On January 24, 2018, GAMA will have its Annual Membership meeting and Breakfast at the Hilton Anaheim. We’ve assembled an all-star panel, moderated by Paul Majeski of Music Trades, to discuss pursuing growth in today’s business environment. We are looking forward to seeing our members in Anaheim! Please RSVP here.
Menzie Pittman: Menzie Pittman is the owner and director of education at the Contemporary Music Centers in Virginia (CMC). Following a performance and teaching career spanning more than 25 years, he founded CMC in 1989, and continues to perform, teach and oversee daily operations. He has 40 years of musical experience as a drummer and drum instructor, and his work with Le Jazz, the Virginia Rangers and renowned guitarist, Michael Fath, has earned him several accolades. This year he has been selected to be on the panel of judges for the NAMM SchoolJam USA Teen Battle of the Bands.
Laura B. Whitmore: Music industry veteran Laura B. Whitmore owns and runs Mad Sun Marketing, a boutique agency that specializes in marketing, PR, artist relations, event production, graphic design and more for music and audio companies. Prior to launching Mad Sun, Laura spent two decades as the marketing manager for Korg USA, handling all marketing for the Korg, Marshall and VOX brands in the U.S. She also started her career in the direct marketing department of CBS Records. Whitmore is the founder of the Women’s International Music Network and the creator of the GuitarWorld.com featured blog series Guitar Girl’d, and is editor of their acoustic channel, Acoustic Nation. Whitmore is the host and producer of the annual She Rocks Awards at the NAMM Show.
Mike Molenda: Mike Molenda, Editor-in-Chief of Guitar Player, has been the guitar’s editorial anchor almost as long as the instrument has been the category anchor of MI sales. His destiny was fulfilled was when he answered a newspaper ad for an assistant editor’s gig at Electronic Musician magazine in 1990. “I didn’t really want the job, so I got it,” he says, recalling his Zen du jour. By 1992, as editor-in-chief, he helped guide the publication from its roots as a computer-technology magazine to what was widely regarded as the first magazine to evangelize the burgeoning home-recording market. In 1998, he applied that same touch to Guitar Player magazine, where he made key content and graphic-design changes and nearly doubled circulation within a year, reaching close to 200,000 at its peak. And there he remains, the Zen of the moment his Linda Ellerbee-meets-Kurt Vonnegut-by-way-of Hunter Thompson guiding aphorism — “So far, so good…” — still lighting the way forward.
Squiggy DiGiacomo: As the founder of The Music Experience, 
Squiggy Digiacomo is a true renaissance man on a mission to inspire the next generation of musicians. The Music Experience helps manufacturers emotionally engage end users through experiential marketing at the biggest music festivals in the country. The Music Experience humanizes the brands that are relevant in today’s music. Brands that have participated in The Music Experience are Fender, Jackson, Charvel, EVH, Gretsch, ESP, LTD, Takamine, CAD Audio Paul Reed Smith, Dunlop, MXR, Guild, Epiphone, Kramer, Ernie Ball, Moog, Earthquaker Devices, Marshall Amps, Marshall Lifestyle, Michael Kelly, Hercules DJ, Ultimate Support, Dean, Yamaha, Korg, Vox, Blackstar, Ashdown, Affliction Clothing, Musicians Institute and more. Although sales in an aspect of TME, it is not the focus. Inside TME, sales are a byproduct of inspiration.