Tuesday, November 22, 2011

What do you want from BEA???

We are in the midst of shaping our plans to make more of the BEA experience available via video, starting with the 2012 show.   Our initial plan is to stream our marquee events live along with some action from the show floor.   The marquee events are the Book & Author Breakfasts along with the various Buzz Panels - which is Adult Trade, Middle Grade & YA each have their own Buzz Panels.  

What we want to know is: 
If you that have been to BEA, what are the most compelling events?
For those that never have been to BEA, but wished to from a far - what do you want to see?  
Would you like to see what is happening in the exhibitor booths?
Is autographing more exciting? 
We do audio podcasts for almost all of the conference sessions - is there a need to offer video?  

We have to make decisions as to what we can include on video because covering it all is not a viable option, at least for 2012.  Please let me know what you want to see or who - should we interview people from the show floor - do you want to hear from publishers or booksellers?  Would you like to have pre-show video promoting authors so you can plan your time better at BEA?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving - truly my favorite Holiday on the calendar.  Special thanks to anyone that takes the time to offer their opinions - they  will be most appreciated.

4 comments:

  1. I thought it was great, More crowd handling would be helpful. I couldn't figure out what was going or where but it was my first year. I was torn between the signings/ARCs and the talks and panels.

    The app on iphone was great.

    Because of the lines I think signings should occur away from the booth. or lines should be roped off and not block aisles. It seemed no one knew who was in charge.

    I found that when I had a question in the months and weeks leading up to the event and contacted the organizing company no one knew the answer. Two issues in particular:
    1. What credentials are you looking more, I consider myself a journalist. Noone knew what to tell me.

    2. Ticketed non-admissions cost events - no tickets were needed I was told even though that was on the site. It was maddening!
    I have no idea how that could be organized.
    Bottled water in the press room would have been the best thing and the best thing exhibitors could offer.

    Having to call in ticketed breakfast reservations after signing up online was a pain.

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  2. I agree with Steph that the signings need to be more organized, as long lines interferred with each other and blocked aisles. And I wish more publishers would pass out tickets for their event signings, so you wouldn't have to wait in a long line only to find out there were no more books.

    Loved the buzz panels! And the publisher's booths were easier to find last year as they were better marked.

    I was also torn between signings and panels, and sometimes panels on the same genre were held at the same time, which made it hard to choose which to attend.

    Looking forward to attending again this year! And love the idea of water bottles in the press room!

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  3. I am a far off and I would like to see everything!!! I am a young author and I am looking forward to attending one of next years events!:)

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  4. One thing I would love to see is in the autographing area - please don't have all of the authors of the same YA genre signing at the same exact time! The autographing area at times is a complete zoo with lines wrapped around - and people lining up so early that others thought it was for the current author signing and were turned away from going!

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