IRTA Conference Report

Between October 28th thru October 30th, 2010 attendees from over 125 Modern Trade and Barter operating companies located in United States, China, Singapore, Turkey, New Zealand, Portugal, France, England, Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico traveled to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA and took part in the 31st IRTA International Convention hosted at the beautiful first-class Grand Pittsburgh Downtown Hotel.

The timely and topical theme of the Convention was “Modern Barter leading the way to economic recovery.”

Barter Hall of Fame Member Alan Elkin, CEO and founder of Active International, the world’s largest Corporate Barter Company, lead off the Convention with a powerful, motivating and educational Keynote Address. He shared his vision and his passion for the future of the Modern Trade and Barter industry that he has done so much to shape and define. . He focused on the important opportunities open to the modern trade and barter industry in these recessionary economic times. He charted a strategic course of action to assure the barter industry’s continued growth and maximum involvement in the global economics. Alan received an enthusiastic standing ovation.

“Whoever lined Alan Elkin up as a key note speaker should be commended.” Offered Mike Krane President of Greenapple Barter in Pittsburgh “I thought he gave the best speech I’ve ever at any conference. He was on point, direct and informative.”

Many others in the audience were heard to echo Mike’s positive comments about Alan’s excellent presentation.

Michael Mercier Vice President of the IRTA Global Board of Directors and President of Metro Trade in Detroit, Michigan presided over the IRTA Business Meeting. IRTA Treasurer Mary Ellen Rosinski and President of Tradesource in Phoenix, Arizona reported that IRTA was in excellent financial condition and had cash in the treasury with no outstanding obligations in either cash or barter. In his State of IRTA speech Michael said that IRTA is on track regarding membership goals and Universal Currency was exceeding last year’s fine performance. Later the next day Gary Field of NuBarter in Savannah, Georgia was re-elected and Terry Brandfass of Trade Management Consultants in Phoenix, Arizona was newly elected to the IRTA Global Board of Directors.

Topical and relevant seminars and presentations were filled to capacity. Seminar attendees learned about the importance of the community currency movement to the retail barter business, key factors for start-up exchange growth, succession planning, brokering training, social networking, web services and API’sTwo. As new IRTA member from Local Trade Partners, Rolf Wilkin said, “I don’t know why anyone who owns a barter exchange isn’t at this IRTA convention, it has been fantastic. I have met so many great people and learned so much.”

Other highlights of the convention included the Brad Howard sales seminar and the John Tschohl presentation on Saturday which focused on the importance of customer service in the barter industry. Both Brad and John had unique perspectives that were well received by the IRTA members present, “I’ve been selling barter for 30 years, but I sure learned some great new approaches from both Brad and John that can really help my business,” said longtime barter company owner of Barter Systems Inc, in Kensington, Maryland and IRTA Global Board of Director Member Perry Constantinides.

IRTA also rolled out its newly updated and revised Registered Trade Broker (RTB) and Certified Trade Broker (CTB) program at the Pittsburgh Convention. The new revised program is a joint effort between IRTA and NATE and it was enthusiastically received by the nine barter exchange owners and employees who participated in the newly reformed program.

During the Saturday awards banquet and following a heartfelt introduction from IRTA Executive Director Ron Whitney; Scott Whitmer of Florida Barter received the 2010 Barter Hall of Fame Award in recognition of more than 20 years of service to the Modern trade and barter Industry. During one his two terms as President Scott played the key role in the establishment of the Universal Currency system; the industry’s first worldwide trading platform for Barter Exchanges. Scott’s wife Sana and young son Trevor were in attendance as was Scott’s daughter Keely, who all traveled from Florida to celebrate Scott’s coveted achievement.

Several other very worthy IRTA members received awards including; Dr. Oi Kum Lee of BarterXchange Singapore who was honored with the Paul St. Martin IRTA Distinguished Service Award for her continuing excellent contributions in furthering the Modern Trade and Barter industry within Asia. Kim Stably of IMS and Dea Shipp of BixX both received Outstanding Achievement Award service Awards for their fine contributions to the new IRTA/NATE joint CTB program. Also receiving the Outstanding Service Awards were Dariusz Brzozowiec of Barter Systems Poland and Dorottya Szabo of GlobalXchange Hungary for their excellent work on the IRTA Europe Founding Committee and Terry Brandfass of Trade Management Consultants for her fine contributions to the Convention Committee.

Ron Whitney received a Special Award from the IRTA Global Board of Directors for the outstanding efforts above and beyond the call of duty he has put forth during his three years of service as IRTA Executive Director.

The energy level and camaraderie were fantastic through the entire convention,” remarked Terry Brandfass. “Old friends had a blast, new friends were made and important business contacts were established which will assure each participant went away as better owner or employee.”

“As a new IRTA Member from Europe,” related Nuno Ladeiras of RedeBarter Lisbon Portugal “and on my first visit to North America I was very impressed by the wonderful and helpful people I have met and what I have been able to learn and take back home with me about our exciting industry.”

Prior to the kick-off of IRTA’s convention, Greenapple Barter held its Annual Trade Show at the David L. Lawrence Convention with Universal Currency (UC) in which over 160 vendors participated. Mike Krane, President of Greenapple Barter said, “it was the best Trade Show we’ve ever had in Greenapple’s 17 year history - we did one million dollars of trading, it was incredible.”

The International Reciprocal Trade Association, IRTA, is a non-profit organization committed to promoting just and equitable standards of practice and operation within the modern trade and barter and alternative capital systems Industry and raising the awareness and value of these processes to the entire Worldwide Community.