My dad and I went up to New York last month for BEA's Power Reader Day. Next year I plan to go for the whole conference. Here's my survival tips:
2) Plan ahead of time. BEA publishes the map and schedule in the weeks before. I wrote up a short spreadsheet of when and where authors are signing. You definitely add more to your schedule as the day goes on, but this way you won't miss anything important.
3) Bring some cash and a rolling suitcase. For $3 a bag you can leave the suitcase in a monitored part of the lobby. Throughout the day you can stop by and move your piles of books from your tote to the suitcase.
4) Bring a big and strong tote bag.
5) Bring your phone charger. There were charger "stations" set up by the author stages (actually just power strips on tables, but they worked).
6) Unless you really want the swag, don't bother getting tickets for the author events. The stages are in the middle of the floor. I watched Jim Gaffigan from the perimeter of the stage and had a perfect view.
7) I wouldn't recommend going around with a big group. I wouldn't want to risk missing something important to wait in a line for a book you don't care about.
8) Don't bring books to the conference. Any book signing will include a copy of the book, and you really don't want to carry around more weight than you need to.
9) Follow along and participate with the social media! #Bea13 was huge on twitter, tumblr, facebook, and instagram this year, and I expect it to be the same next year.