LDSBA Convention

I've been reading the blogs this morning on LDS Booksellers Convention. It is always amazing how perceptions flow. This year at convention CFI had 6 booths, DB has 6 booths, Coven. had 4, Granite 2, Millennial 1, Signature 1. Excel wasn't represented as I recall. I can't think of anyone else who had more than 3. Last year DB had 20, we had 8, covenant had 8, Granite had 6.

There were 27 fewer vendors at the convention this year compared to last year (about a 25% drop). There were about 15% fewer retail attenders.

The most interesting aspect of the convention was that the association bought the entire hall, but only sold 70% of it. Apparently this was an effort to see if we could fit into a smaller hall. All exhibiters were limited to a maximum of 6 booths.

DB and Coven. have made no secret that they want a smaller convention. They have expressed that they do not like the expense of the event. I talked to nearly half of the board of directors. There were many opinions expressed privately that would not be expressed openly at the meeting. Apparently there was some talk of DB not attending if anyone were allowed more booth spaces than the six they wanted to buy.

I guess we will continually work on our perceptions to find out where reality lies.