Publish or Perish: Confessions of An Unrepentant Exhibitionist

The TESOL convention, the highlight of the professional, social and business year for so many of us in the ESL/EFL teaching field, has arrived at the new millennium. It’s an in-credible opportunity for us to see the most important people from the U.S., Canada, and now, the entire world, and have them learn about our current and new products. In fact, if a book misses a TESOL publication date, you can pretty much forget sales for the rest of the year. It’s that important!

For over 20 years Aaron Berman was the key liaison between the publishers and the TESOL organization. In his first year as liaison (1970), there were 13 booths and less than 2,000 people attended the convention. Nevertheless, it was a rousing success and Aaron saw it as a good opportunity to build relations and learn more about the professional aspects of the organization. His three-year temporary contract morphed into a 20 year gig. In this process, Aaron got to know and form close friendships with many folks in ESL publishing.

He and TESOL recognized that it was important to get feedback from publishers regarding each convention so that there could be continual improvements at successive conventions. Aaron held this position until 1989 when he decided to become a full time publisher himself, with Alta Book Center. I asked Aaron what was the funniest thing that ever happened to him at a TESOL and he immediately replied, "a badge or a yarmulke." He explained that the 1987 convention was held at the Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami Beach. As most of us know, TESOL frequently coincides with Easter or Passover, or both. That year, it was the latter, and the hotel was swamped with religious Jews down for the Holiday. Conven-tion Security was instructed to not let anyone without a convention badge in a certain part of the lobby connected to the exhibit area.

Unfortunately, they had forgotten that the ballroom (which had been converted into a temporary temple) was in the same area and the security guards were stopping Jewish patrons from entering that part of the lobby. After a hurried consultation, the guards were instructed to only allow people with a badge or a yarmulke to pass through the lobby.

My own funny story also involves Aaron and the 1987 convention. I was a brand new marketing manager at Prentice Hall and we had just acquired Regents Publishing Co. The name of the new company was "Prentice Hall Regents". We had ordered a 10-booth long exhibit, which was later dubbed the "Miracle Mile", by none other than Aaron Berman. On the day of set-up, we arrived in the exhibit hall where our booth ran along the back wall. I had ordered a very large, long sign to go at the top of the booth so it could be seen at the entrance. When we walked into the exhibit hall, we saw a huge sign proclaiming "PRENTICE HALL REGIONS"! Well, I plotzed! I thought I’d be canned for sure. No one back at the company had checked the spelling with us. Unbelievably, Aaron came to our rescue and actually found someone who could not only make a sign in 24 hours, but got the color and design right as well.

I spoke with some of my colleagues in the world of ESL publishing to get their thoughts on the TESOL conference. "It has always been our most important conference of the year!" said Vicki Denkus, of Pearson Education, and current chair of the American Association of Publishers’ (AAP) ESL Committee. Carine Mitchell, of Cambridge University Press, said, "The AAP organized two important sessions at TESOL. One, "How to Become an Author", has been very well attended for over 20 years. Meetings are getting larger and larger and more electronic product is being launched," Carine added.