Hasta La Gadget!

I visited Book Expo America in midtown Manhattan earlier today to check out the ways in which technology has seeped into the publishing world. From all the reports I’d heard leading up to the event, I expected something of a subdued gathering–a quiet mourning for the last days of paper publishing. It’s a testament perhaps, to the bubble that those us in the tech world live in that the show was anything but quiet: Registration lines snaked up and down the halls.

I’d heard talk of there being something in the neighborhood of 20 percent fewer exhibitors this year as well, but the large convention hall upstairs was packed to the walls with exhibitors, with industry attendees clogging up the aisles between booths.

Finding ebook readers was an entirely different matter. The vast majority of companies showing off these devices were segregated to a small piece of carpeting dubbed “New Media Zone.” Amazon was there with the Kindle, and Sony was showing a variety of its devices, but both companies were relegated to small tables in what couldn’t really pass for full booths.