Janie Downey

By and large, attendees at industry conferences throughout at least the first half of this year had something of a bewildered look. Kind of a “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” sort of thing going on. Then again, so too did just about anyone in this country amid the brutal recession. But perhaps the Fall NEMOA Conference, held last week at the gaudy Foxwoods Casino complex in Mashantucket, Conn., showed signs of a new, more encouraged, more aggressive attitude among attendees and speakers.

For those of you who don’t ordinarily attend NEMOA events, they’re usually like minireunions of longtime catalog practitioners and typically have a big "Rah! Rah! Go Catalog!" flavor to them. But the mood and whole underlying tone at the Spring 2009 NEMOA Conference held a couple of weeks ago in Boston was different from any NEMOA event I’ve ever attended.