Emerging Leaders Night Out, Spring 2009 edition!

Happy first day of spring! -- on which it's been snowing here in NYC. Weird. Spring is undeniable, however, and with it a young bookseller's thoughts turn to raising a pint with fellow industry professionals. That's right, folks: it's time for another Emerging Leaders Night Out!

This coming Wednesday, March 25, at 7 PM, we'll be gathering at Swift, one of my favorite Irish pubs, for some professional networking with fellow booksellers and industry folks. This time, we'll also be joined by members of HarperCollins program for young folks, HarperCollins Emerging Professionals (HCEP). It's a great chance to learn about what the publisher is doing, and meet some fresh faces coming up through the ranks. And the Independent Booksellers of New York City (IBNYC) will also have a presence, so you can learn about what that organization is doing to promote indie booksellers to consumers in NYC. EL, HCEP, IBNYC -- it will be an evening of acronyms, and beer. (This one is just for booksellers and HCEP folks -- sorry, other publishers, we'll get ya next time.)

With everything else that's been going on, I'm a little late in promoting this event. I just sent an email to our Emerging Leaders list, and Kelly at IBNYC will be doing the same to the many indie stores on her list. I'm gonna start spreading the word on Twitter, too. This will be an interesting experiment to see how fast we can gather a mob of booksellers in this connected age. Let's show them how it's done.

You do need to RSVP via email to hcep@harpercollins.com -- do that now, while you're thinking of it. And see you for a pint on the 25th!