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Museum Store Association to Hold
Expo in Tampa
Conference and Expo Provide Cultural Commerce Professionals with Solutions, Tools
for Building Museum Store Revenue, Success
For Immediate Release: April 4, 2008
Contact: Tina Eichner, Managing Editor
(303) 504-9223 x14
DENVER, CO – The Museum Store Association (MSA) will hold its annual meeting and Expo in Tampa, FL, April 12 – 15, at the Tampa Convention Center. The MSA Retail Conference & Expo is an indispensable opportunity for cultural commerce professionals to learn, buy and network.
MSA is a nonprofit, international association organized to advance the success of museum retail professionals. By encouraging high standards of professionalism, MSA helps cultural commerce professionals better serve their organizations. MSA also is focused on helping increase awareness about museum stores as unique shopping destinations for tourists and cultural travelers.
"Budgets everywhere are tight and museum stores will need to maximize every dollar for their institutions in the coming months. How can you optimize performance at your institution's store?" said Board President Lauren Chapin Salazar. "This year's exciting program includes several industry experts offering solutions and tools to meet the challenges today's museum store managers face and the MSA Expo features the leading product vendors in the specialty gift industry. Each museum store offers its own unique collection of culturally-oriented items and this is the premiere buying Expo for the cultural market."
The MSA Expo is arguably the most important annual buying event for the museum store community and the only tradeshow specifically for retailers in museums, historic sites, botanic gardens, aquariums, zoos, libraries and more.
"We also are thrilled to premiere our Knowledge Standards program at this year's event," said Salazar. "The MSA Knowledge Standards identify the comprehensive set of knowledge, skills and abilities needed to function in cultural commerce and bring value to institutions through increased revenue and quality visitor experiences."
In addition to building institution revenue through sales, museum stores provide a high-impact point of contact with cultural institution patrons. The store is a place to reinforce the experience of visiting a cultural institution and to re-emphasize the mission of the institution. As the entire cultural community faces the effects of tight economic times, building value within institutions is more important than ever.
At the Conference, museum store employees will:
- Discover how to maximize store revenue
- Share best practices with colleagues
- Find solutions to take back to the store and implement immediately
- Shop for mission-related merchandise with more than 340 vendors – 103 new to the Expo
For further details visit www.MuseumStoreAssociation.org. To receive a press pass to the Conference, credentialed members of the media should contact Tina Eichner.
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Founded in 1955, the Museum Store Association is a nonprofit, international association organized to advance the success of cultural commerce and of the professionals engaged in it.
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