NAIBA Show Offers Educational Seminars, New Special Events

The 2006 New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) Fall Trade Show will be held from Saturday, September 16, through Sunday, September 17, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, at the Valley Forge Convention Center. In addition to NAIBA's educational seminars and author events, including the popular Saturday night Moveable Feast, the show will feature three American Booksellers Association education sessions: "Shop Local: Forming Business Alliances in Your Community," "Constant Contact Demonstration," and "Know Your Customer: Increase Sales."

Eileen Dengler, NAIBA executive director, said that some of the show's new offerings include a Friday night early bird supper, a Cookbook Buffet on Sunday (modeled after the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association's cookbook buffet), and "Right Out of the Box," a hands-on workshop where booksellers will open up publishers' promotion kits and brainstorm on how to use and enhance them. Dengler told BTW, "Everything at the show is great -- the publishers exhibiting, the workshops, the authors at the lunch and feast. I'm shocked when a regional bookstore doesn't make the time to come!"

The ABA booth on the trade show floor will provide booksellers with the opportunity to meet with ABA staff and to learn about the association's products and services. Information will be available about the Winter Institute, to be held in Portland, Oregon, on February 1 - 2, 2007, the Book Sense marketing program, and much more. In addition, there will be demonstrations of the Above The Treeline and Constant Contact.

ABA member booksellers who stop by the booth and drop off a business card will be eligible to win prizes. In a random drawing, ABA will award a color inkjet printer. The printer winner will then be entered into a grand prize drawing with the eight printer winners from the other fall trade shows. The grand prize winner will be awarded airfare to, and up to a three-night hotel stay at, the association's 2007 Winter Institute.

In addition, ABA members will have a chance to win up to a four-night stay at Hotel ABA in Brooklyn for BookExpo America 2007 in New York City, compliments of BEA. Booksellers can enter the drawing for the BEA prize at either the ABA booth or BEA's booth at the show.

ABA is asking all member booksellers at this year's shows to participate in the formulation of the association's next Five-Year Strategic Plan by filling out a strategic planning survey. Surveys will be available in the ABA booth.

On Saturday, September 16, the show begins with a walk through Valley Forge National Park at 8:00 a.m. Following the walk will be a continental breakfast, and then the keynote presentation "A Lifetime of Politics & Prose," featuring store owners Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade.

The entire day is packed with seminars and author events. These include three afternoon education sessions presented by ABA, which are free to all show attendees:

• Shop Local: Forming Business Alliances in Your Community, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
  ABA COO Oren Teicher will moderate a presentation by Jeff Milchen of the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), who will discuss how locally owned businesses have a far greater economic impact on their communities than national chains, as well as the growing evidence that working with other local, independently owned businesses can lead to more profitability.

• Constant Contact Demonstration, 3:15 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
  Teicher and Meg Smith, ABA's director of membership marketing, will demonstrate Constant Contact, a service facilitating the creation, mailing, and tracking of e-mail marketing campaigns.

• Know Your Customer: Increase Sales 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
  Smith will present a seminar focusing on how individual contact, surveys, market research, and use of a store database can combine to form an effective strategy for communicating with customers. Effective communication will help booksellers identify and achieve objectives that will grow their businesses and make stores more profitable.

NAIBA programming on Saturday includes a Pick of the Lists discussion, "Great Things We See in Stores," presented by a panel of regional reps, and "Engaging Young Adult Readers." The day's programming ends with the opening reception and the Moveable Feast. This year's authors include Chris Bram (Exiles in America, Morrow); Virginia Kantra (Home By Midnight, Berkeley); Carl T. Smith (Louisiana Burn, River City Publishing); Asali Solomon (Get Down, FSG); and Jordan Sonnenblick (Notes From the Midnight Driver, Scholastic).

During the Breakfast of Champions, served at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, NAIBA will present its Books of the Year and Helmuth Sales Rep awards. NAIBA's Annual Meeting will take place during this complimentary continental breakfast. Following the breakfast the exhibit hall will open. An author signing and the Cookbook Buffet will held in the afternoon.

Registration materials, including ticket information and a full schedule of events with times and locations is available on the NAIBA website, www.newatlanticbooks.com. Questions about NAIBA programming should be addressed to [email protected].

Questions and requests for information about ABA's participation at NAIBA may be directed to ABA's Kristen Gilligan, associate director of programming and constituent groups liaison, at [email protected]. --Karen Schechner