Location, location, location! Location matters when it comes to buying and selling real estate, but: how about a tradeshow? Well, the answer to that depends on who you talk to. This year, the Music Industries Association of Canada (MIAC), along with Pro Audio and Lighting (PAL), hosted its annual convention, which was moved from their longtime location at Toronto's Pearson Airport to downtown Toronto's Direct Energy Centre – Canada's largest exhibition and convention center. In addition to the change in venue, the dates for the show were also moved. Instead of the traditional late August timeframe, this year's show was held on May 18 and 19.

From the outside, the Direct Energy Centre appears ominous, covering what looks to be five city blocks. The show was held in one of the Centre's seven exhibit halls, occupying 125,000 square feet of the Centre's one million square feet in total. Unlike past years, MIAC and PAL shared the same exhibit hall, separated by the large main, center aisle.

Attendance numbers, for both manufacturers and dealers, appeared to be down from last year. Was this due to the still-lagging economy, the time of year, or the new venue? The Direct Energy Centre is certainly a well-staffed, full-service, state-of-the-art venue, but back to the original question of location. Manufactures' opinions on this topic varied wildly.

An hour after the show's official opening was commemorated with a ribbon cutting, a jet-lagged, yet upbeat and animated Tim Elvy of Legere Reeds stood at the far end of the showroom floor, touting the new packing for Legere Reeds to a pair of MI dealers. Tim had just returned from a world-wind, five-city tour, meeting with distributors for Legere in Europe. When asked how the show was going he replied, "Great! I just got off a plane and have had no sleep, but so far, so good. Moving this downtown was a great idea!"

Down the aisle from the Legere Reeds was the CF Martin booth. Martin's Bruce Mariano expressed a similar sentiment saying, "The downtown location is so much better than the airport and so is the time of year," but he also cautioned, "It will take some time though. This is going to be a slow show this year. I know it's early in the day, but I can just feel it in the air."

Doug Davies of Yorkville Sound expressed his own concerns about the move: "I have reservations about this show being downtown. The hotel, food, parking, it's all much more expensive here. It's difficult to get around in the city with all of the traffic." He was not the only one who was a bit ruffled by the traffic. On Saturday, the day before the show opened, all of the manufacturers headed to Toronto to unload and set up their equipment and merchandise at the Energy Centre. There was a small glitch, one that made the journey into the city a drawn out nightmare of sorts: The Gardiner Expressway, an eight- lane thoroughfare that connects downtown Toronto to its suburbs and airport, was closed for repairs. Walking around the showroom floor, one sensed that there was not a single person in the room who hadn't been held up by the inconvenient closure, including MMR staff.

Of course there were those who weren't bothered by location, traffic, or the concession food. Dave Andrus and Allan Ash were displaying the Reunion Blues line of cases. This was the first MIAC show for Dave, Allan, and Reunion Blues, and they were happy to be a part of it. As Allan expressed, "This is our first time here, and we are just very excited to be doing it. We've had some good feedback; it's been great so far."

Besides the move to the city's center, there were new features added this year. Notably, there were more live performances and dining options at the show. Yamaha made the most of both by sponsoring and providing the PA and stage gear for the Canadian Musician Showcase Café. The Café and stage were in the main lobby of the Direct Energy Centre. The Café featured a wide range of performances by Canadian musicians. While being entertained, visitors were also able to have a drink from the bar and enjoy lunch or a snack. The Café was located under the expansive windows of the Direct Energy Centre's grand lobby, which also affords a view of Lake Ontario.

On both Sunday and Monday, the MIAC Learning Lunch Session was open and free for all to attend. The lunchtime seminar topic was focused around building a profitable music lesson program. As they have every year, MIAC offers these lunchtime seminars to give MI dealers the opportunity to attend educational seminars about areas and information that impact the industry and their business. In partnership with the Toronto Audio Engineering Society (AES), PAL hosted two morning and afternoon panel discussions on both days. Discussion topics covered budgeting and new technology for recording studios, marketing tools, and connecting with clients.

Budgeting and marketing are important, but people also like to have some fun at the end of the day, and a music tradeshow wouldn't be complete without late night parties. The first evening began with a cocktail reception at the Sheraton hotel, the official lodging of MIAC 2010. The early evening reception was followed by two parties, one was held at Grace O'Malley's Irish pub, located close to the hotel, in downtown Toronto's entertainment district. The second gathering was hosted by Yamaha at the Rex jazz club. The entertainment included Yamaha Canada artist. On the following night PAL hosted the PAL Super Tech Party at the Direct Energy Centre, which was an exclusive PAL members only event. The get-together was free of charge for the first 200 technicians who entered the tradeshow. All of the evening events were well attended. As Linda Booth of the Guitar Booth put it, "Moving the show downtown this year is fantastic. There is so much more to do. Come on, most of these people are musicians; they like parties and having a good time. Why do you think so many people go to NAMM?"

Whatever the extra perks of a tradeshow may be, whether they are location, entertainment, or parties, everyone attends with the same goal and bottom line in mind.

If MMR were to hand out awards for best quote and best bowtie of the show, the honors would have to go to Harvey Levy of Levy's Leathers. His bowtie: a discerning hue of asparagus-green silk. His take on the show: "I don't care where they have this thing. If the dealers want to have MIAC at the top of the CN tower, that's fine with me. Wherever they go, I'll be there!" That's the bottom line.