Serving the customer was a key point driven home to retailers attending Gospel Music Association (GMA) Week 2006. In a variety of workshops and business sessions, including Wednesday morning's “Keynote: The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle: How to Become a Servant Leader,” presented by James C. Hunter of J.D. Hunter & Associates, retailers were reminded how to model servanthood as believers.

One change made to the programming this year for Christian Music Retail Conference participants was the shifting of musical performances from workshops to Big Hits Lunches, featuring music presented by Provident-Integrity on Monday, Word Distribution on Tuesday and EMI CMG on Wednesday. With the change, retailers assembled in the RNH Music City Room to hear directly from label executives about vision and upcoming promotional plans.

“There have been good sessions this year, very informative and very helpful,” Becky Sharp, music buyer for Greensburg, Pa.'s, Majesty Christian Store, told Christian Retailing. Sharp added that because of the change, “there's a lot more space in there compared to years past.”

Provident Label Group President and CEO Terry Hemmings told Christian Retailing that although the labels want to give sales tools to retailers, Provident's goal at GMA was to focus on more than sales. “You don't want to get so far away from the purpose and vision of what we do where it's all about sales,” he said. “I like this (business session) format. It gives the chance to have questions and answers.”

In addition to the retail sessions and workshops, retailers also had the choice of more than a dozen music showcases at night, featuring various types of music in various locations around the city.

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