Canadian Booksellers Association Conference Loses Publishers and Booksellers to BEA

Following the Canadian Booksellers Association’s fourth national conference held June 3 to 5 near Toronto, the organization seems to have some soul-searching and tough decisions ahead. Timing its conference to suit its partner, the Retail Council of Canada, meant losing publishers and booksellers to BEA. This year’s conference almost didn’t happen at all, CBA senior manager Jodi White told PW in the lead-up to the event. The previous year’s conference lost money after the federal government didn’t come through with promised funding for last year’s event, and there was no funding for this year either. Since the CBA could