Welcome (back) to CAA

We've just arrived in Chicago for the annual College Art Association Conference. This is Hol's second year as an exhibitor in the Book and Trade Fair (our 2009 CAA posts) and we're thrilled to be back. Heck, we're thrilled to still be a company a year after our first public foray. Not that there's any real danger of us disappearing anytime soon, but these are eggshell times for everyone -- startup publishing company or not -- and it does feel like a bit of a milestone to be back. We don't take it for granted.

Setting up the Hol Art Books booth

Although today was a setup day for the exhibitors, and only a percentage of them are yet on-hand, it's nice to already be seeing some familiar faces. (Folks from CAA itself, from Penn State University Press, and Brepols, not to mention some familiar booths like Actar D and my booth neighbors from last year, the Henry Moore Institute.) Though admittedly, when I first walked into the hotel lobby where the conference is being held, my first reaction was "Ack, art historians!" They're a distinguished group. My lovely wife included.

My other exclamation of the day came when I found out that there is no internet or cellular service in trade fair hall and, I believe, in the rest of the conference as well. In fact, it seems the closest opportunity might be three floors, and multiple escalators up to the hotel lobby. So while the Art History Newsletter's point that this would be the first extensively tweeted CAA conference was a good one, it may not hold in the face of a baffling lack of network connection. Never fear technophobes, in the Hyatt Regency Chicago it's still 1998.

Of course all this means for us, besides almost assured base-level Internet-withdraw symptoms for the next three days, is that our conference reporting will more often take the form of interspersed dispatches rather than live, on-the-scene reportage. Nonetheless, we hope you'll stay tuned to us here, on Twitter and Facebook for the next several days. Should be fun!

And if that isn't enough to entice you, we're giving away $100 indie bookstore gift card at the end of the conference, and you don't even have to be attending to enter to win. Details tomorrow ...