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When: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Scholastic Headquarters, 557 Broadway, New York, NY — See map »
Price: $249 includes full conference access, breakfast and lunch — Register now »

Paula K. Allen, SVP, Nickelodeon Global Publishing

Paula Allen is a publishing executive with over 28 years experience in developing and managing publishing business units, along with author representation and contract negotiation. She has a proven career record of producing multimillion-dollar profits through book licensing sales and retail publishing sales and a solid understanding of the publishing business in the USA and major international markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Peter Brown, Author and Illustrator

Peter Brown is a New York Times bestselling author and children’s book illustrator. He was born and raised in Hopewell, New Jersey and has been writing and drawing about animals at the zoo and local farms since he was a child. Peter attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. He has twice been the recipient of the E.B. White Read-Aloud Picture Book Award for The Curious Garden (2010) and Children Make Terrible Pets (2011). Children Make Terrible Pets was also a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of 2010.

Peggy Intrator, Intrator Associates LLC

Intrator Associates is a global consultancy with varied experience in launching, operating and consulting for children’s and educational publishers and digital media companies in the US and international marketplace. Peggy is a skilled executive in both start-ups and corporate environments, specializing in creating well-researched workable business plans, successful marketing and sales strategies, and market-driven content.

Prior to forming Intrator Associates, Peggy spent 12 years as a Vice President/Publisher at Scholastic where she was part of the International management team, launched non-fiction publishing, and headed foreign rights among other roles. Her background also includes Global ELT at Oxford University Press and teaching English in Paris.

Beth Kephart, Author

Beth Kephart is the author of five memoirs, including the National Book Award finalist A SLANT OF SUN and the BookSense pick Ghosts in the Garden. Her other eight books include the autobiography of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, Flow, and such acclaimed young adult novels as Undercover, House of Dance, and You Are My Only. Small Damages, Kephart’s seventh young adult novel, will be released by Philomel in the summer of 2012, and she is at work on two more Philomel books as well as a middle grade book about 1871 Philadelphia. Kephart teaches memoir at the University of Pennsylvania, reviews for the Chicago Tribune, has judged numerous literary contests, and has had her work translated into more than fifteen languages. She is the strategic writing partner in the boutique marketing communications firm, Fusion, and is a freelance reporter for Publishing Perspectives. Please visit Beth’s blog, twice named a top author blog by the BBAW, at www.beth-kephart.blogspot.com.

Jacob Lewis, Co-founder and CEO, Figment

Jacob Lewis is the co-founder and CEO of Figment, an online community for teens and young adults to create, discover, and share new reading and writing. Figment, which has grown to more than 100,000 users and a library exceeding 250,000 pieces of writing in just over a year, enables it’s users to read amateur and professional content and generate their own unfiltered creative writing to share with peers on web and mobile networks. Jacob is the former Managing Editor of The New Yorker magazine, where he worked for more than twelve years, and of Conde Nast Portfolio, a business magazine he helped start in 2007.

Kevin O’Connor, Business Development and Publisher Relations, NOOK Kids

Beginning as an intern at Sesame Street, Kevin O’Connor has worked virtually every aspect of the biz – research, TV production, toy development, licensing, touring, promotions, music and now eBooks.

Kevin joined Barnes & Noble in 2010 to head of Business Development and Publisher Relations for NOOK Kids—BN’s initiative for digital books for 0-12. In addition to cutting deals with publishers and licensors, Kevin has focused on creating a rich merchandising ecosystem for content.

Pamela Paul, Children’s Book Editor, New York Times

Pamela Paul is the features editor and the children’s book editor at The New York Times Book Review. She is the author of three books, The Starter Marriage (2002), Pornified (2005) and Parenting, Inc. She is a former columnist for the Times Style section and for Worth magazine, and has written for The Atlantic, Time, The Economist, Vogue, The Washington Post and many other national newspapers and magazines. She is a frequent speaker on television and radio, and has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah, and many other national programs.

Richard Robinson, Chairman, President and CEO, Scholastic Inc.

Richard Robinson has been President and CEO of Scholastic since the 1970s, leading the global children’s publishing, education and media company that is known as a staple of nearly everyone’s childhood whether for its Book Clubs, Book Fairs, Scholastic News classroom magazines or as U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter series.

Under Richard Robinson’s leadership, Scholastic has become the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and children’s media with such renowned brands as Clifford the Big Red Dog®, I Spy®, The Magic School Bus® and Goosebumps™. The company is a market leader in educational technology and related services for reading instruction with its groundbreaking program, READ 180®. Today, Scholastic, whose mission is helping all children learn and love to read, has 9,500 employees worldwide with operations in 16 countries and annual revenue of about $2 billion.

John Rocco, Children’s Book Author and Illustrator

John Rocco is the author of four acclaimed books for children: Wolf! Wolf!, winner of the Borders Original Voices Award for best picture book; Moonpowder, part of the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators; Fu Finds the Way, and the 2012 Caldecott Honor book Blackout. Rocco also illustrated Whoopi Goldberg’s Alice and the covers for Rick Riordan’s muti-million copy internationally bestselling series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, and The Heroes of Olympus. For many years, Rocco was an art director in the entertainment industry, both in the US and abroad. At Dreamworks, Rocco was the pre-production art director on the top-grossing animated film Shrek.

Erica Rand Silverman, Literary Agent, Sterling Lord Literistic

Erica joined Sterling Lord Literistic in 2008 under the aegis of George Nicholson and specializes in representing children’s literature, picture books through YA, and nonfiction about children, parenting and education. She is focused on establishing the careers of new and emerging authors, as well as branding and managing estate clients. She represents authors such as Mariah Bruehl, Celeste Conway, Rachelle Doorley (Tinkerlab, Shambhala 2014), Eric Kahn Gale (The Bully Book, HarperCollins 2013), C.J. Hill, Leslie Koplow, and Caldecott winner, Peter Spier and works on the management team of various literary estates, including Don Freeman (Corduroy), Marguerite Henry and Lois Lenski. Before beginning a career in publishing, she spent seven years as a teacher and dean in a NYC public high school.

Rosemary Stimola, Founder and President, Stimola Literary Studio

Rosemary Stimola is Founder and President of Stimola Literary Studio, a full service literary agency, established in 1997, devoted to representing authors and author/illustrators of fiction and nonfiction, preschool through young adult. Clients include many award winning-authors including Suzanne Collins, Matthew Cordell, Thanhha Lai, Irene Latham, David Macinnis Gill, Mary E. Pearson, Tanya Lee Stone, among many others. Rosemary started her career with a Ph.D in linguistics and taught language and literature at City University, specializing in children’s literature. Before starting the agency, Rosemary educated herself in the business of book publishing while winning awards as the owner of A Child’s Story, an independent bookstore of national reputation in Teaneck, NJ.

Roger Sutton, Editor-in-Chief, The Horn Book, Inc.

Roger Sutton is editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc, since 1996; he was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books and a children’s and young adult librarian. Sutton received an M.A. in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a B.A. from Pitzer College in 1978. He is the co-editor of A Family of Readers: The Book Lover’s Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Literature (Candlewick Press, 2010).

Raina Telgemeier, Author

Raina Telgemeier is the Eisner Award-winning author of Smile which is a New York Times bestselling graphic novel memoir. The Washington Post said, “the real focus of Smile is Telgemeier’s search for identity, a universal experience with which readers will readily identify.” Drama (Fall 2012) is Telgemeier’s newest, full-color, graphic novel. Telgemeier grew up in San Francisco and moved to New York City to study illustration at the School of Visual Arts. She also adapted and illustrated The Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels. Now Raina lives in Queens, New York, with her husband, graphic novelist Dave Roman.

Ken Wright, Literary Agent, Writers House

Ken Wright has been in book publishing for 25 years, as an editor and a publisher, and more recently as a literary agent at Writers House, in New York. Ken represents authors and illustrators of children’s books in all categories, as well as a few adult book authors. His list includes Printz Medalist and Honor winners, Caldecott Medalist and Honor winners, Newbery Honor winners, Sibert, Boston Globe – Horn Book, Morris, and YALSA Excellence in Nonfictions winners, New York Times bestsellers, and many other wonderfully talented and successful clients. Ken started his career in publishing at Oxford University Press and before joining Writers House he was an editorial director and the associate publisher at Scholastic.