Book Expo Canada Cancelled
Reed Exhibitions announced yesterday what their community had already concluded: that June’s Book Expo Canada is being closed “effective immediately.” Reed executive Greg Topalian says “it has become clear that the dynamics of the publishing industry in Canada is no longer best served by a traditional trade event.” Canadian customers are welcome at BEA in New York: “Our focus on the publishing industry now centers on our event in New York and we look forward to serving the needs of our customers in North America most effectively with a singular event.” BEC will provide full refunds to the small number of publishers who had made deposits for space at the June event, with Topalian noting that there “won’t be a tremendous amount of refunds.”
The consumer book show Reed was hoping to launch in Toronto this October has been cancelled as well, according to spokesman Roger Bilheimer. BEC staff will be reassigned to the company’s other trade shows.
Interestingly, in cancelling the traditional trade show, the door has been thrown open to ideas for a show that suits the current needs of Canadian customers. The Book Summit, a professional development gathering held during the same week as BEC (co-sponsored by Humber College and the Book and Periodical Council) was already planning to relocate to Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre and is all set for June 19.
In a Globe and Mail story, House of Anansi Press president Sarah MacLachlan and McArthur & Co. president Kim McArthur both express regrets over the void. MacLachlan says “Book Expo served a vital purpose to the independent booksellers and publishers alike, but was less useful to the bigger multi-national publishers and the biggest bookstore chain in the country, Indigo. I hope that the Canadian Booksellers Association will now take the opportunity to mount a new trade fair, a more scaled down version more suitable to the size of the market. We don’t need to meet in a convention centre, but I do think that it’s vital for us to have some sort of national gathering.”
McArthur, just back from the ABA’s Winter Institute, suggests a gathering of that scope and scale could well suit the Canadian trade’s needs.
