Ode to the Union Guys...
My first job before our conference yesterday was to greet people as they entered the Javitz Center and direct them to the conference location. (Take the stairs to your left down to the escalator on your right and you'll find the check-in table. No, I'm sorry, there's no coffee. No, Starbucks is not open today...) What's cool about being in Javitz before BEA kicks off is that you get to see the show floor being set up. It's pretty amazing that they take this giant empty space and in three days turn it into gorgeous shiny carpeted booths full of books. The Freeman dudes work hard moving giant crates (hence the Watch for Forklifts sign in my I'm-way-too-tired-to-type photo essay from yesterday), assemble walls, run electricity, hang banners and the like. And no one even turned on the air conditioning for them.

Here's a cool photo of the inside of Javitz featuring the book TV bus and the very orange ladder that the head Freeman stood on for the morning meeting of union guys. (I eavesdropped.)And here are a few big crates waiting to be moved. This is the entrance to the show floor.