Event Recap: 2023 in Events
Everyone is sharing their Spotify Unwrapped but what about events unwrapped? Ok, this isn’t a thing but let’s pretend it is. For the first time since the pandemic, we both attended events and want to talk about them. Check out the highlights below – and give us some ideas of events we need to check out in 2024!
Wondercon
I look forward to Wondercon every year and this year was no exception. Actually, the exception was extra excitement because I moderated a panel! I love both Wondercon and San Diego Comic Con because you get everything across fandoms – books, tv, movies, comics, games…There’s something for everyone! I had the coolest panel of middle grade and young reader authors as well as an audience full of questions! Plus, you can’t go wrong with an event that’s held across the street from Disneyland ;).
Alison Ames’ Launch of It Looks Like Us
I miss the pre-pandemic times of moderating events and was thrilled to hang with Alison at her local indie to promote It Looks Like Us. One of my favorite things is meeting authors who write terrifying things only to find them to be absolute rays of sunshine. I loved that Alison’s community came out to support her and how engaged the audience was in asking questions. It was also wonderful to visit Boulder Bookstore!
YallWest
Being back at YallWest was such a joy! Of course, it was awesome to see authors and publishing friends, get signed books and check out various events. But the true joy was seeing bookish friends from all over the country, some we had met and some we hadn’t! This was the most laid back YallWest, which made things much more enjoyable. The new location for Fierce Fridays was fun, too. It was nice running into random authors while seeing several favs for the first time. Fingers crossed we can go to West or Fest in 2024!
NCTE/ALAN
I am not new to professional conferences but this was my first time attending a bookish one! Held over the course of a week, the National Council of Teachers of English puts on a traveling conference focused on educators of all ages followed by a multi-day conference for the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE. The first half is full of both expert panels and author events while ALAN is focused on authors. I spent more time at ALAN, which was comprised of back to back author panels and an award ceremony for the Walden Award (Sabaa Tahir’s All My Rage won!). The panels were short but packed full of engagement. Highly recommend this conference for my educator friends.
