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Jason Deere wasn’t able to be there either. He was off doing musicianly stuff too. But Dan Truman was there to accept in his behalf.

Paul Cardall won the Listener’s Choice Award for Instrumentalist. He played a version of Joseph Smith’s First Prayer from Hymns Vol. 1 album. This was my favorite performance of the evening. I love piano music and he was so…word’s fail me. Click here and listen. You’ll get what I mean.

I’d never heard of him before, but I’m going to my local LDS bookstore later this week, and I plan to buy every single one of his CDs.

There’s probably a more “promotional” photo I could use, but this one was beautiful. I couldn’t resist.

Male artist was Kenneth Cope. He performed Broken Souls for us. I’d never heard it before. It was very nice.

Female Artist was Jenny Phillips. She wasn’t able to be there because she was on her way to somewhere to do a concert.

We also had the Listener’s Choice Awards. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of this part of the convention. Wish I did because it was really fun. But for most of them, I can probably find some internet photos.

Master of Ceremonies was Kirby Heyborne. He was hilarious.

On the Thursday evening after the show, there is a huge banquet. There’s always some type of fancy buffet where I usually have to ask the server what the food is. I’m not a gourmet eater by any stretch. But even if I don’t know what I’m eating, it’s always yummy.

After we eat, the outgoing president of the association is recognized and the incoming president and board of directors are introduced. Scholarships are awarded. Scholarship money is collected from donations. Association members, their children, grandchildren and employees can apply for the scholarships. They are selected by an independent group. This year, three $1,000 scholarships were given out.

Then comes the awards ceremony and program. I didn’t take notes, so I hope I get this right.

Awards of Excellence
Outstanding Booth Awards:
Lightstone (Liken) Studios
RingMasters

Retail Excellence: (chosen by Wholesalers)
Crowley’s Quad in Twin Falls, ID (small bookstore)
Moon’s Bookstore in Dallas, TX (large bookstore)

Wholesale Excellence: (chosen by Retailers)
Spring Creek Book Co. (small wholesaler)
Sounds of Zion (large wholesaler)

There were also awards for Outstanding Sideline Product, the Readers’ Choice Award and Exceptional Merit Award, but I can’t remember who got those. If anyone reading this remembers, let me know.

This booth, One Associated, probably caused the biggest buzz at the convention. It’s no surprise to anyone that the LDS publishing industry is struggling. Independent bookstores are finding it harder to stock their shelves and make ends meet. And you’ve certainly heard me rant about the unbelievably small profit margins in a niche market like ours. Many of us have been trying to come up with ways to make the situation better for all involved. This company may have just hit upon a solution.

As I understand it (and I hope I don’t misrepresent them here), One Associated is a profit sharing situation where bookstores and vendors work together in a win/win situation. Bookstores give a little on some points. Vendors give a little on other points. And we all profit. It’s based upon a point of sale register and software program that automates a huge portion of the ordering and inventory process and creates reports that will help the vendor support the bookstores.

One Associated’s booth was set up like a mini-store and they showed how the process would work in a real store. They also had training meetings throughout the day to explain how it all works. And they gave away cool pins, water bottles and squeeze balls. That alone makes them a star in my book.

Seriously, I think this idea has some real potential. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

Maryetta’s has lots of little table-top statuary–several pieces with Christ, and others with family situations. Maryetta’s has a lot of really popular pieces, like the Young Woman and Christ in Gethesemane. I especially like Love One Another, Ascension and Lullabye.

I’ve had several requests for a photo of Covenant’s booth. I don’t have one in any of the photos that have been sent to me so far. I’ve contacted my friends and they’re going through their photos again to try to find one. But if any of you have one, please send it.

This photo comes compliments of C.S. Bezas:

Hey, this is a picture I took with some of my buddies in front of Rosehaven’s booth. I flew out for my new book, “Powerful Tips for Powerful Teachers” and my CD, “A Time for Ana.” The publisher is Rosehaven Publishing & Distribution. I just love working with them. Talk about integrity!

(Reading left to right, C.S. Bezas (me), Kenya Transtrum, Janie Van Komen, Lori Nawyn, and Karlene Browning, the owner of Rosehaven .)

Wellspring Publishing (booth on left) publishes and distributes a variety of items. I think their booth actually wrapped around to the other side of the aisle. They have books, coloring books, bookmarks, stickers, calendars, cards, matted prints…just lots of things.

The booth on the right is Stevenson’s Genealogy Center. They have every genealogy item that you can think of, and several more that you would not have thought you needed (but, of course, you do)–binders, sheets and forms, how-to books, kits, software. They also publish family histories. Cool.

Sounds of Zion is another of the bigger distributors. They had an 11 booth space that looked like an “L” with a 6 booth square in the front, then a 5 booth strip down one side.

They used to carry mostly CDs and talks on tape, but they have prints and books and other things now too. I’ve always liked the way they display their products on that slat board display. It’s a very crisp and clean presentation.

This company used to be called Organized World, but I guess they go by OW Designs now. Either way, they have the cutest scripture totes I’ve ever seen. I love the ones with the smiley faces–you can see them in pink, yellow, blue and red, just below the light on the right side of their grid display.

One year OW’s booth won the award for best decorated booth, according to the theme. I can’t remember which year it was or which theme, but they deserved it. Their booth was a cute surf shop this year and they were probably in the running, but got beat out by Ringmasters who had live fish in their booth. (I haven’t posted that photo yet.)

Mostly Memories has a lot of gift items–scented candles, lotions, cremes, potpourri. They also have calendars with Greg Olsen art and other inspirational things. One year we were just up the row from them and it was so nice and pleasant smelling the entire week.

We R Memory Keepers is a scrapbook vendor–lots of cool papers, journals, binders, etc.

Lightstone (the Liken the Scriptures people) won the award for best booth at the convention. This booth was totally cool. It was part of the set for the Daniel and the Lions movie coming out soon. Here is the front of it.

Inside they were showing clips from the Daniel movie. They also had some lions that you could have your picture taken with. Here’s a photo of one of the lion’s going back into their den.

If anyone reading this blog had their photo taken with the lions, send it to me and I’ll post it.

During some of the slower times, one of the lions would climb up on that ledge (you can see the edge of it in the far right of the photo) and stretch and growl. It was really a fun booth and a great idea.

Every year, Florence Hansen brings a work in progress and sculpts during the show. Last year, she was working on Freedom From Fear.

This year, she brought a piece in progress on Wednesday. Then apparently she was talking to someone at the convention about a new piece she was thinking of doing in honor of our men in the armed forces who gave their lives in combat. So on Thursday, she brought in a different block of clay and her model and got started on it. (This convention is a great source of inspiration for a lot of us.)

This newest piece is of a mother holding a folded flag to her heart, head bent, missing her son. In the photo above, Florence is working on the back of the mother’s head. I’m looking forward to seeing this piece. I think it’s very timely and will offer some comfort to mourning mothers everywhere.

Florence is such an amazing artist. I love to watch her work. And by the crowd that is usually standing around her, I’m not alone in that. One of the new pieces on display this year was Sleigh Ride! It was beautiful. You can see more of her work on the Hansen Classics website.

In my opinion, this was the second most eye-catching booth at the convention. (Lightstone/Liken was #1.) HaleStone distributes the HaleStorm (DB link) movies like The Singles Ward and The R.M. It also distributes for several other related movie and entertainment companies, such as Thompson, Majestic and Hale Yeah!

Thompson has a bunch of family movies, but I can’t find a weblink for you. I don’t know very much about the other companies either–again, no link. I also don’t know why this booth looks so empty in this photo or why there are no workers there. Every time I walked past it during the convention, it was crowded. Maybe this one was taken before the convention opened.

Granite Publishing had 6 booth spaces. This is from the side and back. I liked the simplicity of the thatched roofs on their pillars with book cover posters up and down the sides. Also the palm trees. That was cool.

The round tables and chairs that you can see in this photo were where the employees met with the bookstore buyers to take orders. They had their author signings around front. I hope someone sends me a photo of the front of their booth, because this one does not do it justice.

Just a thought. If any other publishers, authors, vendors, bookstores, conventioneers, or whatever happen to read this blog and you have photos you’d like me to post here, please e-mail them to me. Format them for posting on the web before sending. And if you have any commentary to go with the photo, I’ll post that too. Just let me know if you want your name, etc. posted with them.

This is one end of Cedar Fort’s booth. They had a 10 booth space. That round thing above the middle of their booth has all their imprint/company logos on it, riding the top of that blue wave. I think it may have rotated. It was kind of cool, but some of the logos were too small and they were hard to read even when you were right up close. Which is too bad.

Note to CFI: next time, make your logos bigger and bolder.

You can barely see it in this photo–and I’m hoping someone will send me another photo of this booth from inside it–but they had plastic walls around their booth that had cascading water coming down the sides. That was kind of cool.

I think they were really brave to do the water thing. I mean, if one of the tubes or pipes sprung a leak, it would have sprayed all over the conventioneers and ruined a lot of CFI product, and possibly some product in the neighboring booths. However, as far as I know, it worked for them.

(We thought about having water in our booth, but decided against it due to the disaster potential.)

CFI also had these really cute plastic blow-up chairs with polka dots all over them. They looked nice and fun, but they were so low to the ground that I wouldn’t have dared try to sit in them. It would have taken a crane to get me back up. I think a lot of people may have felt the same way, because out of the 200 times I walked past them, I never once saw anyone sitting in them.

Overall, I think CFI had an okay booth display, but it wasn’t nearly as cool as their jungle themed one last year. That one was ULTRA-COOL! They had camoflage netting all over it. They were one of my favorites last year, but I don’t have any photos of it. Sorry.

Here are two random aisles at the show.

I got some photos! I have several friends who are camera happy and they are going to be e-mailing photos to me over the next few days. I will post them and comment as I get them, so they may be a little disjointed. But then, the convention is a huge cacophony of noise and excitement and people hawking their wares, so the frenetic content of the next few days of posting will actually give you a sense of the feeling of being there. I hope.

Here is a photo of Deseret Book’s booth. Since they are the biggest, and since I talked about them a little the other day, I’m posting them first.

This is just from one angle and it’s the only one I have so far. It does not do the booth justice. But see the table and chair there on the left side of the photo? That’s where the authors sit to do their signings. The bookstores get tickets that allow them to stand in line–sometimes for an hour or more–to meet the specific author and get a signed copy of their new book. There are a limited number of tickets and you have to have one to even stand within spitting distance of this area. Sometimes the line of ticket holders stretches all the way across the front of the booth. There are a couple of other signing nooks at the other corners of the booth. I may have photos of one of these lines coming later.

Also notice the big thingee (that’s the technical term) at the top center of the photo. There is a giant reproduction of one of their new titles on each side of that. You can see that from anywhere in the convention hall. It’s amazing.

Set up day (Tuesday).

It started out as such a lovely day. Got down to the office. Packed the truck in less than 30 minutes. Did a few leisurely office type things (pay bills, filled a few orders, chatted with an ex-employee who dropped in to say hello…). Then we headed off to the South Towne Convention Center in Sandy. Life was good.

We entered the convention hall around 10:00 a.m. It was such a beehive of activity. People bringing in their product, setting up their booths. The air was electric with excitement. And noise. Hammering. Buzz saws. Other miscellaneous bangs and booms.

We found our area and started to set up. Then we realized we’d left a major portion of our display back at the office. Another major part of the booth that was supposed to be available for pick-up early Tuesday morning, wasn’t. These two parts had to go in first. None of the other pieces could be put together or set up until these were in place.

So back we went to the office for the one part. Then to the store to find a make-do for the other part. (I said a prayer of thanks that: 1] our office is very close by; not in Maine or Florida or even Manti; and 2] Sam Walton lived during my lifetime.)

We had planned to be done by 2:00 p.m., but didn’t have all our pieces together until 3:00 p.m. After that it went fairly smoothly. Sort of.

We were out of there by 4:15 p.m. and went straight from there to one printer to get most of our remaining promo pieces. The receptionist said, “But you picked up all of your catalogs the other day. I don’t have anything else left in the computer for you…” Fortunately, the printer was as disorganized as us. The jobs were there and done, just not in the computer.

And I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but…lest you think I’m the only rattled, last minute publisher–while I was there at the printers another publisher arrived to get their stuff. And no less that four others were having their stuff still coming off the doc and being collated and folded and stapled and all that jazz. I just love it when I hear that. (Yes, I have an evil streak. Sorry.)

And I’m not the only one with the set-up problems. Another publisher and friend was cooling their heels waiting for product to be delivered to the convention hall. Another had left their backdrop at their office. Others couldn’t get their carpet to fit. And all over the place I heard loud and very stressed voices saying things like, “Where is that xyz? I know I packed it!” and “That doesn’t fit together right. Where is this piece supposed to go?” and “Where is so-and-so? They were supposed to be here an hour ago.”

All that anxiety just makes it sweeter when your booth is done and you can step back and take a look at it and it looks good. But we weren’t to that point yet. We had still more stuff to pick up.

So after we get the stuff from one printer, we go pick up stuff at another printer. That was all done and looked beautiful. Check off another thing from the list.

Went to pick up the 60 items from that never-to-be-named store which has employees who work for the devil (grumble, grumble–do I sound like Super Dale? [local joke])…first, “We only have 24 of them.” Then we ask, “Is that counting the 22 that were on your shelf yesterday?” No. Duh. So then we were up to 46. “Well, we have some in clear, not frosted…” Desperate, we took those. Now we had 54. “Oh, and here are some black ones…” Took those too. Ended up with 58, which was close enough. So they go to collect them all, and “You’re going to kill us. Those frosted ones you wanted aren’t frosted after all. They’re clear…”

At this point, I don’t even care. And I’m in a hurry because, you know, I have a personal life too and I was late for a very important date. Rushed home–smelling like a construction worker. (I mean no offense to construction workers all over the world. I just don’t particularly want to smell like one. My husband doesn’t really like it when I smell like one either.) Anyway, hurried to get ready. Went to the event. Home around midnght (what was I thinking?!!) Two seconds after I fell asleep the alarm went off and it was CONVENTION DAY!!!

[P.S. I tried to get some photos on set-up day with the booths under construction, but they really turned out dark and you can’t see anything. Sorry. Will try to get some during the convention itself.]

[P.P.S. Will report on the actual convention itself this weekend. Too busy to do more right now.]