More than 250 booksellers, suppliers, publishers and authors attended the 2018 Leading Edge Books Conference which was held between 25-27th March 2018 at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Hobart TAS.

 

Under the theme of Explore the Possibilities the Conference program saw a number of member forums, supplier and author presentations and keynotes. Highlights included the Power of One Good Idea session, where members shared their best business practice, a session on Children’s bookselling, a business breakfast session for owners and managers on Improving Store’s KPIs, industry forum on supply chain, author ‘speed-dating’ session, guest author appearances by high profile writers and personalities, including four-times Miles Franklin Award winner Tim Winton; former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs; Kon Karapanagiotidis, the founder of the Asylum Seeker Centre in Melbourne; bestselling author and conference ‘surprise guest’ Markus Zusak (The Book Thief) and many others.

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45 publishers and industry providers participated in the half-day Supplier Trade Exhibition on Monday, 26th March.

The Conference Awards dinner, also on Monday 26th March, was held at the Glen Albyn Estate and celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Indie Book Awards and the announcement of the 2018 winners. Jessica Townsend and the children’s book Nevermoor won the overall 2018 Book of the Year. For a complete list of winners - click here.

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The Awards dinner also saw the presentations of the LEB annual awards:

Fullers Bookshop in Hobart TAS was named Metro Bookstore of the Year for the second year running, and was chosen from a shortlist that included the Avenue Bookstore in Albert Park VIC and Readings in Carlton VIC. 
Torquay Books in Torquay, Victoria, won Regional Bookstore of the Year. Also shortlisted were BooksPlus in Bathurst NSW, and Farrell’s Bookshop in Mornington VIC.
Sarah Deasy from Avid Reader in Brisbane won the Best Business Ideas Award for the store’s custom-made dump bins.
Congratulations also to 1st Time Delegate draw prize winner Maryann Kirk from Boardwalk Books in Kingscliff NSW and Clifford Posner from the Grumpy Swimmer, Elwood, VIC – the winner of the free 2019 LEB Conference registration draw. 
Myoung Yi from Candelo Books in Bega, NSW won the Simon & Schuster draw to attend the Book Expo America in New York later this year.
Penguin Random House was named LEB Publisher of the Year, while Text Publishing was named the inaugural LEB Small Publisher of the Year. 
Other Conference winners include Affirm Press winning the Best Trade Exhibition Stand award and Ann-Marie Finn from the Mad Hatters Bookshop who won the Passport to Profit prize.