MSIBA Fall Trade Show Heads to New Orleans

The Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association (MSIBA) Fall Trade Show will be held from September 9 - 12 at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans. Once again, this year's show will feature educational panels, a Friday night Casino Night, and a show that's chock full of authors.

Pointing out that MSIBA's motto is "Big enough to matter, small enough to care," Susan Kent, MSIBA's executive director, said, "This year's convention and trade show in New Orleans is focused on creating intimate settings for networking with other booksellers, having productive face-to-face meetings with our publisher reps, and meeting the authors that create the books we love to sell. MSIBA exists to build the business we love, and we are committed to grow that business in our large and vibrant region."

At the MSIBA trade show, ABA will provide educational programming, as well as an exhibit on the trade show floor. This year's exhibit will focus on "Book Sense Gift Cards: One Year Later," featuring live demonstrations. Association staffers will also be on hand seeking member input on ABA education initiatives, as well as providing general ABA information.

The Book Sense Gift Card Program, just completing its first year of operation, has already helped more than 200 bookstores dramatically increase their sales. The ABA exhibit will give booksellers the opportunity to see first hand how the gift card program works. As an incentive to try the gift card, ABA will waive the one-time $25 set-up fee for booksellers signing up at the show. (If you plan to sign up at the show, please bring your checking account info with you. For more details on the program, please visit: http://www.bookweb.org/read/6303.)

The number-one goal in ABA’s strategic plan states: Provide independent professional booksellers with access to the education, information, and business services they need to succeed in a changing world. With this in mind, ABA staffers will be on hand at the show seeking bookseller input on how best to construct the Association’s educational offerings moving forward. An "ABA Education 2005 Survey" will be distributed at the show as well as by e-mail and on BookWeb. Watch BTW in the coming weeks for more information about how you can be involved in this process.

The ABA-sponsored programs at MSIBA are:

• On Thursday, September 9, from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Domnitz will present "The 2% Solution." The 2003 ABACUS Study of independent bookshop operations showed that the average profitability of all 197 participants was -1.67%. This seminar looks at the drivers of profitability and examines how they can be worked on to move our businesses to profitability. The session suggests exactly how a bookseller can work on sales, gross margin, compensation and occupancy expense. While moving from negative profitability to a positive 2% is a long journey, this seminar will help provide the roadmap.
  

• On Friday, September 10 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., the two-part session, "Book Sense Gift Cards and BookSense.com," will highlight the Book Sense Gift Card Program showing how stores have significantly grown their gift certificate sales when they have converted to gift cards. The second part of this session will focus on BookSense.com. Booksellers are encouraged to hear about the latest features of BookSense.com, as well as planned enhancements to the product. Both Book Sense and non-Book Sense stores are welcome to attend.
  

The other events at the MSIBA Trade Show include education sessions, which will be held on Thursday, from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m., and Friday, from 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., and 2:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

The session "Why Aren’t You Doing This?" will bring up proven ideas, such as holding cooking classes, game days, or how to better plug into your local book clubs. "Why Aren’t You Reading This?" gives attendees the chance to share the best books that are not on the bestseller lists. In "Little Red Book of Selling," Jeffrey Gitomer will teach "The 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness: How to Make Sales Forever." In addition. "Fab Eye for the Drab Independent Guy," will offer attendees some quick fixes that they can apply to perk up their selling environment.

One of the highlights of this year's show is sure to be "Casino Night," MSIBA's Friday night bash. There will be casino tables with certified dealers and attendees will be able to bid on original handprint art from some of their favorite authors and illustrators, or use their play casino money to bid on live auction items donated from publishers and associates. In addition, the winners of the Mid-South Book Award for a fiction work and the winner of the Humpty Dumpty Children's Choice Award will be announced at the party.

Other show highlights will include, on Friday, September 10, from 7:45 a.m. - 9:15 a.m., the "Picture Books & Pancakes Author Breakfast." On Saturday morning, the day will kick off with the "Author Breakfast," and the show floor will be open from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

On Sunday, from 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m., there will be "Beignets With the Board," where booksellers are encouraged to join the MSIBA Board for some famous New Orleans beignets and coffee (and mimosas) in the Boardroom. The show floor will be open from 9:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m., and at noon, there will be drawings held for prizes of cash and books.

For more information on the MSIBA Fall Trade Show, go to www.msiba.org, or e-mail, [email protected]. -- David Grogan and Karen Schechner