Dear Booksellers, I thought today I’d speak to a few questions that people have asked in case others had the same questions: How is the virtual Winter Institute different than the in-person event?
The obvious answer is that we’re not meeting in person, but there’s so much more to it. We have access to authors this year that we wouldn’t have in the physical world due to demanding schedules and travel requirements. The barrier to entry for booksellers is much less: no travel requirement, less expensive registration, and no attendance limit. The chat offers booksellers an opportunity to engage at Wi in a totally different way. And booksellers can come and go as needed to handle work or personal needs. Those are some of the upsides. One downside is that we are unable to offer simultaneous sessions because for every session there are dozens of ABA team members behind the scenes monitoring the chat, managing the green room, handling tech questions, and keeping things running smoothly. We always wish we could do more, but we feel great about the robust programming and opportunities at this year’s Winter Institute and we think you will, too! What is ABA doing in BookExpo’s place?
The “retirement” of BookExpo has inspired a couple of new virtual conferences to fill the void for spring 2021. ABA is not one of them. We’ve decided that we can best add value for members by letting others take this on this spring while we continue to focus on our year-round educational programming and a possible event in 2022. We’ll keep you posted. We will still be hosting a virtual ABA Annual Meeting and Town Hall this spring . . . When is the next ABA Town Hall?
ABA bylaws dictate an annual meeting at BookExpo and an annual town hall at the same time for members to share questions, comments, and concerns with the ABA Board. This year’s Annual Meeting and Town Hall will occur on May 27 starting at 2:00 p.m. ET. (The Annual Meeting starts at 2:00, followed immediately by the Town Hall.) In the past, since not everyone could attend BookExpo, an additional town hall was added to Winter Institute. Since this year’s Annual Meeting and Town Hall are virtual again and everyone who wants to can now potentially attend, we did not schedule a town hall for Winter Institute, opting instead to use that time in the schedule for additional programming. But we have created other opportunities for booksellers to meet with the board this spring! The ABA Board will host three “office hours” for booksellers to share questions, comments, and concerns, on Wednesday, February 10, at 3:00 p.m. ET; Wednesday, March 10, at 7:00 p.m. ET; and Wednesday, April 14, at 3:00 p.m. ET. Watch for platform details. What safety measures are in place for Children's Institute 9 (Ci9) scheduled for August 30–September 1, 2021, at The Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa in Tucson, Arizona?
ABA is taking everyone’s safety very seriously. There’s a chance that Ci will once again need to move to a virtual format. We hope not, but everyone’s safety comes first. We expect to decide in April, when more is known about the vaccination rollout, whether we can proceed in-person or whether Ci will be virtual this year. We’ll let you know the plan then. What’s in the works for IndieCommerce?
A number of changes are in the works for the future of IndieCommerce. Thank you to those who responded to the survey we sent out, to those who have served on the IndieCommerce Advisory Council, and to those who have offered feedback this year. We will be announcing our plan for 2021–2022 shortly. Stay tuned. In the meantime, we encourage members to review the IndieCommerce help page and reach out to IndieCommerce with questions about improvements that were made during the 4th quarter. We’ve had many instances of booksellers reaching out with problems only to discover that solutions are already available to them. How is ABA thinking about pop-ups, nontraditional bookselling formats, and the evolution of bookstores?
We’ve been excited to see stores experimenting with format and we recognize that we need to make sure that ABA is adapting with this evolution. These stores still represent only about 2% of our members, but we expect the number to grow and we’re working to find ways to support these stores and think differently about the future of bookselling. Thank you to the stores who have offered input on this. Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, ABA is here for all of you. Please reach out if there is anything we can help with. Members can contact me directly or email the Membership, Advocacy, or IndieCommerce teams. Best,
Allison |
