Early in 2008 discussions began between the Christian Booksellers Convention (CBC) and Christian Resources Exhibitions (CRE) with the objective of the CRE team organising and managing the CBC event that was to be held at the TIC, Telford in March 2009.
Soon after work had begun on planning the 2009 event it became apparent that the staging of the CBC exhibition at Telford was no longer financially viable. This was mainly due to the decline in delegate attendance over recent years and a number of significant suppliers indicating that they would not be exhibiting at the planned 2009 event.
A decision was reached that CBC would be purchased by CRE (part of Bible Society) and continue to be organised by CRE and integrated into the Sandown Park exhibition in May 2009.
With the limited amount of time to reorganise CBC within CRE, the transition was more successful than many had anticipated. However upon evaluation and the changing needs of both retailers and suppliers it was apparent a fresh approach to a retailers and suppliers gathering needed to be considered.
With this in mind representatives of CRE, BA-CBG, Christian Suppliers Group and Christian Marketplace met to consider the requirements of both retailers and suppliers. Out of the discussions came Christian Resources Together (CRT) owned and organised by Bible Society with an objective to provide support, fellowship, training and any appropriate business opportunities for those working within the Christian Retailers and Suppliers trade.
The inaugural CRT event was held at the High Leigh Conference Centre in May 2010 that was attended by 180 publishers, suppliers and retailers. Building upon the success a second event was held at High Leigh in June 2011.
“Once again many thanks for organising the retreat at High Leigh - this event is the highlight of the year for us as independent booksellers. It was so good to meet everyone under one roof and enjoy fellowship with each other. The two days is too short”.
John Keble, Christian Books, Dunstable
“It was a pleasure to be involved, especially with the seminar. It was a useful time for The Good Book Company once again and I had many valuable conversations with booksellers which just wouldn't have happened anywhere else.”
James Burstow, The Good Book Company
To continue the successful running of CRT it was becoming apparent more time would need to be allocated to take it forward. Steve Briars, CRE Event & Programme Director at the time, who had worked within Christian publishing and distribution for the past thirty years prior to joining CRE, put forward a proposition to Bible Society for them to license CRT to himself and his wife, Mandy, with the objective of running CRT as a separate entity.
In August 2011 a license agreement was signed between Steve and Mandy Briars and Bible Society granting them permission to run CRT with Bible Society being the primary sponsor.
“This is both an exciting and challenging opportunity at a time when Christian retailing, publishing and distribution needs all the support it can get. It is also a step of faith as we both leave the paid employment of Bible Society to set out on this new venture”.
Stephen J Briars
On behalf of ChristianResourcesTogether
T: 01296 489860
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Christian Resources Together is part of Bible Society