Wow…what a year!  I’ve been so swamped with ABA MAC, Virginia Motorcoach here in Lancaster, and other activities that I have totally neglected this blog.  My bad, my shame, and I will strive to do better in 2010!

Actually, I may end up moving the whole shootin’ match before too long…1 & 1 Internet, my host provider, is great, but this blog is so restricted and “watered down” that I can’t use a lot of the tools and goodies that the Wordpress platform provides.

But that’s neither here nor there…tomorrow is Christmas, ABA Marketplace is only 20 days away at National Harbor, and 2010 WILL be a better year for us all.  I am totally confident in that fact…if nothing else, it can’t be much worse, ergo it must improve!

But we all agree that the next few years will be, as Spock always said in “Star Trek”, “fascinating”.  We’ve already seen the start of shakeouts, buyouts, mergers and the like, and there’s no reason to think that trend won’t continue, and perhaps even increase in activity!  And it’s not just Operators or suppliers merging or departing us…we may see some major landscape changes on the association and marketplace front as well.  As marketing dollars continue to get stretched to their max, something has to give, and ROI becomes less of an irritating concept, and more of a necessity!

But first things first…my very best wishes for an astounding Christmas, and a blessed and prosperous New Year for us all!  If you’re going to ABA, come look me up in the Orientation Center, or walking around the show floor with my little recorder.  We are going to do a bunch of recording during Marketplace this year, trying to capture some important information for our STAR (newbie) delegates.  The eventual goal…the first ever ABA Podcast!  Wish me luck, and see ya there!