As part of the partnership, CSP will work with NATO and its trade-show management company, Renaissance Association Management LLC, to market the 2011 NATO Show. In addition, CSP, which already delivers the most tobacco editorial content in the convenience trade press, will publish a special NATO Show issue to coincide with the April show and a special show directory at the event.
"With limited time and resources, time-pressed retail executives demand industry-specific education, access to key contacts with the companies that they do business with, exposure to innovative products, programs, technologies and services, and they want all of that offered up in an environment that fosters inclusion and networking," said Greg Martin, president of Renaissance Association Management. "The NATO show meets all of these needs and more, and CSP is ideally positioned to help us spread that message to the retail community."
Officials from NATO and CSP, along with show organizers, heralded the new alliance. "Contrary to some opinions, tobacco is not dead. It is evolving and growing as a total category in the convenience channel," said CSP president, CEO and editorial director Paul Reuter. "This is why CSP invests so heavily in tobacco through monthly magazine coverage, our award-winning CSP Daily News, our CSPNetwork Tobacco Update cyberconferences and our company-run tobacco roundtable."
"Our belief in tobacco as a vital c-store category is matched by how impressed we are with NATO as the premier voice for retailers on tobacco issues," Reuter said. "Toward this end, we are excited to be the official media partner for the new NATO Show."
Republic Tobacco is one of the many exhibitors supporting the NATO Show. "As a manufacturer, Republic Tobacco has relied on NATO to help navigate the waters of tobacco regulation and to fight tobacco taxes," said Steve Sandman, company vice president of sales and marketing. "From our viewpoint, supporting the NATO Show is like supporting ourselves, and our industry. We think the entire industry will rally around the NATO Show."
"The new NATO Show is the one national trade show event that brings together every segment of the industry, from manufacturers, to importers, to wholesalers and to retailers, with a focus on providing an exceptional buying experience under the auspices of NATO, the premier national grassroots retail legislative trade association," said Thomas Briant, NATO's executive director and tobacco columnist for CSP magazine."
"Over the past several years, NATO and CSP have built an excellent relationship, updating and educating retailers on state and federal tobacco legislative news," he added. "Retailers will now benefit even further by having the premier tobacco association and No. 1 industry media organization come together to deliver the new NATO Show, which promises to include first-rate educational seminars and a wide-ranging tobacco buying experience."
Association board president Andrew Kerstein said he expects the NATO Tobacco Show to become the premier event for networking and idea exchanges. "I believe the new NATO Show will be the No. 1 show for the tobacco industry because it will bring together more retailers from different market segments, more manufacturers of the broadest range of products and more distributors of full-line and specialty tobacco products than any other show."
As for aligning with CSP, Kerstein said, "CSP brings to the party a wealth of experience in organizing and managing educational sessions that retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers will find not only informative but useful. The seminars that will be a part of the new NATO show will help our participants stay one step ahead of the competition."
For CSP, the partnership further underscores the company's commitment to being the most comprehensive tobacco source for the convenience industry.
CSP is ramping up its tobacco content in other ways as well, including:
NATO's Briant has agreed to continue his popular quarterly column found exclusively in CSP magazine. CSP is the first magazine in the c-store press to pledge tobacco-related editorial content in all 12 monthly issues (CSP magazine is the largest industry publication, with a circulation in excess of 102,000). CSP is hosting once again its popular company-run Tobacco Roundtable. CSP continues to host the popular Tobacco Update webinars, featuring industry analyst Nik Modi, through its CSPNetwork CyberConference platform. Oak Brook, Ill.-based CSP Information Group, publisher of CSP, Fare, FoodService Director and Restaurant Business magazines, is a business-to-business communication company specializing in the convenience retailing, restaurant and on-the-go food industries. In addition to its print products, CSP Information Group's two divisions (Convenience Group and Food Group) produce the CSP Daily News e-mail newsletter, CSPnet.com, MonkeyDish.com, ID Report, MyIDAccess.com, CSPNetwork CyberConferences, CSPTV, CSP Leadership Conferences & Events including Retail Leader of the Year and CSP Custom Solutions. Visitwww.cspnet.com for more information.
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