Association takes ‘holistic approach to education and training’ with merchandising demonstrations and more

Trading and training were the order of the day at CBA’s 2013 International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in St. Louis.

George Thomsen, who came to the event as CBA board president, but also as a church bookstore manager, said he was “very positive about the show.”

“To me, people seem upbeat,” he added. “It seems like what we’ve seen the last few years, the people that are here are here for the long haul, and they know that our economy and the industry that we work in is different than it used to be. They’ve accepted it, and we just keep on moving on, so they’re upbeat.”

CBA reported that professional attendance was down 15% this year to 1,485 buyers with more than 3,700 total. International attendance also dropped, decreasing 21% to 288 from 57 countries.

Despite lower numbers, CBA President Curtis Riskey observed that “with everyone who’s represented here, it reminds me that ICRS remains the apex of the industry, where all who have the common mission to distribute Christian resources come together to celebrate what God’s doing in their lives, ministries and businesses.”

Riskey echoed Thomsen’s positive attitude regarding the event, held June 23-26 at the America’s Center Convention Complex.

“The people that I spoke with were encouraged, and that’s really our goal,” he said. “Our goal is to educate and encourage, inspire. I think we did that with a number of things. I think the worship service, Worship Him, was fantastic. I really think the show continued on that plane and was very positive. I was excited about some of the new things that we’re doing.”

Sunday night’s Worship Him service brought together Max Lucado and recording artists Steven Curtis Chapman and Laura Story in a night of inspiration and encouragement that was also open to the public. 

“Can’t God do for you what He did for Joseph?” Lucado’s question resonated with attendees as he spoke on the topic of his latest book, You’ll Get Through This (Thomas Nelson).

Lucado encouraged those involved in the Christian products industry to lay claim to the nearness of God, cling to His character and lean on God’s people.

Chapman and Story each shared from their personal hardships and testified of God’s watchcare in their lives, further demonstrating the point of Lucado’s upcoming book.

Monday morning, the show’s opening ceremony featured a big announcement from the Christian products industry’s favorite talking vegetables, a challenge from a top author and an announcement of the Ministry in Action offering.

Riskey served as emcee, and Thomsen cut the ribbon to open the exhibit floor. The Worship Him offering for the Lutheran nonprofit Humanitri, active in St. Louis assisting the incarcerated, homeless, single mothers and impoverished, was announced in the amount of more than $6,288. Sam’s Club and several Christian publishers and suppliers donated goods with which show attendees would pack 100 bags for Humanitri clients.

Steve Arterburn, best-selling author, creator of Women of Faith and host of “New Life Live” radio show, issued a challenge for believers to see their circumstances from God’s perspective.

“Rather than judge God based on our circumstances, we need to see things from God’s perspective,” he said. “The closer you get to God, the smaller the obstacles appear.”

Arterburn also issued a ministry caution, to not treat a person’s deep wounds superficially, such as advising a person in pain to “just read your Bible more” or “have more faith.”

Additionally VeggieTales celebrated 20 years creating animated children’s programming by distributing birthday party hats and horns. The launch of a new VeggieTales TV show
in partnership with Netflix was also announced, and characters Larry and Bob were on hand to help celebrate.

Bob Negen of Whiz Bang! Training presented the six-hour Retail Academy, sponsored by Ingram/Spring Arbor. In its third year, the seminar continued to be popular as retailers worked to adapt to the new realities of retail technology and learned how to market for growth.

Additionally, workshops focused on lifestyle marketing, children’s product trends, social media, turning around a store in a tough environment, technology tools, trends for effective marketing, retailing in the digital-media age and more.

The new Lifestyle Stories exhibit put together by Danni Schneidt-Hill of Promises “His”Coffee and Cottage Shoppe in Malta, Mt., presented research to help retailers better understand new moms, boomer women and men as customers. Duck Dynasty products were highlighted at the show and were part of the Lifestyle Stories exhibit for men. 

The line provided the opportunity for retailers to be “happy, happy, happy,” said Sherry Morris, Carpentree marketing manager, who spoke on a panel addressing lifestyle marketing. 

She encouraged retailers with her rule-of-thumb rhyme when buying gift lines: “Best-sellers rule. New is cool. Cores don’t end. And trends are friends.”

With the Lifestyle idea, Riskey told Christian Retailing that CBA “took prime real estate to demonstrate what good merchandising looks like, but then also we did workshops on it, so we incorporated, ‘OK, so now how do you do this and what do you need to look for? And what kinds of customers are coming into your store?’ So we have data to support all that, so hands-on training as to how to do this and make it happen, and then what we’re going to also do through utilizing social media, we’re creating a Facebook page for this whole project as well so that other stores can now send us information back and photos and things that they’re incorporating into their store so we can help tell the story to others, share their successes and things like that, so we’ve taken that sort of holistic approach to education and training. It isn’t just what happens here at ICRS, but how do we extend it throughout the year for a lot of people?”

ICRS also continued its focus on authors connecting with retailers for co-marketing initiatives. Events included an author boot camp; a fiction product event that highlighted opportunity categories, such as young adult; Author Avenue, a special area for book signing and meet-and-greets; and meetings and awards events from Christian Retailing, American Christian Fiction Writers, Christian Authors Network and American Writers and Speakers Association, among others.

The 2014 show is slated for June 22-25 in Atlanta. Riskey expects better professional attendance there, as the location is in closer proximity to the majority of Christian retail stores.

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