BookExpo America attendance down a bit less than expected

The big decline in paid exhibitor space that BookExpo America organizers had forecast became a reality, but many attendees and companies, who expected low attendance as well, ended up pleasantly surprised by the activity.
The Great Recession of 2008-2009 had been expected to adversely impact the show. The Associated Press called it "a low-budget, low-celebrity convention, with fewer parties and fewer advanced copies of books than in the past, and a sense that the best way to meet expectations was to lower them."
Attendance was 29,923, up 1,500 from 2008 in Los Angeles, but down 6,189 or 17.1 percent from 36,112 in 2007 in New York. "Verified" attendees, which excludes people with exhibitor badges, was 12,025. Media representation rose to 1,700 from 1,250. There were 7,066 book buyers and librarians in attendance, down about 13 percent from 2007. "We gave away a lot of badges" to booksellers this year under the new program with the ABA, show director Lance Fensterman said. That helped to keep ABA participation steady. "It's part of what we do," Fensterman said, declining to add that BEA also provides a financial subsidy that helps to keep the dwindling ABA in business and in attendance.
May 31 marked the last time Book Expo expects to convene on a Sunday. Exhibitions at the 2010 show will be held Friday-Saturday only, although educational sessions will be held on an extra day.
BEA show director Lance Fensterman in a blog post well in advance of this year’s show, which opened on May 29, had pre-announced that
square footage was running 20 to 25 percent smaller than the last show in Los Angeles. Registrations by indie bookstore members of the American Booksellers Association were running "almost flat (100 or so down). Registrations by librarians were down "about 25 percent.” Miscellaneous industry professionals were slimmed by about 1,350.
Overall registered attendees were down by 30 percent compared to the last time the show was in New York, and exhibitor registrations were down by 35 percent.
Fensterman concluded: "What does all this mean in the simplest of terms? For BookExpo in NYC we are going to see an appropriately smaller exhibit floor with less 'low quality' attendees, less exhibiting personnel and roughly the same number of retailers, ABA booksellers, national booksellers, and authors.... BEA needs to be a high level book industry event where publishers can connect with key influencers. We need to make this connection easier, not harder, and I genuinely think we may be on the road to doing just that."