Spanish Christian Trade Show Sees Banner Year

Spanish-language Christian trade show Expolit 2012, being held May 3-8 at the Doubletree Hotel & Miami Airport Convention Center in Miami, is reporting a rise in attendance of 20 percent.

The city of Miami also presented an award to Expolit Executive Director David Ecklebarger for choosing to hold the show in Miami for 20 years.

Casa Creación also celebrated 15 years in business, and the oldest bookstore in Latin America was honored for a century of operation.

Significant awards presented during the show included the Publisher of the Year, which went to Editorial Vida, Zondervan’s Spanish division, and Distributor of the Year, which was given to CLC International-Chile.

The Harold Kregel Award for Book of the Year 2011 went to En honor al Espiritu Santo (In Honor of the Holy Spirit) by Cash Luna (Editorial Vida), and Una iglesia conforme al Corazon de Dios by Miquel Núñez (Editorial Portavoz) won the award for Best Original Book in Spanish 2011.

In Bibles, B&H Publishing Group won in the Study Bibles category for Biblia de estudio Arco Iris (Rainbow Study Bible, Reina Valera Revision 1960).

Gallery of Honor books were presented with sales awards at Silver, Gold and Platinum levels. The Silver award, given to the best-selling book of the year for two years or more, was given to El poder de los padres que oran (The Power of a Praying Parent) by Stormie Omartian (Editorial Unilit).

The Gold award celebrates a book or Bible that has sold more than 100,000 copies and was awarded to Santa Biblia NTV: Edicion Cosecha (NTV Holy Bible, hardcover) from Tyndale Español; RVR 1960 Biblia del Ministro (RVR 1960 Minister’s Bible) and La Cuarta Dimension (The Fourth Dimension) by David Yonggi Cho, both from Vida); Controla tu language en 30 dias (Control Your Stress in 30 Days) by Deborah Smith Pegues from Portavoz; and Oraciones que derrotan a los demonios (Prayers That Rout Demons) by John Eckhardt from Casa Creación.

The Platinum award is given to a book or Bible that has sold more than 250,000 copies. Four were presented to En honor al Espiritu Santo (In Honor of the Holy Spirit) by Cash Luna (Vida); Biblia RVR 1960 (tamaño bolsillo) and Biblia Amigos por Siempre (Friends Forever Bible) (both SBU); and El desafio del amor (The Love Dare) by Alex and Stephen Kendrick (B&H Español).