Reflections and Building the Future

By David McConnell, GMDC President/CEO

On behalf of the various GMDC Boards and staff I’d like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year!

As we jump into what I hope will be a terrific year for all of our member companies I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what has transpired at GMDC in 2007 and ask for your help in building an even more successful 2008 for this Association.

The progress GMDC made in 2007 was made possible by the outstanding leadership of our member boards and the input of our membership at large. We continue to need the insights of our members to build a stronger and more responsive GMDC as we move forward in 2008.

To that end this Thursday, January 10, USA Research will be emailing a 2008 GMDC Member Survey to our membership to provide us feedback in evaluating existing programs and identifying possible new areas of opportunity for GMDC to add value to your membership. We hope you’ll take a moment to complete the survey to insure that we continue to provide you with the best return on your investment in GMDC.

2007 was a year of exciting change within GMDC as our incoming Chairman of the Board Ken Nemeth of Valu Merchandisers led the Board of Directors and staff through a rigorous process of re-branding GMDC as the Global Market Development Center. This re-branding effort carried as its foundation a commitment to insure that GMDC continues to solidify its role as The Association for General Merchandise and Health Beauty Wellness Connectivity, Education and Research. Our intention is to fulfill this commitment in 2008 through a focus on enhancing our:

• Business Building Events & Opportunities
  at Our Two Annual Marketing Conferences
• Continued Development of Cutting Edge
  Consumer & Business Insights through Studies and White Papers
• Expanded Offerings
  of Education & Training Including Our 160-Module Online Professional Development
  Courses
• Information Resources Including Our Online Member Financial Benchmarking
  Services
• Commitment to Providing Our Membership with Thought Leadership in the
  Opportunity the Burgeoning Health and Wellness Consumer Phenomenon Offers

We’ll be doing that by leveraging the strengths of a staff that was bolstered in 2007 by the addition of two key executives with outstanding business and program development credentials in Keith Wypyszynski and Laurie Spindler. They will be joined in 2008 by our stellar GMDC staff and a new management executive who will be focused on enhancing our member services in the areas of general merchandise, health, and beauty with an emphasis on wellness. Finally, as the first quarter of 2008 concludes our senior vice president business development Dan Nelson will be leaving the staff. We offer our thanks to Dan for his contributions during his three-plus years as a member of the staff!

Next week we’ll return to our RetailWire Discussion Topics format but in the meantime thanks for your continued support of the new and improved GMDC and your participation in our 2008 GMDC Member Survey!