NAMM's spending, excitement are music to our ears

Each January, Anaheim rings in the new year with the National Association of Music Merchants, and today the tradition continues as NAMM 2013 opens, bringing nearly 100,000 visitors for this four-day trade show. It is not open to the public. NAMM moved to Anaheim in 1976, and the Anaheim Convention Center soon became the place for music lovers to gather. For 35 years, the annual NAMM event has presented the city with an awesome opportunity to welcome visitors from across the nation and throughout the world. While most people associate Anaheim with Disneyland, to those in the music industry, Anaheim in January is the music manufacturing capital of the world. If you live, work or play near the Anaheim Resort, the arrival of 100,000 music lovers may mean you ll encounter vehicle and pedestrian traffic along Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue, or the wait at your favorite restaurant may be a bit longer. But from across the street, you ll definitely hear the sound of live music on concert stages. T s exhibits and sessions fill the entire Convention Center and overflow with activities in the nearby hotels, including local and national bands appearing each afternoon and evening in the lobbies of the Hilton Anaheim, Anaheim Marriott, Sheraton Park and Hyatt Regency Orange. Anaheim s convention center campus provides what musicians refer to as the best hang of the year. The NAMM Show brings together our community of hoteliers, restaurant and retail personnel, transportation drivers and the staffs of the Convention Center and Visitor & Convention Bureau with a common purpose of delivering the Anaheim Way - warm hospitality to Anaheim s first-time visitors and to returning friends. On Sunday, this fourday gathering of all things music will silence the instruments. We thank NAMM and its attendees for choosing Anaheim as their destination and for contributing what is projected to be approximately $92 million in visitor and attendee spending to the Anaheim and Orange County communities. The NAMM Show represents the single largest economic impact of any one event each year. Join us as we take a deep breath and begin the 360-day countdown until the music world returns to Anaheim for NAMM 2014. - Tanya La Soya is the city s convention, sports and entertainment manager. She was born and raised in Anaheim and currently lives with her husband and daughters in Place