Publishers from around the globe gathered yesterday in Dallas prior to the official opening of the Christian Book Expo, for leadership development.

The International Management Training Forum was held in the Dallas Convention Center, bringing together 30 representatives from as far afield as Brazil, China, Korea, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland and France.

Five sessions were presented on topics including selecting manuscripts, marketing and financial planning. Author Dean Merrill, who presented a session on "The Most Important Decision You Make," said the group was very responsive, asking questions and creating "good dialogue."

"The forum was about publishers around the globe getting together to learn from each other, find out what works and see the potential in Christian publishing," he said.

During one session, Mark Carpenter, president of Editora Mundo Cristão in Brazil, told the group that his company had given away a free book download for 24 hours on the company's Web site. At the end of the promotion, the book had been downloaded 2,000 times and tripled the sales for the physical book.

"The training forum was great," said Henk Medema, president of Medema Publishing in Holland. "In my 30 years of publishing, I've never had a discussion that covered the technological and spiritual aspects of publishing in such a way."

Also on Thursday, the Global Publishers Alliance, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's sister organization that supports publishing initiatives in developing countries, sponsored a golf tournament. The group of 40 participants included industry leaders and authors.

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