Welcome to the 2018 SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles

As is our tradition with SCBWI, we kicked off the conference with welcoming remarks from Steve Mooser and Lin Oliver, who founded this organization 47 years ago, when—miraculously, Lin Oliver was a zygote (look it up, chums).

Here are some numbers: 1,182 people are with us, 382 of whom have published more than 1,400 books.

People have traveled from 18 countries around the world and 48 of the 50 states (South Dakota and West Virginia are apparently in time-out).

In addition to all working on children's books, we have people who have day jobs as horse trainers, balloon artists, teachers, massage therapists, stenographers, and even private eyes.

Lin introduced us to the wonderful SCBWI staff, pictured. (They are larger in real life.)

We will be updating this blog all weekend with updates from keynotes, panels, breakout sessions, and more. And you can also follow Team Blog on Twitter:

@mbrockenbrough
@devas_t
@AdriaQuinones
@leewind
@cuppajolie
@jaimetem

And of course @scbwi itself.