The National Association of Trade Exchanges (NATE) recently announced that registration has begun for their 29^th annual convention. The site will be the Wyndham Riverfront in Little Rock, where owners and brokers of the most successful barter exchanges in America are expected to attend on May 16-18.

The convention, hosted by Southern Barter Exchange, consists of seminars for trade exchange owners, brokers and sales representatives. Topics of discussion will include, but are not limited to the following:

• IRS & Barter Exchange Accounting
• How to Expand our Membership Beyond Businesses
• Loyalty, Rewards & Referral Programs
• How to Sell Trade to the Media
• Mass Marketing Tools for Barter Exchanges

NATE�s guest speaker, Cynthia Vassilowitch, will be addressing IRS related topics. Cynthia has over 30 years experience at the International Revenue Service, and is now a knowledgeable tax consultant and Certified Public Accountant.

Along with the seminars and discussion panels, convention attendees have plenty of other activities to look forward to this year. Many social events are planned as a way for the different exchanges to get to know each other, and learn what each exchange has to offer in hard goods and in travel. NATE has planned the �Great NATE Trade Out� where exchanges will buy and sell various products, services, and travel offerings to promote their exchange. Convention registrants will also be invited to attend a Travelers Baseball game at Dickey-Stephens Park.

NATE will also be providing CTB (Certified Trade Broker) training during the convention for individuals seeking to advance their barter broker skills and knowledge in the barter industry. The annual awards ceremony will be held at The Clinton Presidential Library and Museum on Saturday evening.

For more information and to register, click here or contact Lauren Pound at (678) 302-6772.

Hundreds of valuable articles, techniques, and strategies are found in the following various barter categories:

�  Entrepreneur�s Corner,

�  Travel,

�  Media,

�  Trade Exchange,

�  Corporate Barter,

�  Offset & Countertrade,

�  Secondary Capital,

�  Real Estate,

�  Community Barter, and

�  Restaurant & Entertainment

(The Barter Categories are found on the horizontal bar at the top � 3^rd button from right.)

It�s not every day you hear a former central banker and an architect of the euro advocating for complementary currencies that have nothing to do with the national ones we call money. But that�s exactly what Bernard Lietaer does in his book Rethinking Money: How New Currencies Turn Scarcity Into Prosperity.

He argues new monetary tools are needed to avoid repeated financial meltdowns and fiscal crises like we�ve seen in the U.S. and Europe.

�There�s nothing wrong with a hammer when you are dealing with nails,� Lietaer told Yahoo Finance�s The Daily Ticker, on Friday, February 22. �However I think we are dealing with a broader set of issues than one single type. Therefore, I think it�s time to look at other possibilities; complete the toolset. If you want to do a paint job it�s a good idea to have a paint brush.�

Lietaer says in complementary currency terms, a �paint brush� is a standard medium of exchange, functioning in a parallel to conventional money. If that seems alien, Leitaer gives the example of frequent flier miles as a relatable example.

For a model of the real life currency kind, you can look to the WIR. It�s a business-to-business currency in Switzerland that started in the 1930s, and has become the country�s �secret weapon� to better stability during tough times, according to Lietaer.

When some businessmen in the 1930s had credit lines from their banks cut, they created a mutual credit system among themselves to conduct business, inviting clients and suppliers to join. Even in modern days, during recessions when bank loans decline, businesses use WIR to pick up the slack. That�s how it helps to smooth the tough times, notes Lietaer. He reports about 600,000 mostly small- and medium-sized Swiss businesses use the WIR, or about 16% of businesses, with a volume just under $2 billion annually.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., this month we�ve seen Virginia legislators vote to study the feasibility of minting a metallic-based monetary unit of the state�s own. And according to CNN, since the financial crisis a growing number of communities have introduced local currencies. For example, the Potomac in Washington D.C. was introduced in part to help more money stay in the local community.

For his part, Lietaer gives the example of time banks, where 286 systems across the country including TimeBanks NYC allow people to provide help, support, and services to one another by using time instead of money as currency.

He thinks it�s time to complete the �toolbox� and adopt more of these types of alternatives. 

While Lietaer was a co-designer of the ECU (European Currency Unit), which was the precursor to the euro that brought many currencies into a single monetary system, he acknowledges the irony that he now advocates alternative currencies from the regional to global level.

Now he sees complementary currencies running parallel to national money at all levels. He claims we need a global business-to-business b2b) currency that is nobody�s national money, and which encourages multinational corporations to think long-term. He also sees complementary currencies providing value even to a local neighborhood, thus helping solve regional social problems. 

Editor�s Note: In the limited interview time allotted, Lietaer failed to mention the many b2b trade exchanges that are functioning in some 35 countries around the globe. They are conduits for considerable business among small and mid-sized companies (estimated in the billions aggregately), and a much closer step to his goal of an international b2b currency for multinational corporations, than are the TIME banks and community currencies. Several years ago Lietaer made an excellent presentation on this very subject to the International Reciprocal Trade Association�s annual convention.

Is Your Trade Exchange Missing Out On Valuable New Business?

If your barter company�s listing on BarterNews.com isn�t current, you are definitely missing out on new business. The web site BarterNews.com receives heavy traffic � with over 150,000 page-views every month. Entrepreneurs and corporate executives check the thousands of articles, the weekly �Tuesday Report,� and the �Contacts Section� of our site. They use the latter to find barter companies with which to do business.

Is your barter company�s listing up-to-date?

To keep your listing current is very easy. See the links below to (A) update any changes to your company�s listing, such as new location, phone number, web site or other information, and (B) if your company has not been listed.

Here�s how to get on board:

To make changes to your listing click here.

For new listings click here.

Financier Gary Winnick is in the news again out in Los Angeles. (Winnick, you may recall, was the founder of Global Crossing years ago.) This past week he has quietly placed his Bel-Air mansion on the market for $225 million.

John Karevill of the San Diego real estate information company DataQuick says any sale will certainly include a major barter component. �It would be incredibly shocking if somebody actually walked up to the table and wrote a check for that amount.� Karevill says any such home sale would include a barter offer such as land or properties, stocks, car collections, jewelry or racehorses.

Editor�s Note: In 1998 former President George H.W. Bush made a speech in Tokyo to a group of Global Crossing executives. At breakfast the next morning, Global Crossing�s founder Gary Winnick offered President Bush an opportunity to acquire pre-IPS stock in the company in lieu of the $80,000 speaking fee. Bush accepted and subsequently sold the stock for $14 million several years later.