Super Regional Weekend: GLBA, MPIBA, NEIBA, SIBA

The last weekend in September will be a very busy one for booksellers, publishers, authors, and regional and American Booksellers Association staff. That's when the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association, New England Independent Booksellers Association, and Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance will be holding their respective trade shows. Each will offer an array of regional- and ABA-sponsored educational programming, great author events, contests, and more.

In addition to offering select educational programming at each, ABA will have a booth where booksellers will be able to talk to staff and Board members about any issues of concern; learn about the many new features of the redesigned trade website, BookWeb.org; and enter drawings for chances to win fabulous prizes, compliments of BookExpo America and ABA. Prizes include hotel accommodations at the 2008 Winter Institute, accommodations at Hotel ABA at BookExpo America 2008 in Los Angeles, an iPod, and a color inkjet printer.

Booksellers who are not currently members of ABA are invited to join staff and representatives of the ABA Board at a special event at each show. These will provide an opportunity to mingle, say hello, and get a taste of what the association has to offer. (And, unlike timeshare receptions, guests won't have to sit though anything!)

Here's a rundown of ABA's educational offerings at GLBA, MPIBA, NEIBA, and SIBA, as well as look at some of each regional's innovations:

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Friday, September 28, through Sunday, September 30
Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, Schaumburg, Illinois

ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, Marketing Director Jill Perlstein, and ABA Board member Becky Anderson of Anderson's Bookshops in Naperville, Illinois, will all be on hand to meet with booksellers at the GLBA show. On Friday, from 10:30 a.m. - 11:20 a.m., Domnitz will present "Participating in the Digital Revolution: High Altitude," an exploration of how phenomena such as digitization of content, print-on-demand, social networking, and open source computing are affecting independent booksellers today, as well as their ramifications for the future.

GLBA members who are not currently members of ABA are invited to join Anderson and ABA staff at a non-member cocktail reception on Friday, from 5:45 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Booksellers who would like to attend are asked to e-mail ABA's Membership Marketing Coordinator Sarah Rettger at [email protected].

Among GLBA's new features this year is a series of sessions on Friday featuring Bob Negen, a retail training consultant and author of Marketing Your Retail Store in the Internet Age (Wiley). Negen, who in two decades grew his kite business from $17,000 in annual sales to a multi-store, multi-million dollar operation, will lead three "Whiz Bang" training sessions: "Explore Your Sales," "Developing Your Staff," and "Get New Customers Using E-mail and Your Website."

On Saturday, GLBA will be offering what GLBA Executive Director Jim Dana called the "mother of all reps picks." From noon to 1:30 p.m., the trade show floor will be closed for the "Rep Around Luncheon," which is patterned after regional show Moveable Feasts. In this case, however, in place of authors, 24 reps will be moving from table to table to share their favorite new titles with booksellers. "We think this will be great," said Dana. "It will liven things up in the afternoon and create a dynamic show floor."

Educational programming will conclude on Sunday with a "Buy Local First" common session. Panelists include ABA's Domnitz and Matt Cunningham, a partner in Civic Economics, which conducted several ground-breaking studies on the effects of locally owned independent businesses versus chain stores on communities. These include "The San Francisco Retail Diversity Study of 2007" and the 2003 "Andersonville Study of Retail Economics."

GLBA will also be encouraging booksellers to help create a list of the show's "buzz books" through participation in a raffle for cash prizes. Show registrants will be provided with a form asking them to select show "picks" in different categories. By dropping the form in a raffle entry box, booksellers will reap two benefits: the chance to win prizes, as well as a list of (to be compiled and circulated by GLBA) of the upcoming season's outstanding titles as selected by their bookseller colleagues.

For a look at GLBA's extensive list of educational offerings and author events, as well as registration information, visit www.books-glba.org.

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Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association

Thursday, September 27, through Sunday, September 30
Marriott Denver Tech Center in Denver, Colorado

Among the many highlights of MPIBA's Fall Book Camp are the Author Breakfast for Literacy, the Children's Author & Illustrator Luncheon, and Thursday's day of educational programming, including the ABA session "Staff Development: An Overview."

ABA will be represented at the show by Board member Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, ABA Director of Membership Marketing Meg Smith, and Associate Director of Programming Kristen Gilligan.

Additionally, the ABA program "Staff Development," from 1:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. on Thursday will be presented by Dee Robinson and former ABA President Chuck Robinson of Village Books in Bellingham, Washington. Topics will include hiring people who will add strength to the store, recognizing and building upon an employee's unique abilities, and creating a work environment that motivates staff.

MPIBA's Thursday programming includes hands-on Website Demonstrations, the session "Locals First/Independent Business Alliances -- What Works!," and "YA Events to Blow Your Socks Off!"

ABA is making plans for a reception for MPIBA members who are not currently members of ABA. Watch for details in a future issue of BTW.

A key change in the MPIBA show format this year is that there will be no exhibit hours on Sunday. Instead, the exhibit hall will be open until 8:00 p.m. on Saturday. On Sunday, Above the Treeline will hold demonstrations and User Group Meetings from 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Due to the change, the children's breakfasts that were usually held on Saturday and Sunday morning have been combined into a children's luncheon on Saturday from 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

While Friday used to be devoted to education, this year, it's "Up Close & Personal Day" for publishers and booksellers. Lisa Knudsen, MPIBA executive director, said the idea for "Up Close" came from a focus group of publishers and reps that recommended ways for MPIBA to make the trade show more valuable. "They all said 'face time!'" said Knudsen. "So Friday is devoted to publisher-bookseller interface." Friday will also feature a boxed lunch and panel, "Bringing a Book to Market -- How Editors & Marketing Departments Work Together to Create & Launch a New Title."

For a full look at MPIBA's Fall Book Camp, registration materials, including ticket information, and a full schedule of author events, visit the MPIBA website, www.mountainsplains.com.

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The New England Independent Booksellers Association

Thursday, September 27, through Saturday, September 29
Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, Rhode Island

NEIBA's big changes for its fall 2007 trade show program start with beginning and ending a day earlier. The show runs from Thursday to Saturday, instead of past years' schedule of Friday to Sunday. Thursday is a day devoted to bookseller education. The trade show floor opens on Friday at 11:00 a.m.; it closes on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

Among NEIBA's many highlights are a keynote address Thursday morning by Gary Hirshberg, president and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm; a presentation of the President's Award for lifetime achievement in arts and letters to author Richard Russo; and expanded educational programming, including the session "Doing Digital Right," featuring Len Vlahos, ABA's director of education and the director of BookSense.com, and a panel of tech savvy booksellers. Also, representing ABA at the show will be Ricky Leung, BookSense.com technical lead.

To plan his first trade show, NEIBA Executive Director Steve Fischer looked to the format of the two ABA Winter Institutes for guidance. "We wanted the same sort of tight production schedule [as the Winter Institutes]," he commented. [The schedule] enables booksellers to get a lot of things done before they reach the exhibits."

Fischer explained, "NEIBA is trying to respond to booksellers and publishers by separating time on the show floor from educational programming, giving booksellers plenty of opportunities to see as many reps as possible. We have scheduled our annual meeting for 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Friday morning, and then we are opening the show floor."

From 3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. on Friday, ABA's Vlahos will interview panelists Heather Gain of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Bob Gray, contributing editor, Shelf Awareness; and Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of McNally Robinson Booksellers in New York City about "Doing Digital Right." Discussions will focus on using websites, MySpace pages, blogs, and more to successfully market a bookstore. Attendees will learn what works and what doesn't, and will leave with good ideas to use in their own stores.

NEIBA members who are not currently members of ABA are invited to join staff at a non-ABA member lunch on Saturday, from noon to 1:00 p.m. in Room 550B. Booksellers who would like to attend are asked to e-mail ABA's Membership Marketing Coordinator Sarah Rettger at [email protected].

Fischer said that all signs indicate a successful show, and two events, Book Buzz and Author Autographs, are already completely sold out.

For more information about education programs and author events and to register for the NEIBA show, visit www.newenglandbooks.org.

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Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance

Friday, September 28, through Sunday, September 30
Hilton Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia

Among the show's highlights are SIBA's Moveable Feast of Authors, the SIBA Book Award Lunch, and Friday's full day of educational programming, which includes three sessions presented by ABA: "Building and Rewarding Customer Loyalty," "Creating Killer Events," "Bookstore Self Audit."

"We have education targeting every level of bookseller and meaningful author and rep events to everyone's benefit," said SIBA Executive Director Wanda Jewell. "It's going to be a 'really big shoe.' I love our new schedule and think it is going to be fabulous for everybody." SIBA's new format calls for the exhibit hall to open, rather than close, at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 29. The hall will remain open until 10:00 p.m.

Jewell was excited to report that SIBA will be hosting a private screening of The Kite Runner. Also new this year is SIBA's One-On-Ones -- a virtual scheduling assistant that will allow show attendees to set up private meetings.

ABA will be represented at the show by ABA Board member Tom Campbell of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina; ABA COO Oren Teicher; and Book Sense Marketing Director Mark Nichols.

ABA programming, featured as part of Friday's daylong focus on education, includes:

• "Building and Rewarding Customer Loyalty," presented from 9:45 a.m. - 11:15 a.m., by Nichols. This session will explore what customers really want, and how booksellers can foster loyalty by responding to consumer needs. An in-depth discussion of the pros and cons of implementing and marketing a customer loyalty program will be featured.

• "Creating Killer Events," presented from 2:10 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., by Teicher and a panel of booksellers who are experts at creating innovative events that distinguish their stores from the competition. In this session, booksellers will review an event prep checklist and will learn what makes a killer event.

• "Bookstore Self Audit," from 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., moderated by Teicher. Building on the success of the "What to Do When the Competition Comes to Town" session presented at BEA, a panel of booksellers will walk participants through a store "self audit." Attendees will learn how to evaluate their store from the perspective of their customers -- focusing on ambiance, convenience, financial health, inventory and selection, and marketing and service. Booksellers will learn how to use the audit to identify where to focus resources to make a business more customer-friendly.

SIBA members who are not currently members of ABA are invited to join staff and Board member Tom Campbell for coffee on Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Booksellers who would like to attend are asked to e-mail ABA's Membership Marketing Coordinator Sarah Rettger at [email protected].

SIBA's programming includes a "Finding Time & Talent" workshop, "Enhancing Your E-mail Newsletter," and numerous additional education sessions. For a full look at SIBA's program, including author events, and to register, go to www.sibaweb.com.

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Questions and requests for information about ABA's participation at any of the trade shows should be addressed to ABA's Gilligan at [email protected]. --David Grogan, Rosemary Hawkins, Karen Schechner, Nomi Schwartz