For those of you who have never been there, here are a few pictures of what goes on. The show is held at the Javits Center, pictured at the left, which is roundly condemned as an awful place. Unfortunately there is no other large convention center in New York. The Center is relatively inaccessible by public transportation and has undersized, mediocre and overpriced eating facilities. It is impossible to find an outlet to recharge any electronics and the press facilities are the worst I have seen in my career. There is continual talk of replacing the Center, but nothing ever happens.
Here are two shots of the registration hall. They always do a nice job of decorating the steps to the exhibit hall level.
Of course a lot of people have to check luggage
This is the cattle pen area where people line up in long lines to get their books signed. The crowd you see here is nothing. It is mind-boggling when the general public is allowed in on Thursday
Of course many author signings take place at the publishers’ booths as well
Here is something you don’t need with ebooks – the remainder area. Not for public buying, but booksellers come here to fill up their shelves with remaindered books. Want a wall of history? They will sell it to you cheaply.
As well as exhibitor booths, there are several stages where author interviews and other events are aired throughout the show.
Not only publishers are there, but printers, binders, cover vendors, paper makers, and anyone associated with the publishing industry. To me, they are more interesting than just looking at thousands and thousands of books.
Here is the Amazon booth for Kindle Direct Publishing. They made hardly any mention of ebooks at all, and all the display and literature was about paper books.
Google Play had a big booth
Not only the big guys, but many little guys are there. This is The Wine Appreciation Guild.
There is a whole section devoted to Spanish publishing
As there is a section devoted to Russian publishers
I haven’t included any of the big publishers displays because they are huge and very spread out, so they show very poorly in a photograph.
Given the lack of public transport to the Center, busses are provided by the hotels
Conventions and print books just go together. American Library Association meetings are even larger. The Annuals are the third largest conventions (after the political party conventions). I sense that the librarians on-line work environments make the physical meetings even more invigorating. They set in motion the agendas that are transacted on-line.
These are great shots, thanks. The Consumer Electronic’s Show at its peak with 260,000 visitors was by far the biggest trade show on earth and anyone who visited at those peak years knows just how arduous a week there was on all involved.
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