, but would soon find out those numbers don't mean everything. According to the Louisville Convention and Visitor Authority estimated attendance later that afternoon soared to over 500 attendees not including the vendors.

As the day wore on, a whole plethora of seminars unfolded taking the audience from the simple side of things to the extreme. "Wedding Receptions: A bipolar perspective" took DJ's on a ride of their life with how three extremely different DJs please the wedding market in their area. It started with the smooth voice of Marshell Yancy from Yancy Entertainment explaining how he caterers to the "high end" clientele that prefers the more elegant entertainment and was concluded with Screaming Scott telling everyone that, "If I didn't get up on a speaker and scream, my clients would be very disappointed." (Scott gave a short disclaimer stating even though he is a little extreme, he knows where the line of bad taste is and does not cross it.) If you didn't know your country music, two of the nations top country DJs, Ron Burt and Gary Orr made the "Country Music For Non-Country DJ's" seminar very informative with a Southern flair.

What do you get when you bring in three DJs and three systems to do a seminar? You get "Gear Up to a Faster Setup". After demonstrating how fast each of them can setup, each DJ took the time to explain what they did to expedite their setup. Throughout the day, attendees were treated to free sodas and bottled water in an adjoining networking room right off the main seminar hall.

All aboard! Despite the heat and humidity, the highlight of the opening day was cruising, networking, and partying up the Ohio River aboard the Belle of Louisville river boat. With a choice of partying inside to the pounding tracks being laid down by Scott Cumston , sitting up on deck networking, or just watching the sun set, the attendees had the whole boat to themselves.

The next day everyone was once again greeted with a continental breakfast consisting of bagels and cream cheese, juice, and coffee. The opening seminar had a few glitches with the projector screen, but as good DJ's normally do, they improvised!

The exhibit hall opened to a slow day with a wide array of vendors which included Gemini, American DJ, Yorkville, and many more. Keynote speaker and author L. J. Schrader displayed a rousing seminar to a full house on setting the standards of quality in your DJ business during "You know you have a high quality DJ service, NOW PROVE IT!". Everyone got wired at Dave Yantz's seminar as he displayed his innovative ways of wiring up a system and two of the bat/bar mitzvah industry greats, Bobby Morganstein and Jimmy Jay, teamed up for the most comprehensive bat/bar mitzvah seminar ever.

The day ended with a huge party sponsored by the ADJA and hosted by Michael B from Michael B DJ & Video. The ever so portly Wayne Dickson, secretary for the ADJA, made sure there was a nice spread of food for everyone to chow on. Throughout the night, literally hundreds of prizes were given away.

On the final day, another free breakfast sponsored by Music YellowPages greeted attendees in the room for the opening day's seminar, "Reality Check II- How do you value your service?". The seminar schedule had some high points with attorney, Jeffery W. Kibbey and his Legally Speaking seminar and Mitch Booher, President & CEO of Nationwide Collections, Corp., doing the "Pay Me Now!" seminar. The sometimes amusing Icebox (Tom Holiday), brought his Jerry Springer style DJ show out for everyone to participate in. With all the screaming about the R.I.A.A. and multi-system operators and even some Italian sign language lessons performed by none other than Roxanna Greene. The only thing missing was the security guards, chair throwing, whipped cream, naked ladies, and the crowd chanting, "Jerry, Jerry, Ice box, Ice box, Ice box!" The exhibit hall finally received the injection of life it needed to make things worthwhile for the companies exhibiting. "It's weird, it seems like there are less people here but we doubled our sales.", explains Bernie Fryman, Regional Sales Manager for Gemini Sound Products, "We will be back."

The last day was wound up with the national karaoke finals and party hosted by Greg Tutwiler and Greg Wallace. Patrick McDonald went home smiling after coming out on top of the ferocious competition. Also the complete DJ system given away by Creative Imagineering of Florida was awarded to Jeff Lawton.

Was the show worth it? Bob Hoffman owner of Total Entertainment in Wisconsin said he managed to take his wife and seven employees to the Mid-America Show, pay for thier food, lodging and show passes for under the cost of flying him and his wife to Las Vegas in January. Everyone we interviewed, from attendees to vendors have given the show two positive thumbs up in all catagories, value, hositality, content, and fun.

The show producers managed to cater equally to both groups of people, the first time attendees and especially to those people who have attended several DJ Shows. It was a fine line that they had walked before with their first show and this time did it like the pros they really are. "Since they are working DJs, they know what DJs want!", exclaimed CJ from Disc Jockey Music Express.

Plans for the 2000 show are already being made. It will be held in a The Doubletree, new venue June 5,6,7, 2000. For more information checkout their website at http://www.midamericadj.com

We posed the following questions to the show producers:

How can you afford all of the niceties, the free food, sodas, the party cruise and all the personal touches that seems to set your show apart from all the others?
John: "How can we afford not to? It is our way giving a little something back to the DJs that support us."

Would you consider this years show a success?
John: "Oh, absolutely in satisfying the DJs and that's our goal."

Being a registered nurse in medical terms how would you describe the shape 1998's show was in?
Lisa: "I would say guarded condition.'"

And this years?
Lisa: "Stable and improving, prognosis, excellent!"

What is Mid-America's role in the long list of DJ shows out there?
Lisa: "Any public forum that promotes learning and growth in the DJ professional benefits us all! We are raising the standards."

What is the potential of the Mid-America show becoming a national show?
John: "We have grown since our fist year. Our customers the DJs, have nothing but positive things to say and our goal is to grow and give the DJs that best convention there is."

What things will you be doing different next year?
John: "We are moving to a larger more modern venue."

 

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