On March 19^th & 20^th we exhibited at the Publishing Business Conference and Expo, which was held at the Marriott Marquis in New York. The Publishing Business Conference and Expo is one of the oldest of the publishing conferences and it is operated by the North American Publishing Company.

Unlike targeted conferences (such as Digital Book World) or technical conferences, this conference is aimed at the broad book and magazine publishing demographic. Exhibitors included printers, mailers, binding houses, and software companies.

The conference was very well attended. We had a chance to visit with a lot of people at our vendor booth, and we were able to interact with many attendees over the two days of the show. Most of the questions we were asked were regarding short run digital printing. Book Partners is unique in that we are one of the few vendors that can produce not only perfect bound books, but also litho and cloth casebound books on a short run basis.

Another big topic of discussion at our booth and during visits with other vendors was how ebooks are affecting our business. In our experience, especially in regards to short run printing, ebooks have been an enhancer. A lot of our clients still seem to want the tactile sensation of a physical book, but there are opportunities for utilizing ebook offerings in conjunction with print offerings that we, and other publishers, are finding interesting and potentially lucrative.

Our experience at Pub Expo this year was incredibly positive and we hope to see as much of a response as we did last year, or more.