BEA to Feature Limited Free Admission for ABA Members

Key among the 2009 trade show innovations announced last week by BookExpo America and the American Booksellers Association is limited free convention attendance for ABA bookstore members. Under the new initiative, all regular ABA bookstore members will be entitled to at least one free admission to the 2009 trade show, with additional badges available to stores with a sales volume that puts them in an ABA dues category of two or higher. A category two store will receive two free BEA admissions; a category three store, three free admissions, a category four store, four free admissions, etc. An additional trade show badge will be available to all bookstores participating in this month's ABA Winter Institute in Salt Lake City.

"For stores that elect to claim additional free trade show badges based on their dues category, ABA will confirm their membership category with BEA; however, all sales data provided to ABA for dues calculation purposes will be kept strictly confidential," said ABA COO Oren Teicher. ABA will communicate with members about how to claim free admission before BEA registration opens.

In other changes, ABA will bring its annual Day of Education, on Thursday, May 28, back to the convention facility in 2009, and BEA will offer a concurrent retailer education track to encourage "crossover" attendance. For the past two years, ABA has been conducting its education panels and forums off site at Hotel ABA. BEA will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City from Thursday, May 28, through Sunday, May 31, 2009.

Reservations for Hotel ABA 2009, which will return to the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, the popular home to ABA members during BEA 2007, opened last week. Exclusively for ABA bookstore and provisional members, reservations for Hotel ABA are via the Marriott's dedicated reservation webpage, accessible via BookWeb.org. --Rosemary Hawkins