Over the last three days in Melbourne newsXpress members met in Melbourne to discuss the future, explore opportunities and connect face to face.
There were insightful and inspiring supplier presentations, taking us behind the scenes with invaluable data insights, and there were plenty of attendee driven discussions about business, and especially new customer traffic opportunities.
With hotel accommodation, meals and drinks covered by newsXpress thanks to wonderful supplier support, the cost of participation was minimal for newsagents from Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria.
We discussed the economy, our channel, current retail sales data nationally and for the channel, what’s working, what’s not, opportunities for the rest of 2024 and into 2025 as well as entirely new product category opportunities.
Tuesday rounded out the conference with round table discussion on: getting online (how to, cost, tips, opportunities); your exit strategy – how to plan for a good exit for you, your family and your business; and, chasing margin dollars – how to avoid too many newsagents make in chasing the wrong thing when negotiating.
Over the course of the two days, plenty of meals, drinks events, morning and afternoon team breaks and the conference sessions themselves, everyone was engaged and involved, working on their businesses, taking the opportunity of being outside of the business to do this and plan for what’s next.
It was a relaxed conference, not too formal, with plenty of laughs along the way.
Alongside the conference was a terrific trade show with products from twenty different suppliers. Suppliers were thrilled with the results, which new accounts and business written. This business happened naturally, without pressure.
But let’s get back to exit strategy. Each speaker spoke to this topic, with their own stories and newsXpress added context for lcoal retailers in terms of the day to day decisions that can provide useful opportunities when one does decide it is time to exit the business.
There aren’t many national conferences for newsagents any more. For 30 or 40 at this newsXpress conference it was their first with the group. The feedback was terrific, people found attending invaluable personally and they look forward yto implementing initiatives to make it valuable for the business.
If your business is in a group, go to their national conference, engage, ask questions, network. Those few days out of the business thinking about the business and working on it can be invaluable as this week has proven for plenty at the newsXpress conference.
The future looks good.