International Christian Retailer's Show 2008

Terry and I had the privilege of going to the Christian Retailer's Show in Orlando this past week. It was amazing! All day long there were Christian author's signing their books and giving them away! We met so many people and it was very fun! Here is Terry with Ben Stein who was there because of his movie Expelled. Terry stood in a long line to have this one taken!

                    The information desk at the show.

Here I am with Terri Blackstock. She writes Christian novels that are a mixture of mystery, romance and just good writing. I have read all of her books. She is just a beautiful person. She is much more beautiful in person - this picture doesn't do her justice!

The vendor floor was just huge! Every big and small Christian publisher and supplier was there.

All of their products were on display with special deals just for ordering at the show. I really learned a lot and found some new suppliers for the book store. There were many suppliers of gift items for stores also - some beautiful stuff. (to keep in mind for the future)

We were given so much that we had to ship it home! We bought boxes and kept coming back to fill them up to send home. We sent home four large boxes! Can't wait to get them!! It was a good four days - wish we could have stayed longer. The last day all of the vendors give away their products that are left over to avoid shipping them home. We had to leave Wednesday and missed that part! :(   I also attended some training classes for bookstore managers and an idea exchange luncheon. We won't talk about the plane trips - flying is not fun for me. When we returned to Detroit (on time, I might add) we were waiting for our luggage for about 30 minutes when they came over the loud speaker and said that they had lost our flight's luggage. They couldn't find it! They said that everyone had to go to the baggage claim office and give their address for the luggage to be delivered when it was found! What really happened was that the shift of workers who unload the baggage walked off the job at end of shift and just didn't unload the plane. No one told the other shift and they didn't know that it hadn't been unloaded. When someone figured this out, we got our luggage! That was only an hour and a half after landing! What organization!