The BlogWorld Expo New York is held at the same time and location as the BookExpo America show. If you’re a Web 2.0 guy like me, then you might wondered why BWE would need to colocate with BEA. After all, isn’t the book dead?
One of the exhibitors at BlogWorld was Wiley. They’re the publisher of those “Dummies” books that many people buy but never read. The Wiley booth had only a sign and a table. Finding a rep at the Wiley booth was a big hit or miss. Most of the time the booth was empty, and today, we found the booth completely abandon. This allowed Syed and I to take over the Wiley booth to make the following video.
We were feeling pretty smug with ourselves and decided to check out the BookExpo America show floor to see how dead it was. What we saw gave us a rude awakening.
The Book Is Not Dead
BlogWorld Expo and BookExpo are both held at the Javits Center, which overs over 675,000 square feet of display space divided among multiple halls and floors. This is the floor plan for the BlogWorld Expo.
Barely 50 exhibitors had booths at BlogWorld New York. Wiley was booth 308, a double sized booth. This is the floor plan of the BookExpo America.
Any preconceived notion on our part that the book was dead was destroyed when we got into the BEA show floor. It was MASSIVE! The 2011 BEA attracted over 2,000 exhibitors and nearly 30,000 attendees. To put things into perspective, the BEA had more exhibitors than BlogWorld had attendees!
So the book is not dead. In fact, it looks alive and kicking. Will BlogWorld ever get to the size of BookExpo America? No one can say for sure. However, I’ve seen trade shows much bigger than the BEA go from hero to zero in only a few years (COMDEX). The BlogWorld West shows have been doubling in size every year and I expect the East shows to do the same. I hope to be around when BWE finally overtakes BEA.
If you want to win one of those Wiley books, you’ll have to check with WP Beginner. I gave all my books to him. The book may not be dead, but it’s still too damn heavy to carry around!