Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

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IRTA Convention Attendees Call For Standardization & Transparency

Ninety-eight registered attendees plus four last minute arrivals gathered for the International Reciprocal Trade Association’s 25th Annual Convention in tropical Cancun, Mexico, from September 30 to October 2.

The convention was held at the post-card picturesque Barcelo Maya Beach Resort through the efforts of Jack Lopata, CEO of Tradex (Trade Exchange de Mexico).

The convention was capped off by the nostalgic banquet program—a twenty-five year walk through IRTA’s history that included pictures as well as shared past stories and insights by pioneers of the industry. It was capably led off by Art Goehring, who, along with IRTA’s first executive director Paul Suplizio, authored IRTA’s Regulation 1 nearly 25 years ago.

But the real story coming out of the 25th convention was the desire and embracement of a new direction by the attendees. It came about after a full day of considerable effort and thought, through a series of round table discussions facilitated by professional coach Shandel Slaten, and concluded with a list of 15 objectives.

The members of the industry’s oldest trade association then aggregately narrowed their focus to the top three most important items—standardization, unity of the barter industry, and marketing/branding.

The first item—standardization—is expected to be implemented immediately. By following the twenty-five year old blueprint known as Regulation 1, it will basically require trade exchanges to provide IRTA with a balance sheet profile...wherein they recognize and report their exchange’s deficit. If the figures are out of synch, the association will provide guidelines to resolve the discrepancy over a period of time.

In the coming issue of BarterNews we will have expanded coverage of the convention, as well as a reprint of the two page IRS-IRTA Partnership Outreach proclamation.

Get New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!

You can obtain useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue of BarterNews.

ITEX Management Reaches Turnaround Goal With Impressive Performance

In February of 2003, Steven White and Alan Zimmelman joined the ITEX Board of Directors. Four months later White and Zimmelman took over the day-to-day management of the company. Their goal was to reduce overall costs of managing the broker network and create bottomline cash profits from the company’s existing revenue stream.

The recent announced results for their fiscal year ending July 31, 2004, are most impressive, and reinforce their focused efforts in meeting their objectives as stated when they began a little over a year ago.

Steven White, Chairman and CEO, reports that ITEX (OTCBB:ITEX) will continue to invest in both upgrading the technology and infrastructure of the broker network and in creating new programs to stimulate revenue growth.

Income from operations was $1,031,000 or 6-cents per share, compared to a loss of $642,000 or a loss of 4-cents per share for the prior fiscal year. Total income, including one-time gains and gains from corporate-owned office sales, was $2,539,000 for the prior fiscal year. This was in part a result of the divestiture of corporate-owned offices.

Selling, general and administrative costs (SG&A) decreased 42% to $2,044,000, from $3,539,000 for the prior fiscal year. (In part a result of divestiture of corporate-owned offices.)

Current liabilities decreased 70% to 4696,000 from $2,310,000 for the prior fiscal year. Revenues decreased 3% to $10,283,000 from $10,595,000 for the prior fiscal year.

According to White, “ITEX eliminated all outstanding stock options, expensed equity-based compensation, and paid off all long-term debt. We believe we have a solid, scaleable business model in place, and are now focusing our efforts on growing revenue while maintaining cash flow and profits.”

For additional information contact Alan Zimmelman at alan@itex.com. The ITEX annual report can read on Form 10-KSB, found at www.sec.gov.

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Steeve Croteau Moving Forward With Ivondi

One of the early movers with the VC community in forming BarterNet, now known as Intagio, was Steeve Croteau. He is no longer in the barter business, but still infatuated with barter in his present position as president (and founder) of Ivondi, a direct distribution channel for travel.

Most recently, in a move to consolidate the most rapidly growing sector of the hospitality industry, his company has acquired all the assets of USBestHotels.com, in a cash and stock transaction. USBest works with over 7,000 hotels, enabling hoteliers to deal directly with clients, both online and off-line, rather than with third parties.

Ivondi has signed a number of hotels and hotel chain clients in North America and Europe with their cross-promotional approach. “The hotels have been quick to embrace Ivondi,” Croteau pointed out, “because they realize that current commission-levels paid to resellers are unsustainable in terms of forecast online growth.” (Online growth predicted to increase from the current 10% of all travel sold, to 26% by 2006.)

Ivondi will begin a soft launch by year end, followed by an aggressive media campaign in early 2005. The Tuesday Report will keep you updated on their progress.

BarterNews issue #63 is now available... get your copy now! Orders are shipped within two business days. Click on Order Form.

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Barter Fairs & Holiday Expo's. . .

October:
2nd Annual BXI San Diego Fall Trade Fair. Saturday, October 23 at Party Pals, 10427 Roselle Street, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For directions call (619) 472-2929.

November:
BXI Ventura-Santa Barbara & BXI West Valley have scheduled their Holiday Trade Fair on Sunday, November 7 at the Oxnard Courtyard by Marriott, 600 East Esplanade Drive, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (805) 376-9466 or (818) 758-2929.

American Commerce Exchange (ACX) will hold their Annual Trade Fair on Sunday, November 7 at the Glendale Community Center, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (323) 259-2340

BXI Inland Valley Fair will take place Sunday, November 14 at the Elks Lodge in West Covina, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (909) 592-7727.

BXI Northern California/Nevada’s Holiday Trade Fair will be held on Sunday, November 21 at the Clarion Hotel at the San Jose Airport, 12 noon to 5 p.m. For more information e-mail ron@bxinorcal.com or phone (650) 592-2929.

December:
The oldest and largest BXI fair is the Orange County Holiday Fair at the Costa Mesa Orange County Fairgrounds in Bldg. 10 (same location for 24 years). Scheduled for Sunday, December 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (714) 847-5477.

Trade Atlanta, Premier Barter, and Barter For Less are cooperatively staging a Holiday Festival on Tuesday, December 7 in Gwinnett, Georgia, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information call (678) 793-9463.

TradeAmericanCard 2004 Barter & Business Expo on Sunday, December 12 at The Grove of Anaheim, 2200 E. Katella Avenue, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. For more information call (714) 532-1610.

(Barter companies: Send your holiday trade fair information to: bmeyer@barternews.com.)

Every barter company in the world is listed on our web site, click through to our Global List of Barter Companies.

Here & There...

• Continental Trade Exchange, a subsidiary of IMS, has an educated brokerage staff. Don Mardak, CEO of International Monetary Systems, proudly announced, “We now have 15 CTBs (certified trade brokers) and one MTB (master trade broker) on our staff, more than any other independent trade exchange in America.” Founded in 1989, IMS (OTCBB:INLM) serves more than 7,000 customers in 25 U.S. markets.

• Kingdom Ventures Inc., a Christian media and products company, will acquire an initial $2.5 million in media through an agreement with eDaddywarbucks (a Sacramento-based company headed by Norman Alvis) for a national advertising campaign. The arrangement is expected to expand Kingdom Ventures’ (OTCBB:KDMV) exposure in the large Christian marketplace.

• Have you signed up to receive a summary via e-mail of the Tuesday Report every week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) and sign up!

• Last year an IRS-run program had volunteers from around the country prepare 850,000 federal tax returns for low-income folks. The U.S. Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration assigned undercover-agents posing as the poor to have 35 returns prepared by volunteers. Their findings? Not a single return was done correctly!

• Barterfarm, an online automated marketplace, has changed its name to Matchbin. CEO Joshua Higginbotham explained, “We do the work and save users time by facilitating the match (of haves and wants) for them.” Matchbin has recently completed a Series A round of funding. For more information: www.matchbin.com.

• If you've missed any of our weekly Tuesday Reports the past five years we have an archive of issues for you at the bottom of this week's letter...check it out!