TEDActive Explained (Sort Of)

Posted by Dana on 02.23.2010 at 1:47 pm

I have now tried and erased about 10 opening sentences to this post.  Here’s why – it’s difficult to sum up TEDActive in a sentence or two.  So let me just start with this…TEDActive rocks.  Or as Sarah Silverman would say “TED is fancy”.  (She said quite a few other things, too – but we can talk about that later).  Okay not sure what TED is all about?  Well, there was a whole talk on just how to explain what TED is to people who ask.  Once that’s online all your questions will be answered.  In the mean time here is my take:

TED is a conference where the world’s foremost thinkers of things talk about the things they have thought and the audience of thinkers think about the thinking and talk about it.  TEDActive is the same thing only more active.  Hence the bean bags (see picture below).  Okay that’s not exactly it.  TEDActive is a simulcast of TED for people who like bean bags and sushi.

But seriously folks, working for Better World Books, I have gotten to run event bookstores at a multitude of conferences and festivals and TEDActive was truly awesome (did I mention the sushi – or the Bollywood dance lesson?).    We brought around 100 titles with us to the conference and were given an absolutely beautiful space to display them.  Check it out!

And, while we were busy hawking our wares at the store, we had the pleasure of being able to listen to talking thinkers…which was thought provoking and um cool.

We also got to eat More cupcakes, meet neuro-scientists (you know who you are) and drink slow, intelligent coffee from Intelligentsia.

So – if you missed the thinking or talking or talking about thinking – you can still read what the thinkers think in their thoughtful books by checking out our online TEDActive bookstore.  Great titles, great prices, and FREE SHIPPING in the US as always ($3.97 per book worldwide).

Oh – and before you run off,  check out books by some of the TEDActive attendees:

– Dana Barrett, BWB Blog Editor

Have your say » | Tagged Company News, David Eagleman, Do More Great Work, Michael Bungay Stanier, Palm Springs, Sarah Silverman, Sun: forty tales from the afterlives, Tara Hunt, TED, TED Active, TED Active Bookstore, TEDActive, The Whuffie Factor

BWB & NCFL Libraries and Families Award – Apply Now

Posted by admin on 02.19.2010 at 3:30 pm

Applications for the new Better World Books/NCFL Libraries and Families Award are now available!

Through this opportunity the National Center for Family Literacy and Better World Books will reward and enhance existing family programming and expand literacy-building practices of families in library settings. The three $10,000 grants awarded each year will connect more families to their local libraries and expand their literacy efforts in new and innovative ways.

The deadline to apply is March 3, 2010. One winner will be chosen from each of the three following categories: local Friends of the Library programs, public/academic libraries and urban libraries. The winners will also receive scholarships to NCFL’s 2010 National Conference on Family Literacy that will take place April 11-13 in San Antonio, Texas.

Click here to apply now!

Have your say » | Tagged Company News, Our Partners, Libraries and Families Award, National Center for Family Literacy, NCFL

Worldfund and your book giving/buying impact

Posted by John on 02.15.2010 at 11:48 am

Erin Sawaya and Michelle Viegas of Worldfund recently paid a visit to Better World Books’ distribution center where they provided us an update on their progress improving literacy in Latin America. Better World Books book donors and readers have helped raise over $150,000 for Worldfund since they became a literacy partner in 2007.

Worldfund’s mission is to raise the quality and relevance of education in Latin America—the key to transforming lives and breaking the cycle of poverty. They do this through scholarship funding and through teacher and principal training programs. There is an excellent introductory video about Worldfund on their website.

Photo: Michelle Viegas, Director of Programs & Strategic Outreach, and Erin Sawaya, Vice President of Development and Communications, speak to Better World Books employees.

Presentations from our partners always have loads of great information, but there’s usually a key fact or two that jump out for me. In this case it was that $600 can provide a scholarship to a child for a full year (in case you’re interested here’s a link to the donations page). Read more…

Have your say » | Tagged Our Partners, latin america, literacy, Starfish School, worldfund

Books = Love

Posted by Dana on 02.12.2010 at 9:30 am

I love books.  I love reading them most of all, but I also like buying them, displaying them and owning them.  If you’re anything like me, you’ll appreciate the fact that we here at Better World Books love you for loving books.  And to honor that love, we present you with roses and chocolate.  Kidding … but even better we give you the sweetest smelling, smoothest tasting deal in town.  14% off 2 or more books!  Use coupon code BWBFF14 at checkout.

And if you love book about love – well then you’ll want to check out the following hot new love-fests:

Sizzle by Julie Garwood, Roses by Leila Meacham & Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah.  For more fun, hot or romantic reads click here!

Have your say » | Tagged Book Lists, 14% off, Coupon, Hot New Romance Books, Julie Garwood, Kristin Hannah, Leila Meacham, Roses, Sizzle, Winter Garden

For the Love of Reading

Posted by admin on 02.11.2010 at 1:39 pm

In today’s post, David Murphy talks about his recent experience reading to kids as part of the Ferst Foundation’s CEO Challenge:  For the Love of Reading.  The challenge was for Georgia business and community leaders to take time out of their busy schedules to read to kids.  The idea behind the challenge is to highlight the importance of childhood literacy.  Check out what David had to say about the experience and don’t forget to vote!

**UPDATE – FEBRUARY 19TH, 2010 – PLEASE NOTE – VOTING HAS ENDED**

I get asked a lot of questions about our mission, our business model and our industry, so it was certainly refreshing on a cold, crisp morning this past January to have someone ask “Why literacy for children?  Why focus our literacy efforts on them?  Why do you value reading and literacy efforts for children?”  You can hear some of my thoughts on this in a video that was recently produced to help support childhood literacy efforts here in the state of Georgia.

That day, I joined a group of Georgia based CEO’s and university presidents in a friendly competition to draw attention to childhood literacy efforts and had a great experience.  I went to Premier Academy where I met with Gladys Gore, her staff and about twenty or so four year-olds for whom I had the pleasure of reading several books. Read more…

1 Comment » | Tagged Company News, Contests, Impact, david murphy, Ferst Foundation, For the Love of Reading, Vote

Vote for BWB in the Pepsi Refresh Project

Posted by admin on 02.10.2010 at 4:41 pm

We’ve partnered with the National Center for Family Literacy on an awesome new literacy project.  Your vote will help us get the funding and you can vote once a day from now until February 28th.

Here’s the short version of the plan:

We get a bio-diesel book mobile and drive it around the country distributing 1 million kids’ books to those who need ‘em most.

The goals of the project are:
* Hold literacy events in at least 200 communities.
* Get families reading and learning together.
* Help struggling schools raise money.
* Promote family literacy with the National Center for Family Literacy
* Get 1 Million Children’s Books in the hands of kids nationwide.

Check out the video from Xavier with some more of the details:

Vote Now!

1 Comment » | Tagged Company News, Contests, Bio-diesel Bookmobile, National Center for Family Literacy, Pepsi Refresh Project

Better World Books Podcast: Jasper Fforde

Posted by Dana on 02.09.2010 at 9:30 am

Interviewing an author is not as straight forward as you might think.  Often they are coming in from out of town for 24 hours or less and have a fairly tight schedule while they are here.

Sometimes the authors have been affected by the congestion and general purpose ickiness that is Atlanta traffic.

Sometimes the schedule is plagued by the questionable info on the various mapping websites that often will lead them to some place other than our office.

And sometimes they arrive at the right place and the right time and for some unknown reason the recording equipment will decide not to work.

Alas – on the scheduled date of my interview with Jasper Fforde, it was the airline that got in the way.  We were supposed to meet at noon that day.  He was to come to straight to our offices after getting off a flight from Miami.  But the plane broke.  Okay – I’m sure it was more technical than that, and probably less dramatic, but you get the idea.  Our poor author had to spend something like 4 hours on the tarmac while the plane fixers did their thing.

Read more…

Better World Books Author Podcast [ 21:15 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1797)

Have your say » | Tagged Author Podcast, Better World Books Author Podcast, Jasper Fforde, Shades of Grey

2010: A New Year a New Decade – Part 3

Posted by admin on 02.08.2010 at 2:20 pm

In our final installment on the outlook for 2010 and beyond, CEO David Murphy takes a look at the bigger picture.   As we look forward to this new decade, we know that in order to be successful everything has to line up just so.    In our earlier installments we took a look at the people and the foundation of our company.  In today’s post David takes a look at the market:

The book industry is changing rapidly, from Kindles and iPads to publishers and authors fighting to stay afloat and looking for new distribution channels.  With disruption comes opportunity. We are constantly evaluating each new trend with two things in mind.  You – our customer, and our literacy partners. As always we are looking to bring you the best deal on books while helping improve world literacy.  I believe we are nimble, innovative and entrepreneurial enough to examine each trend and find the RIGHT opportunities.  It’s in our DNA. Read more…

1 Comment » | Tagged Company News

2010: A New Year a New Decade – Part 2

Posted by admin on 02.01.2010 at 6:54 pm

In our continuing series on the outlook for 2010 and beyond, CEO David Murphy takes a look at the foundation of Better World Books and why it matters.

We’ve been at it for more than a few years now and we’ve certainly had to make some course corrections along the way…as any good company does.  In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, I am so proud of the strong foundation we have to stand on.  Sure it’s about technology and infrastructure so I’ll talk to that first, but it’s really about so much more than that.

TECHNOLOGY & INFRASTRUCTURE – We have invested millions of dollars in building out a superior technology footprint….and we are getting smarter everyday in understanding the value of a used book and how that will benefit our customers.  We have developed core competencies in Logistics, Analytics, Web Dev, Operations, Book Acquisitions and so much more……and it should continue to show up in the quality and breadth of our book selection, the overall buying experience of our customers, our pricing, delivery, customer care…..everything as seen through the eyes of our customers.

PARTNERSHIPS, TRANSPARENCY & TRUST – We have thousands of individuals, groups, institutions who provide us books…..tens of thousands per day.  They believe in us, in our ability to generate consistent levels of funding for our non-profit literacy groups and library partners.  Read more…

2 Comments » | Tagged Company News, 2010 forecast, david murphy