Mountains & Plains Show Heads to Colorado Springs

This fall's Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA) Trade Show has a new venue -- the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Colorado Springs -- but its usual array of great educational offerings, special events, and vendor exhibits will still be there. "While I wouldn't characterize our show this year as revolutionary," said MPIBA President Andy Nettell of Arches Book Company and Back of Beyond Books in Moab, Utah, "each year we make changes to meet current trends in the industry, so we can offer our member stores the best in education, the most face-time with our publisher partners, and a relaxed atmosphere for booksellers to mingle and talk-shop."

Educational programming runs from Wednesday afternoon, September 17, to Friday afternoon, September 19, when the trade show floor opens for a day-and-half run, ending at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 20. "For the first time in maybe 20 years the trade show will not be in Denver," said Nettell. "We're moving a little south to beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado, and look forward to the change in venue. Not only is Colorado Springs much easier to get around and enjoy, but the host hotel, the Crowne Plaza, is providing much cheaper room rates and an entirely refurbished venue."

The show opens on Wednesday with a keynote address by Nobel Prize-winner Frank Wilczek (The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces, Basic Books), who will talk about his varied career and explain how physicists understand the essential nature of reality. "We're really excited to have a Nobel winner among us booksellers," said Nettell, "and can only hope some of his brilliance rubs off."

Over the course of the three and a half days, there will be many more opportunities to hear and meet some of the region's favorite authors: the Children's Author & Illustrator Dinner, featuring J. Otto Siebold (Vunce Upon a Time, Chronicle) and Rick Riordan (The 39 Clues, Scholastic); an evening reception where 30 authors will autograph their latest titles; Croissants and Conversation, with authors Kim Barnes (A Country Called Home, Knopf) and Steven Rinella (American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon, Spiegel & Grau); and the Regional Book Awards Luncheon. About Saturday's Author Breakfast for Literacy, featuring Chuck Klosterman (Downtown Owl, S&S), John Hodgman (More Information Than You Require, Penguin), and Laura Pedersen (Buffalo Gal, Fulcrum). Nettell said, "[It] promises to be wild and wacky."

The show's educational programming runs the gamut, from training employees to selling used books online; co-op for small stores to getting the most out of the children's section; creating authorless events to bookselling in challenging times. Thursday afternoon and Friday morning will feature Pick of the Lists sessions, which run unopposed. "For the first time last year, we ran [the Picks sessions] unopposed, and the turnout was standing-room-only," said Nettell. "Publisher reps told us over and over how much they appreciated the great exposure, and now publishers fight for the limited number of slots."

At the American Booksellers Association's "Let's Talk About IndieBound" workshop and continental breakfast, from 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and IndieBound Outreach Liaison Paige Poe will share insights about the extraordinary opportunities that IndieBound provides for booksellers and other independent retailers. Those in attendance will be encouraged to share how they've used IndieBound promotional materials in their stores and to connect with other local independent businesses.

ABA E-Commerce Director Ricky Leung will be taking part in MPIBA's Digital Marketing workshops, where he'll show booksellers, who are asked to bring their own computers, how to embed video on their websites. Other workshop topics include creating blogs; MySpace identities, with audio and video; custom video for in-store use; and Facebook identity, including the effective use of viral ads.

The ABA E-Commerce Solution's migration to the open-source platform Drupal will be the focus of an E-Commerce Solution Users Group session at MPIBA. Leung will show booksellers what the new system looks like from the back- and front-end. Both users and non-users are invited to attend.

Booksellers will find information about IndieBound, ABA products and services, and the Fourth Annual Winter Institute (to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from Thursday, January 29, through Sunday, February 1) at the ABA booth on the trade show floor. ABA members can enter a raffle for a free trip to the Winter Institute (airfare and up to a two-night hotel stay for one person) by dropping off a business card at the booth. Booksellers can also enter the raffle a second time by updating their store profile via BookWeb.org. One winner will be chosen at random at the end of October from all entries received at the nine regional shows and via profile updates.

For more details and the latest updates, and to register for the show, visit www.mountainsplains.org. Questions and requests for information about ABA's participation at the MPIBA trade show should be directed to Lisa Winn at [email protected].