It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I can only claim it’s because this week has been packed with the BEA Bloggers conference followed by BEA. As I told a couple of publishing friends, I had more fun at BEA this year than I’ve had in years. (And I didn’t even make it to any parties–other than a terrific set from Band of Outsiders at Local 269.)

So, what made this year’s BEA more fun than ever?

As I posted earlier, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on Demystifying the Publisher, Blogger Relationship. It was simply inspiring to be among 400+ people in love with books, authors, reading and writing about it. I know many publicists see bloggers as something akin to a plague of locusts, but it was great to see how keen these writers are to improve the professionalism of their writing and their relationship with publishers.

The panelists did a great job of fielding questions, giving different perspectives, and holding an insightful conversation with each other and with the larger room. Clearly, book bloggers — especially in fiction and young adult writing — are an important, emerging force in developing the conversation between author, reader, and publisher. Figuring out how to make this relationship work effectively and professionally, has the potential to signficantly benefit the publishing ecosystem.

The blogger conference was followed by BEA proper. For me, it was great to experience the fair without any connection to a booth. I didn’t have to worry about giveaways, author schedules, or a full slate of meetings. Instead, I had a handful of scheduled meetings and ran into old friends everywhere.

Taking the pulse of the fair through many hallway conversations, it seems to me that (for the most part) the publishing world is starting to believe that they can navigate the digital transformation of this business without becoming irrelevant.

And, along these lines, I thought the idea to bring in “Power Readers” on the last day of the show was refreshing. I know some publishing people were worried about it–but how great to let influential consumers and heavy readers backstage to connect with authors and brands. If the industry is to thrive, it must be more externally-focused on customers and even better at facilitating the connection between author and reader. Kudos to Random House for grabbing the branding opportunity to give every power reader a totebag and advance reading copies. At the same time, if this new initiative is to be truly successful, BEA does have a duty to make sure these power readers are really influential enthusiasts.

BEA also did more than ever to bring technology into the conference–from a very useful (if somewhat-slow-to-load) app to streaming video to social media. All very welcome. Maybe next year, free wifi in Javits?!