Charleston 2017

November 20, 2017

Charleston 2017

Recently, a number of the Ingenta and PCG team were lucky enough to head over to Charleston for the Charleston Library Conference. Held annually, it’s one of the key events in our calendar as an opportunity to discuss key issues of importance to librarians, publishers, electronic resource managers, consultants, and vendors of library materials.

With the vendor showcase and lots of key sessions over the week to attend, there are always numerous learning and discussion opportunities. For PCG, there is always particular emphasis on developing sales for their partner organizations, and Charleston offers a unique, level playing field of vendors:

Kelly Clifton “As a first timer at the Charleston Library Conference it was such an eye opener to witness the large number of attendees who are the true decision makers. Several librarians mentioned how they appreciate the vendor expo day’s format which allows small publishers NOT to be overshadowed by the larger ones.  There were many meaningful customer conversations, especially with those who are considering expensive digital archival investments.”

Heather Lantz “The format of the Charleston vendor day removes the bias from the room by keeping all booths to the same dimensions. I think this increases booth traffic because it allows the attendees to focus on the exhibitors without the distraction of splashy booth designs.”

Kate Vincent “The Gaillard center ballroom provided a great location for all of the vendors to assemble.  As a registrant, you assume all of the exhibiters are all the same and no vendor receives any special treatment (larger table exhibit) based on revenue. I love the fact that the registrants crowd in to tour the displays”

It’s not just publishers who receive attention from librarians. New technology solutions also receive great interest:

Nan Frost “I was impressed with the number of librarians who sought to find the Yewno booth and spent significant time with us, asking questions and interacting with live demos.  The librarians were completely engaged in what they were seeing and one could see faces go from quizzical to understanding.  There were truly “ah-ha” moments.  It was encouraging and refreshing.”

(you can read the recent Yewno press release here)

Although there is importance of achieving good results from events such as this, there is another side to the story, as Melissanne sums up:

Melissanne Scheld ”There are various ways to measure the success of an annual conference: number of librarians attending, booth foot traffic, adding new potentials to our pipeline. While I am pleased to say all of these figures would be very high for PCG from this year’s Charleston conference, I am most pleased to have the opportunity to meet and work with all of our domestic sales team at once. Our team is spread out around the country, but at Charleston we were able to spend some time together. Our collective experience, connections, and drive have raised the bar for excellence. I am proud to be just one piece of this amazing team.

Looking forward to next year already!