Yesterday I got up early and took a train into NYC to attend, for the first time, the BEA Book Blogger Conference. I had been to Book Expo America in the past, even speaking on a panel of book bloggers in 2009, but had not attended the Book Blogger Conference. The last two years, the conference was run by two bloggers, Michelle at Galleysmith and Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Reading?. This year the conference was purchased by BEA and no longer run by bloggers but run as a concurrent event to BEA. Since I only had one day to go into the city this year, I thought it would be fun to check out the blogger conference and skip the (sometimes chaotic) trade floor. I’m going to break this post down in two parts, my personal thoughts about the conference, shall we say the Good and the Not So Good. First, I’ll start with what I felt were the parts in which the BEA Book Blogger Conference excelled.
THE GOOD
The BEA Book Blogger Conference had two strong points and probably these would be considered two of the more important parts of any conference experience.
First, I think they kicked off with a pretty strong speaker, author Jennifer Weiner, who was there to speak to the crowd about blogging as an author and how social media has opened up a whole new world for authors to interact with readers. She has posted her entire speech on her blog if you are interested to see what she said. I found Jennifer to engage well with the audience and enjoyed listening to her speak.
Secondly, the sessions I attended were interesting. We started off listening to the panelists on Blogging Today: What you need to know and what’s next, which included blogger Candace of Beth Fish Reads, Erica Barmash of Harper Perennial and Harper paperbacks, Patrick Brown of Goodreads and author/blogger Jen Lancaster. Not surprisingly, the topic of plagiarism in the blogging world was brought up during the panel and as you can well imagine, people have very strong feelings about this topic. The panelists also discussed social media and the impact Facebook (and especially Twitter) have had on the book blogging world.
I also very much enjoyed the panel Demystifying the Book Blogger and Publisher Relationship moderated by Derek Stordahl, a Global Publishing Expert & Blogger and including blogger Jenn Lawrence
of Jenn’s Bookshelves, Lucille Rettino of Simon & Schuster and Lindsey Rudnickas of NetGalley. The panelists spoke mostly about how to develop relationships between book bloggers and publishers. There was also some discussion as to which was more important, page views and stats or number of comments on a book blog (which I still think is up for debate) and what information bloggers need to convey to Netgalley and publishers when requesting an ARC (mainly blog stats and how many Twitter and Facebook followers a book blogger has). It was a very informative sessions and probably the best part of my experience at the conference.
THE NOT SO GOOD
There was some interaction with bloggers and authors during the conference at breakfast and lunch, but as far as I could tell this did not run as smoothly as the organizers might have hoped. Maybe it’s just that I didn’t get so lucky when picking my table for breakfast (although sitting next to Cat and Karenwas great!) but while other tables had a rotation of four authors (spending a few minutes at each table) we only had two authors show up to speak with us. The same happened at lunch. Personally (and here I speak with some experience at event planning, having worked at a large international real estate franchising company for many years and having had to plan and execute many conferences during my career) I think that maybe having the authors at tables along the perimeter of the room, similar to an author signing at BEA, where you could pick the author you were most interested in interacting with and wait to talk to them may have worked better. I know that the author visits were to coincide with the time we spent eating, but I could have interacted with the authors I really wanted to see if it was set up in a different way. Also, I don’t think that any of the authors were giving out ARCs of their books (and I know that they will be doing so at BEA) but since we are all book bloggers and reviewers, maybe having some of the more popular authors sign their upcoming books would have helped ultimately promote those same books and authors.
Secondly, even though I read and very much enjoy Jennifer Lawson’s blog and luckily got her bestselling Let’s Pretend this Never Happened yesterday (which I started reading on the train ride home) I feel her strengths are not in the public speaking arena. That’s not to say she didn’t have some interesting and funny things to say (most notably I loved her statement “bloggers are more important than big media”) but she didn’t actually have a speech per se, but mostly talked about her random thoughts about being an author and blogging (which is very similar to her writing style). It was not a strong finish to the conference.
In the end, if you are attending your first BEA and need a good jumping off point, the Book Blogger Conference would most likely be worth the money. Also, if you are fairly new to blogging, I think that you can learn some very interesting information from future panels. It is also a good place to meet some of the bloggers you’ve been following (and make friends who you may just be walking around with on the trade floor). If you are a more established book blogger (or have attended BEA in the past) then I’m not sure if it would really be worth your time and money to attend. Did you go to the conference? If so, what did you think? Did I hit the nail on the head or am I far off the mark?
Very interesting post, Stephanie! I wasn’t there, but I saw a lot of tweets about it. It sounded like a mixed event. Hopefully the planners will be open to suggestions for next year and it will get better as time goes on.
That is kind of the point of this post. As someone who in the past planned events, I know that it is helpful when I received constructive critisism afterwards, so I knew what to do/not to do in the future. I did enjoy overall my time yesterday and am glad that I went, if for nothing else so that I could see Justin Cronin sitting at the table next to me!
It would be a pretty big sacrifice for me to attend BEA and the BBC, not only financially but in leaving my family during a very busy time of year. If I had done that, and then had a mediocre experience, I would be pretty upset. I have heard that in the past, the BBC was the highlight…perhaps because it was run by bloggers? And that BEA was total chaos with lots of long lines. I would like to go someday, though, if only to meet everyone.
The BEA trade floor is chaotic as there are only a limited number of books to give away (and with twitter & the internet on smart phones, people can easily figure out where to be and when). It is worth going at least once though as it is an interesting experience and you get to meet bloggers in real life! Since I didn’t go to the BBC when it was run by bloggers I can’t compare the two, but I did think it was good for me to go yesterday, but don’t think I would pay for it again unless they made some changes.
Great thoughts. I heard mixed reviews online about the first unofficial day. I suppose it depends on what you want from the experience. Hopefully the organizers will solicit feedback and make necessary changes for next year.
found your blog linked on twitter. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Stephanie for commenting. I hope that my post does give them some ideas for the future, as it has the potential of being a great conference!
I went last year, and had a similar reaction to the BBC as you did this year – i.e., that it was more useful for new bloggers than “experienced” bloggers, and also that the social aspects (meals, receptions) could have been better organized. I would love to see more topics for long-term bloggers at these events, but I also think this does fill a need for new bloggers.
Also, I don’t know if they did it this year, but getting the authors to wear name badges would be great. Because in spite of being “famous” authors, they actually turn out to look like real people, who are therefore pretty indistinguishable from the hordes of readers!
I don’t think the authors had name tags (and I think that’s a great idea)! As you mentioned in your comment, if you are new to book blogging I think that the sessions and conference were invaluable, just don’t think it’s geared towards bloggers who’ve been around for awhile (and that’s ok, maybe new bloggers are their target audience)!
Thanks for the update on the conference. I honestly wanted to attend the BBC event this year, but after seeing the panels and lineup, I bowed out because I didn’t feel like it would be worth the money and time for me to go all the way to NYC.
Yeah, as you’ve already done the trade floor at BEA and are a more established blogger I’m unsure if it would have been worth your time. In retrospect I should have gotten a babysitter and gone into the trade show today – at least it would have given me the chance to meet the authors I really wanted to see.
I didn’t mind the lunches where you got to choose where you sat, but that was easier for me in the first year BBC because people I already knew or met in person from the previous BEA where there. I think that the lunch times with authors probably should have been executed differently; it sounds like it was a bust. Maybe pairings based on blog types and available authors should have been made.
I attended the Book Blogger Convention the past two years, speaking on a panel last year, and had a blast! I think the strength of the BBC was actually getting bloggers together face-to-face, and many of the social aspects were more important to me than actual educational opportunities. I’m sure I’m in the minority on that, though — and I still loved learning new things! I just enjoyed chatting with people I “know” in real life. Putting a face to a handle was really fun.
I can definitely see your point about the conference being more useful to new bloggers. I followed along to the conference-related Twitter tags yesterday and think I might have been a little frustrated by some of what was going on, though I can’t say for sure having not been there in person. Hopefully folks still had fun, and the conference will only improve from here on out!
Meg, I am not a very outgoing person, so it’s hard for me to “make new friends!” It was fun though tracking down a few of the bloggers I wanted to meet and also getting to see some of the bloggers that I’ve gotten to know at other BEA conferences.
I’ll probably never go to BEA (watch me, now; I’ve just said never and that means fate will work hard to undo that statement) so no BBC for me, but it was very fun reading your thoughts! I guess I’d just rather meet a few bloggers at a time and go to author events when I can. The idea of a huge affair like BEA just makes me shiver, to be honest. I’d rather spend my money on a vacation!!! Where did you go on vacation, last year, Stephanie? I can’t remember. I keep thinking “Banff” but I often think strange things that are totally off. I just know it was beautiful and I want to see it, myself.
Nancy, the BEA trade floor, while huge, is also packed with people standing on line, looking for books (and unfortunately) sometimes pushing people to get through the crowds. While it’s fun to get an ARC and meet your favorite author, it’s just too busy!
Yes, we did go to Banff last August and it was BEAUTIFUL! This summer we are renting a house on Martha’s Vineyard! I love vacations!
Thanks for the reply, Stephanie! That’s exactly why I’ve avoided BEA. I don’t have any pressing need to acquire a ton of ARCs and I tend to be pretty good at tracking down favorite authors, anyway.
Yay, my memory hasn’t totally failed me, yet! I’ll look into Banff, then! Your photos absolutely blew me away! We have no vacation plans at all, but we did go to London and it looks like we’re on the verge of buying a house, so I don’t think I can complain. Maybe in the fall we’ll get to go somewhere. Enjoy your trip to Martha’s Vineyard!
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Great recap, Stephanie. I generally agree with your assessments of the panel discussions, and as I have attended all of the BBCs, I do think that it benefits new bloggers much more.
I was lucky at the breakfast, I chose a table whose authors I wanted to meet (Lee Woodruff and Justin Cronin), and they did not disappoint. I also met a new author, Will Schwalbe, who charmed all of us. I liked the table setting, making for more conversation which you could jump in on or just listen.
Jen Weiner was terrific, I have heard her before, and I missed Jenny Lawson to attend the Editor’s Buzz Panel.
I hope that next year they can balance the panel discussions to benefit new and established bloggers.