Stu Eddins - Porter's Camera - Cedar Rapids, Iowa - www.porters.com

Here is an idea for an open house:

Select a day and time the store is not normally open and set aside 3 to 4 hours for the open house. Offer light snacks and refreshments.

Create four or five "learning stations". For example, we could have stations for Telescopes and Sport Optics, Flash and Lighting, Photo Classes, Photo Kiosks - Beyond 4X6.

Prepare engaging 7 to 10 minute presentations for each station and assign one store associate as the teacher and make sure they each rehearse their part!

Plan to run the presentations staggered but continuously during the open house with perhaps a 10 minute break between.

The invitations sent to your customers and prospects have instructions to bring the invitation with them because "completing each learning station earns a punch on your card. Present your fully punched card at the checkout counter to receive a $20.00 Kiosk and Photo Lab gift certificate."

Of course have a stack of invitations available at your front counter for a week to 10 days before the event too! Add kickers like drawings or give away items if you wish, but keep the focus on your store, its people and services.

Good friend Allen Showalter is the President Elect of PMA, and he will be sworn in on Saturday, February 2, 2008 as the President of the industry's premiere organization.

Now, Allen Showalter - who owns and operates King Photo - is by no means going to run an imperial presidency. By no stretch of the imagination can we say that Allen is a "little guy" - he's a big man with a warm, outgoing personality. But compared to most past presidents of PMA, he operates a successful business that isn't a giant conglomerate. King Photo in Virginia is a small but successful independent operation. Two retail stores and a busy processing lab. Specialists in group and event photography. State of the art with an early and major commitment to digital, King Photo has weathered the changes of the past decade.

Showalter has been a mainstay of the best organizations in our industry - not only PMA and DIMA, but also the Buck Rogers/NPG association and Independent Photo Imagers. He was last year's President of the Dixie Division and put on a great convention in Charlottesville.

So if you'd like to see one of our own "coronated", be sure to be at PMA in Las Vegas the last day of the show!

A frequent contributor to the MMIE is Glynn Lavender, Retail operations manager of Camera Action Camera House & Camera House Digital, in Melbourne, Australia.

In his bylined article for the August issue of Minilab Focus he explains "We have five competitors in a one-block radius, all offering film processing. Most of them are cheaper than we are, so we just raised our prices AU$2 a roll"

How's that again? They were already the most expensive and they raised prices?

And they're doing 700-800 rolls of film every month?

To find out their secrets, and a lot more, read the entire article online

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - DIMA 1p.m. - 2:10 p.m. - D53 The Long Tail of Photo - Marketing Products You Don't Make

Integrating outsourced photo products with your in-store capabilities in a way that is transparent to your customers is crucial to stay on the cutting edge and to stay profitable. You need to become THE source for all things photo in your community, and getting that message out effectively is key to your success. Come get real examples of what savvy markers are doing to be known as the complete solution for photo products and services.

2:30p.m. - 3:40 p.m. - D63 DIMA Marketing Idea Exchange

From big marketing concepts to little promotional gems, the DIMA Marketing Idea's Exchange is guaranteed to bring at least three actionable ideas to implement immediately into your marketing plan. If you've never been to the DIMA Marketing Idea Exchange, come see why this DIMA tradition is considered the most cutting edge marketing hour you'll have . . . It's a tradition that is 100 percent new every year with the latest and hottest money-making concepts in imaging.

Saturday, February 2, 2008 - PMA - 7am-8am - 700 Selling More for Less

Bill McCurry unveils tactics used by imaging retailers in their quest to boost bottom line results and increase cash flow. McCurry will expose the difference between profitable customer service and the more common sales abatement process along with proven profit tactics for your profit enhancement.

Here's what's scheduled:

September 18, 2007 - PMA New England Division Annual Meeting - Holiday Inn Select Boston-Woburn, Woburn, MA

September 21, 2007 - September 23, 2007 PMA North Central Division Annual Meeting Days Inn Hotel & Conference Center La Crosse, WI

September 25, 2007 PMA NY/NJ Metro Division Event is a Business Improvement Expo - - details online.

September 29-30, 2007 - PMA Northern California Division Annual Meeting -, Cache Creek Casino Resort, Brooks, CA

October 12 & 13, 2007 - The PMA Pacific Northwest Division meets at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Downtown Seattle. For those checking in Thursday, we have a welcome reception with NW Wine tasting on Thursday evening Oct 11. Friday will be all-day workshops - two Adobe evangelists at the Adobe training campus on Lake Union in Seattle and Saturday's program will be filled with money making ideas, networking and valuable business resources with a table top exhibitor trade show.

Each year the PMA Canadian Expo in the fall has become stronger and stronger.

Many North Americans feel it's become even better than the former Fall PMA that was held in the states. This year it will be held at Toronto Congress Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from September 23-25.

For more info click here

Planning to re-vitalize your retail outlet and unsure of if you have all the questions in order to create the welcoming environment to attract your typical shopper?

Looking for suggestions on possible improvements of your marketing, merchandising (display) and pricing plans in today's digital marketplace?

Looking for the right questions to ask or answers on how best to grow your margins in the digital era?

Would you like advice on what the most important issues are for you to survive and prosper in today's retail environment?

IF you feel any of the above topics are vital to your specific retail success and you would like to gain the insight of WORLD CLASS IDEAS and have REAL INPUT FOR YOUR BUSINESS

You can have a private consultation session with PMA author and speaker Bill McCurry. You can access the best practices Bill has observed from Canada, UK, USA, New Zealand and Australia. He is author of PMA's best sellers, Digital Guerrilla Marketing and It's Your People, Really! As an author and speaker around the world he has access to what works and what doesn't in various markets.

At the 2007 PMA Canada Expo Bill provides one on one private consultations for PMA members. Each session is 25 minutes long and only requires a $20 registration fee. Take advantage of Bill's resources and how they can be fine tuned to your specific company's needs. This offer is open only to PMA members. Register by sending an email to pma_education@pmai.org