The International Medieval Congress Leeds

For the second year in a row we will miss our days at the IMC in the beautiful Parkinson Building at the University of Leeds. And we really do miss them. We relish the opportunity to show our books and meet our authors, editors, contributors and readers and are always grateful for their visits and purchases. Working the conference from Sunday to Thursday can be hard work: the days are long and can be frenetic at times but we wouldn’t have it any other way. The sight of our stall filled with people browsing or buying is a wonderful thing! Yes space is very tight and we have to get flexible to navigate it without bumping into colleagues or knocking over that abandoned half-cup of coffee; yes we always worry about running out of change; yes that credit card machine does take an age to complete a transaction sometimes; and yes those Monday evening wine glasses can leave rings on our gorgeous books! But we enjoy it all, every bit of it.

We will be back there one day, we know, and in the meantime we wholeheartedly embrace the IMC’s new virtual platform. Find us there and take advantage of the Talk Now and Leave Your Card functions – we’ll be monitoring it all day every day and will be delighted to engage and to help with any queries.

And, of course, there’s our Leeds IMC conference offer: you can save 40% off medieval studies titles new and old, hardcover and paperback, (terms and conditions do apply) with FREE global delivery. Which means you don’t have to worry about having too many books to carry or eating up your baggage allowance.

Just visit our dedicated bookstall (you can also find it via our IMC page), make your selection and use our special code BB926.

Meet your Leeds Team

Meet the Editor

Caroline

The Leeds IMC means that so many of our authors, contributors, editors, and series editors are in the same place at the same time. It’s a wonderful opportunity to connect with them (old and new), gossip discuss new projects, and display our more recent publications.

I tend to have meetings scheduled on the half-hour, every half-hour, right through the day, from 8.30 onwards (the first ten minutes of which are inevitably taken up with trying to find somewhere to sit). It’s a non-stop whirl (you’re never quite off-duty – I remember getting up early to go for a swim, and being asked in the changing-room by Author X about when their proofs would be due…), but it’s also really exciting to learn and talk about all the new developments and projects going on: it’s a very vibrant field. Plus which, as my colleague Sean says, the pastries (the wine…. maybe not quite so much).

All credit to the Leeds organisation for this on-line conference, and hopefully we’ll be back in person next year.

Meet the Marketing Team

Sean

I love Leeds IMC so much I even enjoy the drive there – and I hate driving, and my sulky, temperamental SatNav which seems to think that whimsically picking a different route through the spaghetti-like confusion of roads to, in and all around Leeds is helpful.

I like getting to our stall at 8am in the morning when all the books are still shrouded in their protective sheets and the hall is silent. After a quick dash to the fab cafes over the road I have coffee and pastries and am ready for the day. I love the very early browsers, then the rush of buyers between sessions and during the coffee breaks. There are always worries: will that credit card machine hold out and did we bring enough copies of XXX? One thing I don’t like: when we sell the last copy of a book, I never like asking buyers to leave it with us until later in the week. It’s necessary for us to have it on display but I always feel mean. Thankfully everyone always agrees to collect later.

Leeds is a blast largely because our books are so popular but mostly because we get to present them to a wonderfully appreciative audience, we get to put faces to names and to meet and reconnect with Boydell authors, editors, and contributors. They make it the experience it is and we WILL see them all again.

Sofie

I was lucky to be able attend Leeds my very first year working at Boydell. You can read about my experience in my earlier blog post here.

What I loved about Leeds was how friendly everyone was and how many people attended. Since I was so new to the company, I remember feeling really nervous that someone would ask me something that I wouldn’t know the answer to, but it never happened, everyone was just so friendly.

There is definitely an excitement around Leeds, you can feel it as soon as you step inside the university. Everyone is excited to meet other academics, to learn new things, to progress with their research, to learn about other people’s research, to find new books. There is something special about the support you feel at Leeds.

One of my tasks, aside from selling books, was to photograph our authors with their books. I absolutely loved doing that, it was so great to be able to meet some of the authors I had been emailing for months and see them hold the books I had helped market. It still brings a smile to my face today.

My hardest task at Leeds was probably coming back from the wine table without spilling any of the precious wine after a full day of selling books. I think I did okay.


Don’t miss our special virtual booth for this year’s conference! Find it here.

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