Calling All CEO's

This year’s CEO Symposium will be held concurrently with ECPA’s Pub U (Nov 4-6 at the Westin in Lombard, IL), sharing the three key note presentations by Jane Friedman, Michele Miller and Joe Wikert, but having a uniquely separate program otherwise. David Miller Ph.D., and Executive Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School, and author of God at Work, will present a fascinating brief on the impact and social implications of the growing Faith @ Work movement in the United States.

David is also willing to create an additional brief on a specific cultural issue chosen by our CEO’s. This is a unique opportunity to hear from a former CEO who has his finger on the pulse of key cultural indicators and can speak from an Evangelical perspective. Choose any topic that you think will impact your publishing program the most - politics, social sciences, the role of religion in medi - whatever you like. We would like to hear from the CEO’s in our industry. Simply post a comment to this blog entry with your suggestions. In the next few weeks we will announce the topic for David’s second brief.

Pub U Progress Report

While the blog has been quiet for the last week and a half, the office has not. Track Leaders have been diligently working with their presenters to meet a deadline of July 31st to have author bios, outlines and abstracts turned into the program coordinator, Robert Baensch (who is currently in Italy - must be rough). Once we have the full menu of content and speakers available, we will begin our marketing efforts in earnest.

Additionally, I have been working just as feverishly to secure the last two Track Leader positions and am fairly confident that I have an incredible person lined up for the Editorial Track. You should hear more from me in the next day or two about that. In the meantime, I am still looking for an individual to help out with what is now being called the Operational Track (formerly Finance & Administration). This would be a COO type of individual with a real knack for getting things done. If you know of someone like this and would like to volunteer their name, please pass that information along to me.

One last, unrelated note. We will soon be launching another blog to keep everyone posted on the latest developments with the Christian Book Expo 2009. Mark K. and D'Wayne L. have been down in the Dallas area this week doing site work and have brought back some positive news. Lots going on here at your association headquarters. Stay tuned!

Get Inspired @ Pub U

This year we will be integrating a daily time of devotions for Pub U and CEO Symposium attendees. Jim Seybert, author of the The One Year Mini for Leaders (Tyndale), will be leading us each day in a time of personal and corporate reflection. Stay tuned to the blog as we draw closer to the event, as Jim plans to jump on here and provide you with some periodic devotions to get your juices flowing.

Big News...Announced!

This year's opening night Keynote will be Jane Friedman, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide.

Jane joined HarperCollins in November 1997, overseeing HarperCollins worldwide book publishing including operations in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and India.

Since joining HarperCollins, Friedman has directed the company to nine years of continuous growth, record-breaking profits and the industry's highest profit margins. Over the course of her new career she has embraced innovation at every turn. Under Friedman’s leadership HarperCollins launched Publishing+, a way to organically grow the business and create a truly global publishing company. Most recently, Friedman’s decision to create a global digital warehouse, including digital files of its core backlist and future books, has positioned the company as a leader in the industry and is propelling HarperCollins into the 21st century of publishing.

Friedman, who earned a B.A. degree in English from New York University in 1967, came to HarperCollins from Random House, where she was Executive Vice President of Random House, Inc., Executive Vice President of the Knopf Publishing Group, Publisher of Vintage Books, and Founder and President of Random House Audio Publishing.

We are excited and pleased to have Jane present to kick off this year's Pub U. One more reason to mark this phenomenal event on your calendar now!

Track Leaders Unite!

Well, another busy ICRS is in the books. It has been a long, yet productive, week in Atlanta. On Monday, I kicked off the week with a meeting of this year's Pub U Track Leaders along with the Program Coordinator Robert Baensch.

We spent time discussing each of the tracks and their current status. Additionally, the track leaders each shared the vision they have for their sessions and I have to say that I was inspired! We truly do have a phenomenal line-up this year.

I am also pleased to announce that former owner of Harold Shaw Publishers (now an imprint of Waterbrook), Steve Board, will be the leader for this year's Pub 101 program. I am very excited about this and had an opportunity to speak with Steve just before my trip to the land of peaches. He will do a phenomenal job, bringing a wealth of experience, a love for the industry, and a holistic grasp of the publishing business to share with those needing that introduction to publishing.

After our Track Leaders' meeting, I know the TL's already had their wheels spinning about how they can further refine the ideas they have for each of their sessions. And, true to form, Robert has now begun the process of communicating with each of them to keep them on track (pun intended) in the content development process so that we can focus on the quality of the program for each of the communities.

I have a lot to do next week! I have some great leads for an Editorial Track Leader and am also talking with a very talented individual regarding the Finance/Admin Track (which we may rename the Operations Track to be more encompassing).

Keeping Track - Production

As announced previously, we have split production and design into seperate tracks. Since Torrey is doing a fabulous job managing the Design Track, I had to find someone equally up to the task on the production side.

I am pleased to announce that Pete Larson, Chief Operating Officer for Bethany Press will be leading this year's production track. Pete is a committed ECPA member and has consistently supported ECPA events in the past.

Because of Pete's unique position in the industry he is very familiar with production processes as well as being incredibly connected. Look for Pete to pull together a stellar Production Track this year. Thanks Pete, for stepping up to the plate!

Robert Baensch - In Person!

Robert Baensch, Dean of Publishing University, is going to be present at the International Christian Retail Show should anyone want to meet with him. If you are interested please let me know by e-mailing to: mcovington@ecpa.org.

Not Quite Yet!

Okay, I know I made this announcement about an announcement, but I am going to have to keep it under wraps a few more days as we need to firm up some details on our end. I am pretty positive that this person is committed to speaking, however we have only spoken to someone in close contact with them and they have given us the thumbs' up, we are waiting until we hear it directly from the horse's mouth though before we make the announcement, so you will have to stay tuned. Sorry about that.

So, I guess we could start a contest, kind of like guess how many jelly beans are in the jar, do you have any idea of who this mystery person could be?