2012 ANNUAL MEETING

The 2012 EBMA Annual Meeting was held on January 10-13, 2012 at the Rio Mar Beach Resort in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. The meeting attracted over 100 Publisher Members and 50 Wholesaler Members. The theme for the 2012 meeting was Text to Technology | Making the Leap: Understand and Embrace the Technology Evolution Occuring within Libraries and Classrooms.

Over the three days, publisher and wholesalers met over one-on-one sessions which are designed to faciliate business discussions. The one-on-one sessions have proven to be invaluable to our membership. One wholesaler said about the one-on-one sessions, "The one-on-ones are the core reason we attend, and we took full advantage of every opportunity for discussion."

On the opening night, members enjoyed a cocktail reception, dinner and an award presentation that included the 33rd Ludington Award Presentation to Sharon Draper. Ms. Draper is a New York Times bestselling author as well as a two-time Coretta Scott King Award-winner for Copper Sun and Forged by Fire. To learn more about the Ludington Award, Sharon Draper or past receipients, click here.

The 2012 program brought together authors and industry professionals to help members understand how to bring their content and products to our customers in the most engaging and user friendly format to encourage children to read and learn. Presenters included:

• Marc Aronson, author and editor, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Candlewick Press, Simon & Schuster
• Mary Ann Cappiello, Asst.Professor at Lesley University, Literacy and Literacy Division
• Myra Zarnowski, Professor, Dept. of Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education at Queens College, City University of New York
• Brian Kenney, Ric Hasenyager
• Jeff Kinney, author of Wimpy Kids Series

In addition to these presentations, Gene Bahlman, Incoming EBMA President, held a discussion on the future strategies of EMBA and how it can best continue to serve its members.  

Presentations were made available, to view these click here.