BookExpo America - here we come!

Tomorrow will start in Los Angeles BookExpo America (BEA) 2008, the premier publishing industry event in the U.S.

This is very exciting event and with over 2,000 exhibitors from around the world, BEA showcases the world's largest English-language selection of books. It will also have special industry and author events, including some very interesting panels on green issues.

If you're looking for green panel, Friday (May 30) is your day:

9:30 -10:30 a.m. (room 402B) - Environmental Trends: Where Does the U.S. Book Industry Stand Today?

This panel is sponsored by the Green Press Initiative with the following panelists: Michael Healy (Executive Director, Book Industry Study Group), Tyson Miller (Director, Green Press Initiative), Nicole Poindexter (Director Strategic Planning, Hachette Book Group), Jen Slajus (Operations Manager, Borders Group, Inc.)

10:00 - 11:00 a.m. (room 402A) - Buying, Packaging & Publishing Green Books: The Publishers' Perspective

Beyond the physicality of Green books, rather, an in-house discussion perspective; finding niches and meeting the demands of an explosion of green lifestyles. Today, Green is pervasive in just about every aspect of daily living - building, investments, travel, retirement, cooking etc., - which was not the case two years ago. How are publishers addressing this phenom?

Moderator: Edward Nowotka - Books Columnist, Bloomberg News & Southern Correspondent, Publishers. Panelists: Mark Tauber - Deputy Publisher, HarperOne, Kathy Schneider - Assoc. Publisher, HarperCollins, Martin Rowe - VP & Editor-in-Chief, Lantern Books and Suzanne Taylor - VP, Gibbs Smith

11:30 a.m - 12:30 p.m. (room 402A) Raising Dangerous Boys and Daring Girls: Children, Literature, and the Green Movement

There was a time when literature inspired children to explore nature and reveal in the great outdoors, but a new generation of plugged in children raised on Ipods, Guitar Hero, and the Internet shows little interest in discovering the natural world. What's the future of the environmental movement if kids choose the virtual world over the real one? Can literature continue to inspire children and parents to go outside and play?

Moderator: Collette Morgan - owner, Wild Rumpus bookstore. Panelists: Jessica Woods - Children's Mgr., Northshire Books, Chris Morrow - GM, Northshire Books, Richard Louv - author, Last Child in the Woods and TA Barron - Audubon Medal recipient, The Great Tree of Avalon

1:00 - 2:00 p.m (room 402A) Investing in a Sustainable World: How the Green Revolution will Create New Industries, Opportunities, Economies and Fortunes

Moderator: David Andelman - Executive Editor, Forbes and author, A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay. Panelists: Dr. Matthew Kiernan - Founder and CEO, Innovest and author, Investing in a Sustainable World and Michael Shellenberger - author, BREAK THROUGH: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility

1:30 - 2:30 p.m. (room 402B) Climate Change and the Book Industry

Many U.S. publishers, large and small, are responding to environmental challenges in innovative and successful ways. Join this session to discover more about these innovations and to learn how leading industry pioneers have conducted their own carbon audits, calculated the average carbon output from the lifecycle of a book, and taken simple steps to reduce climate impacts, use renewable energy, and much more.

Moderator: Tyson Miller - Director, Green Press Initiative. Panelists: Tona Pearce-Myers - Prod. Dir., New World Library, Andrew Van Der Laan - Sr. Project Manager, Random House and Michael Powell - President, Powell's Books.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m. (room 402A) Changing How We Shop: Understanding the Shades of Green Consumerism

Panelists: Lori Bongiorno - author, Green Greener Greenest, Diane MacEachern - author, Big Green Purse, Richard Bangs - author, Adventures with Purpose and Quest for Kaitiakitanga

Two more events that we would like to recommend on are:

1. Panel on Green Retailing at the, on Thursday (May 29, 2008) - 11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. It's part of the ABA Day of Education at BookExpo America. The program is open exclusively to ABA bookstore and provisional members.

This session will present a panel of experts from bookselling and beyond who will discuss how we can all be smarter, cleaner, more efficient retailers, and how we can save money by going green!

Moderator: Oren Teicher of ABA

Panelists: Suzy Staubach, Manager of University of Connecticut Co-op (Storrs, CT), Natalie Freidberg of All Shades of Green (Los Angeles, CA), and Ferris Kawar, VP Sustainability Greenopia and The Green Media Group, LLC.

2. On Friday (May 30), don't miss Thomas Friedman who will discuss his new book: 'Hot, Flat and Crowded'.

As you can see BEA will have many interesting green events, but does it also walk the talk? well apparently not so much. According to AP, around 30,000 event guides, just over 40 pages long, will be distributed at the Los Angeles Convention Center, along with 19,000 copies of the 700-page program guide. More than 10 million pages in all will be printed, none on recycled paper.

When asked about it, BookExpo vice president and show manager Lance Fensterman told The Associated Press that "we are fully aware that improvement can be made in our green-related efforts," and also that BookExpo welcomes any "constructive suggestions". Well, here's a constructive suggestion - give us a call! We have few ideas that can help you green BEA up.

My colleague, Eylon Israely, who runs Eco-Libris in Seattle will attend the show and will send us reports from there, so stay tuned for more news from BEA.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!