Okay, so I have a lot of info to share -- a LOT.
First off, I realize that I don't post blog entries as often as I (and maybe, you) would like. Therefore, I'm going to give Twittering a shot. Keep up with what I'm doing in real time at www.twitter.com/belsito.
Right now, I'm sitting in my hotel room on Day 6 of an 8-day trip to Southern California on behalf of Playaway. I know, I know -- rough life for me, eh? I'm not going to lie, I've been having a blast. Of course, it's not necessarily because of the sunny 70-degree weather or the cool breezes. I get my high from continuing to open up new channels for Playaway. But before I get into that, I suppose I should start with the beginning of my trip...
We started off at the Book Expo America show in Los Angeles. The first night I arrived, I decided to meet a couple of other Findawayers at the lobby bar. Little did I know that my two colleagues happened to be sitting directly next to Charles Barkley. Yes...THAT Charles Barkley. For the next 2.5 hours, my drinks were paid for by an NBA Hall of Famer. And I will add that Sir Charles was gracious enough to talk a little bit -- and even take pictures -- with anybody that approached him that night. As far as the actual show, I thought we had a very nice presence. We met a lot of authors, a lot of publishers, and it was apparent that we're still opening up many people's eyes who have never even heard of our format before. That said, at the Day of Dialogue (an event geared toward librarians), "Founding Father" Blake spoke and asked the audience how many people circulated Playaway in their collection. His estimation -- about 80-85%. Not bad...eh? This was all capped off by a Playaway party at the Library Bar where many...may I say "Audio Book A-Listers" were ever-so-present.
Now, I find myself in San Diego at the American Society for Training and Development show. I have to admit, I really didn't know what to expect here. I took a leap of faith in really pushing internally to get us to exhibit here. I think back to our first library tradeshow presence, though -- and we had no idea what to expect there, either. In fact, at the time, we had 30 titles, 5 publishers, and an entire 5 libraries as customers. Now, Institutional markets are our core business. Schools, Libraries, Military -- that's our bread and butter. Could Training become the next "library market" for us?? That's the question I've been asking myself. After today -- I'm more optimistic than ever that Training and Development could be the next big thing for us. Day 1 of ASTD went better than I could have imagined. Our booth was swamped the majority of the time -- and we were meeting with the creme de la creme in terms of T&D professionals. If this were a primary race, it would be "too early to call" in terms of market potential...but I have a very good feeling about this one.
I'll catch up with you all on Twitter more often -- but keep checking back here for updates...
