Tim Russert and My Friend Connor

I came in this morning and had an email waiting for me from, Deb, on of my co-workers on BEA regarding Tim Russert and one of her customers. Deb is a sales executive on the show who works with literally hundreds of companies to help them have a great experience at BEA. This is not a small task to take the time to work with each of these businesses to assure they have the best event possible, but Deb does it marvelously. This year she had one customer in particular that she was really passionate about helping and it turns out that this customer of Deb's also had a friend in the late Mr. Russert. I'll let Deb share the storey with you......

-L

BookExpo America has had many remarkable keynote speakers over the years. From Presidents to Comedians, they were all entertaining and all drew a crowd. Some made us laugh and some made us cry, but Tim Russert was probably the keynote speaker we "trusted" the most. He was kind, persistent and often asked the questions that were the hardest to ask and got the answers Americans were waiting to hear each Sunday.

In addition to America caring about what Tim Russert had to say, he also cared about what the average American had to say. For instance, "Wisdom of our Fathers" is made up of letters and life lessons collected by everyday people who shared stories of their own relationships with their fathers. Part of my job at BookExpo is to work with the first time exhibitors to make the best of what being at BEA can offer them.One such book I had the pleasure to help get off the ground at BEA this year is called "America according to Connor Gifford" with Victoria Harris. Tim Russert shared in my passion for helping Connor and Victoria to make this book become a success and had plans over the next few months to help share all that Connor has to say with America. That's just the kind of man he was.Thank you, Tim Russert, for caring about new authors and for helping them to be heard thru their words.

-Deb McManus