Conference Time!

Hannah and I made our annual trek to Florida for my conference.  We fly down together and spend a few days with Nana and Papa then I go to my meetings in Orlando while Hannah stays behind and gets spoiled rotten.  The past two years have had their challenges in the flying department, but this year couldn't have gone smoother.  Hannah watched her videos and ate snacks and did a little coloring on the way down.  On the way back she slept before we taxied out and I had to wake her up when we were home.  She left a little pool of drool on my lap!

The conference was once again wonderful.  We stayed at the Shingle Creek Resort and had a beautiful view of the golf course (not that I ever got to go outside!) Along with lots of information that booky types adore, we also had some very interesting speakers:

John Hodgman, also known as "PC" in the Apple commercials.  Oh my!  He was so very funny and dry.  He moved into my secret boyfriend category!  We also had:

Janet Evanovich, who was a little flighty and scattered, but very engaging.  She was quite funny at the bar later!  She hung around to sign books and drink (I'm pretty sure the drink was a fee for her autograph.)

Ted Turner was also there to discuss his life and his new book Call Me Ted.  He was amusing and had lots of stories to tell.  I was surprised to hear what a philanthropist he is.  He was a bit hard of hearing and a little forgetful, so during the Q&A session it especially difficult when a question had two parts.  He had to be reminded of the second part.

Then came this guy.  So interesting (and flamboyant too!)  Gregory Macguire discussed his newest book in the Oz series.  He also talked sweetly about his family and his love of musicals. He sang, he danced, he did a strange puppet show.  Unfortunately his talk was cut a little short by an unexpected fire drill (OK, so I guess I did get to go outside once!).

Raphael Saadiq was our entertainment. I didn't think I would be quite as impressed as I was. He was awesome!!

The trade show with over 200 publishers was pretty scary.  I'm not sure if you have ever been in a huge room filled with 900 bookstore people and rows and rows of free books, but I was afraid for my life.  I managed to get some great new books that are coming out this fall.

All in all, it was nice to hear that our company is in really good shape going into this difficult holiday season.  Nice to see once again how well employees are treated at Barnes & Noble.  I'm proud to work for such a great place.