Millions and millions of books, twenty authors, and one funky room

"I choose Mug root beer from the big white fridge with the pull handle because that's what I would have grabbed in my own rec room. The mismatched furniture and leftover paint that colors the walls are just what we had at home. As a place to stimulate ideas and build new friendships it’s great to finally get out of those damn hotel conference rooms and instead meet in a place that reeks of Pink Floyd and making out with Nicole in the corner. As I first sip my Mug, I swear cheap incense burned thirty years earlier still lingers. A flashback, perhaps."

I've attended more than 50 conferences in 2007 where I was invited as a speaker and this week, I finally attended one for me. As an attendee! The terrific business book author Pow Wow, expertly sponsored by 1-800-CEO-READ (8CR), brought together 21 business book authors, and industry luminaries including publishers, publicists, designers, speaker’s agents, and more.

There were dozens of bestsellers represented and millions of books sold. It was so terrific to meet and share ideas about writing, marketing, and selling books. And with this group of extremely successful entrepreneurs we all picked each others' brains on the business of speaking and writing as a career. I learned a great deal (hey 8CR – sign me up for next year!)

The paragraph above was the result of a writing assignment – we had about ten minutes to write a few sentences that describe the funky Catalyst Ranch room we were hanging out in.

Here are the authors who attended:

Erika Andersen Growing Great Employees

Greg Alexander Sales Benchmarking

Jose Castillo

Kevin Eikenberry Remarkable Leadership

Phil Gerbyshak 10 Ways to Make it Great

Joanne Gordon Be Happy at Work

Jackie Huba Church of the Customer

Joe Heuer Business Daffynitions

Mike Kanazawa Big Ideas to Big Results

Alexander Kjerulf Happy Hour is 9 to 5

Steve Little The Milkshake Moment

Ben McConnell Citizen Marketers

Robert Mintz The World According To You

Jack Mitchell Hug Your Customers

Susan Quandt Sudden Impact on the Job

Michael Stallard Fired Up or Burned Out

Dan Roam The Back of the Napkin

John Rosen Stopwatch Marketing

Rajesh Setty Life Beyond Code

AnnaMaria Turano Stopwatch Marketing

Bill Welter The Prepared Mind of a Leader

Steve Yastrow We

Here are the people who work in the business book publishing world who shared ideas with us:

Ray Bard - Bard Press

Mark Bloomfield - Harvard Business School Press

Shelley Dolley - Leap7

Barbara Cave Henricks - Cave Henricks Communications

Mark Fortier - Fortier Public Relations

Nick Morgan - Public Words

Gerry Sindell - ThoughtLeaders Intl

Les Tuerk - BrightSight Group

Dennis Welch - Cave Henricks Communications

Susan Williams - Jossey-Bass

Thank you to Jack, Todd, Sally, Kate, Dylan, and Aaron from 8CR for putting on this great event.

Comments

[Jack Covert]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed, we did too.

[Les Tuerk]

David,
It was great meeting you and everyone else. I thought I was going there to educate, but ended up learning. Doesn't get better than that.

[Phil Gerbyshak]

David - Love the way you used the picture to tell a story. Nicely done!

I'll definitely be back there next year, and I look forward to seeing you again too! You're a fount of knowledge, and have moved onto my "keeper" list. Thanks for sharing as freely as you do!

[Erika Andersen]

David -

I never got the chance to say it when we were there - so: congratulations on the wonderful response to your book! And I loved the medium-is-the-message-ness of you succeeding by using the very approaches about which you wrote. How gratifying that must be.

I'll see you there next year...

Warmly,
Erika

[Barbara Cave Henricks]

David,
It was a great event and terrific to sit on one of those funky couches with you as we hung out and learned. Since you write about what I do, I was doubly intimidated to present PR from a guy who'd written a whole BOOK about how to do it, but you couldn't have been more gracious. I am duly impressed with your blogging strategy and plan to buy your book to learn more. Best, Barbara

[Kevin Eikenberry]

David - What a great event - and having the chance to visit with you was one of the many highlights for me! I learned alot from you and I look forward to conintuing to learn from my favorite A list blogger.

Thanks again - I look forward to collaborations and conversations and seeing you next year!

Kevin :)

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks all for your comments. What an awesome group - we all learn from each other.

Barbara -- I'm convinced that the bottom up stuff I do combined with the top down approach that you are so good at would be an amazing combination!

Best, David

[Jack Covert]

David

Thanks for the nice words and also thank you for coming. It really was a cosmic time. Thanks for joining us.

Jack

[Rajesh Setty]

David,

It was a pleasure meeting with you in-person.

Look forward to more conversations in the future.

Best,
Raj

[Dylan]

It was great talking with you David. I wish I had done so earlier. When you read that paragraph for the writing assignment out loud, I almost fell out of my chair. I'm glad I read you mine first, because I couldn't have followed that.

Dylan

[Mike Kanazawa]

David,

What an inspiring story about how you brought your book into the world.

I'll definitely be looking to apply the new rules of PR as we shift gears from writing into launching our new book next year.

Thanks for sharing so freely with everyone.

Mike

[AnnaMaria Turano]

Hi David-

It was great to hear your expert insight on the role of blogging and other interactive marketing medium.

And, congrats on the recognition as a best business book in John Moore's Brand Autopsy blog today!

Best,
AnnaMaria

[Jose Castillo]

Flashback indeed. Great stuff and a pleasure to connect with you David.

Keep it spicy.

Jose

[Les Tuerk]

Umm, actually my posting was mis-credited above. here is what I said:

David,
It was great meeting you and everyone else. I thought I was going there to educate, but ended up learning. Doesn't get better than that.