WHAT
The New England Direct Marketing Association
MEMBERSHIP
About 300 catalogers and vendors. Suppliers are required to have two letters of recommendation from current NEMOA members to join; catalogers need to supply six catalogs and fill out an application.
WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN
“NEMOA is the best place to learn what's going on in the industry,” says Janie Downey, the group's newly appointed executive director. “As a cataloger, you go home from conferences with great ideas and realize you've made connections to help you implement those ideas by just sitting next to someone at lunch. And there's no exhibit hall; NEMOA has a non-selling, calm environment. On the supplier side, there's no pressure and they're not stuck in a booth all day. They get to be in the same sessions with everyone else, so they're able to find out what catalogers are interested in as well as meet potential clients.”
EVENTS
Spring conference in Cambridge, MA (March 21-23); summer golf outing (July 9 in Rye, NH); fall conference at rotating locations (this year's is Sept. 19-21 in Portland, ME); occasional “peer-to-peer” events for catalogers with about eight to 15 attendees. “Talk about great networking,” says Downey. “We did one here in Maine on photography at Cuddledown. It was great, because it was Maine catalogers who came, so you got to meet people locally with the same interests.”
