A decision to expand the space at this year's Expolit convention paid off despite some initial concerns, organizers said as the annual Hispanic Christian market event closed Tuesday.

Adding a new Music and Media Hall at the May 17-22 event in Miami "worked well for us," said Tessie DeVore, president of the Spanish Evangelical Products Association (SEPA) and executive vice president of the Strang Book Group. "Everybody was skeptical at first, but it proved to be a smart and wise decision from Expolit organizers."

Casa Creación, Strang's Spanish imprint, had a booth on the main floor, plus a smaller one in the Music and Media Hall featuring music by Marco Barrientos. Expolit Program Director Marie Tamayo said that “many of the music companies didn't want to be in the conference center's second floor, but by the end they were saying it was much better than before.”

The event "went extremely well," added David Ecklebarger, SEPA's executive director and president of Editorial Unilit. "Attendance was up, especially by international registrants. Everybody had more elbow room, and we didn't have the problem of background noise in the booksellers' area."

Tito Mantilla, the new publisher of Editorial Portavoz (Kregel), noted that since the crowds were spread across a larger space, attendance appeared to be down even though numbers were up. "By having the music upstairs and books downstairs, it separated the two different crowds," he said.

More than 5,000 people daily viewed the record 200 exhibits and attended the nine concerts featuring many leading Hispanic Christian artists. The event included a first "Brazilian Night," featuring evangelist R.R. Soares and singer Aline Barros, winner of a 2006 Latin GRAMMY Award. Other key speakers at Expolit included Fred Stoeker, John Hagee and Reinhard Bonnke.

Expolit attendees and SEPA donated about $10,000 toward two mission projects. One will provide libraries of Bible study books to 100 house churches in Cuba. The other will help build a cafeteria for a youth ministry in Uruguay called Eagles Wings operated by Operation Mobilization.

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