What’s Up On BEA? A Little Update

Things are starting to take shape on BookExpo this year, and pretty rapidly at that. Here are a few highlights for you to start thinking about what the show is going to look like this year…….

• The new web site is up and looking pretty good after some 70 pages of notes, adjustments and copy changes – kudos to Kim our Marketing Director because if it was left to me the web site would say something like, “Cool book show, please come!”
• On the web site, you can see the new categories we are asking attendees to register in. The list is right here. You can see we’ve added some categories, so choose carefully. Our goal is to assure that the right people are coming to the show and when they get there, everyone knows who they are. You’ll also see that people like friends or family now have to pay a premium to attend. This might ruffle some feathers, but it’s for a good reason – the event really is for book professionals only. Anyway, read carefully and of course, ABA members will be getting free admission based on store size.
• The New York location is set for a few years and next year we’ll be shifting to a weekday event, but I’ve already filled you in on that in a previous post that you can read here.
• This week we unveiled that we are building two nicely outfitted stages on the show floor to bring more authors to your attention. I’ll delve more into that in a later post as to why, but putting as many authors in the spotlight at BEA is critical to the strategy of the show moving forward.
• We’ve been working closely with on of our major exhibitors on a very different booth presence for them that is a strategic shift in how they use BEA as a platform. This is a move I think you’ll see from numerous publishers in the year and years to come. Again, it’s about putting the authors out front, live and in person, instead of in a book-jacket-blown-up-in-a-light-box form.
• This week I got my first look at the draft of educational programming for the show, which we are calling The Big Ideas at BEA conference. It’s a departure from what we’ve ever done before. It was formed by our Conference Advisory Board, a list of whom you can see here, and focuses on a handful of communities that are integral to the show. Also, we’ve cut the number of sessions in half to keep the focus on quality.
• We will be announcing all of the breakfast and lunch event authors late next week. It’s a diverse and fascinating group I must say. Stay tuned for that on Thursday.
• We have added some “exclusive hours” to the show where we will not run any programming from 10:30-2:30 on Friday and Saturday to give everyone a chance to spend time on the show floor (there a re a few exceptions to this, but not much!).
• We are working on a really cool opening night event for Thursday night that is unlike anything we’ve ever done. In fact our entire Thursday afternoon line up to lead into the show is going to be revamped and pretty freakin cool!

Wow, there is more, a lot more happening and to be announced soon, but that gives you a little glimpse into what we’ve been working on here at Book Nerd HQ in Borwalk. I know this post was a bit cut and dry, but there is a lot of change happening in our business right now and BEA is going to reflect that in the very best and the most challenging ways, and I wanted to give you a heads up on some of the new, cool, different and well, simple logistical tricks we’ve got up our sleeves….

Stay tuned, ok? And as always, comment or email and let me know your perspective on things…..

L