This past week, a number of Pace Publishing students and faculty attended the annual BookExpo America Conference at the Javits Center. BEA is a great opportyunity for students to gain a scope of industry, network with other publishing professionals, learn about new books and meet authors.
If you weren’t able to attend BEA or missed certain conference events, visit BEA LIVE! on your computer or mobile device to catch up!
Below is a brief synopsis by Miguel Cervantes about his experience at BEA:
“One of the things that was first things impressed upon me in the publishing program was that I needed to go to BEA. This being my first semester at Pace, I had to admit my naivete, I neither knew what BEA was nor why it was important. My fellow students were quick to educate me on the Book Expo of America though and how attendance would give me valuable experience and perspective into the industry on which I was now a part of.
The Jacob Javits Center was remarkable; I had been to conventions centers but never one so large. I was immediately struck by a wave of all things publishing as soon as I entered and I had not even checked in yet. After checking in I
Pace Students at BEA 2013 (from the left) Susan Seeman, Tatiana Makarevich, Heather Allen and Caroline Acebo.
walked the floors for the first time visiting booth after booth, publisher after publisher, familiarizing myself with how they filled a niche in publishing. It was in my second pass that I began to take a more active role, talking with authors and also collecting more than a few freebies. The lectures and panels held at BEA were also invaluable in their information. I was lucky enough to attend a lecture on twitter and it’s use in our industry for marketing and a panel on e-books, e-book readers, and the future. These lectures will most definitely help this summer in my position as social media intern at Simon & Schuster.
I feel very fortunate and grateful to Dyson College for selecting me as one of the students to attend BEA this year. Looking back I can say that attending the Book Expo of America was the perfect punctuation to end my first semester at the program here at Pace.”
This article is wonderful and I think the person that wrote it has articulated well their first experience at BEA. If i knew that guy I would certainly treat him to lunch.
Great recap Miguel! I can almost smell the Javits Center. I missed out on BEA because of work and more work, so its great to have your summary. I also have Javits-Centerphobia after the last conference I attended there (Comicon- too many people not enough oxygen!) Was this a very crowded event?
I’d love to hear more from others who attended, what were some of the more innovative displays and marketing methods you saw?
Oh, I really should have gone to this, but I forgot all about it. Lectures! Networking! Swag! Glad to hear it was fun. And Jenna, don’t blame the Javits Center for Comicon. “Too many people, not enough oxygen” is practically their motto.
I think the article well written too and hopefully someone treats you to lunch. I liked how you were impressed by everything you saw there. It was great to hear about the convention from a student’s perspective and someone who is new to the program. I didn’t know about the BEA either until you mentioned it to me. I think it is something that not many of the students know about which they should because it can change what they know about publishing.
The Javits Center is a great place. I was able to attend the Toy Fair they had last year and the year before (once as part of a booth and once as a licensor manager–looking for different licenses to attain). I did not know that the BEA allowed consumers at the event this year until it was too late. I just recently read that they started letting the public in last year, and this second year attendance of consumers tripled. I can’t wait to go next year!