November 12: Registration Opens for Wi11 Bookstore Tours, Advanced Education Sessions

Winter Institute 11 registrants take note: Next Thursday, November 12, at 1:00 p.m. EST,  registration opens for the event’s Advanced Learning Education (ALE) sessions for owners and managers and for full- and half-day tours of Denver-area bookstores, open to all bookseller attendees and international guests.

• Full- and half-day tours will travel to Denver-area bookstores on Saturday, January 23, prior to the evening’s Wi11 opening reception. Tour reservations are open to all Winter Institute bookseller registrants and international guests, but space is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

  The full-day tour departs from the Wi11 host hotel, the Denver Sheraton Downtown Hotel, at 9:00 a.m. Stops include Boulder Book Store, BookBar, Second Star to the Right Books, Tattered Cover Book Store in Historic LoDo, and City Stacks Books & Coffee. The cost, which covers transportation, is $25 per person.

  The half-day tour departs from the hotel at 12:15 p.m. Stops include HearthFire Books & Treats in Evergreen, Tattered Cover at Aspen Grove, and The Bookies Bookstore. The cost is $15 per person.

  The order of store stops on the tours may vary. Both tours will end at 5:30 p.m. at the Tattered Cover on Colfax Avenue, the site of the Winter Institute’s Opening Reception.
   

• Wi11’s four Advanced Learning Education sessions are open to store owners and managers and require preregistration. These sessions are designed for in-depth exploration among peers about management and operational concerns. Space is limited and registration is first-come, first-served. ABA will attempt to accommodate all interested stores with at least one ALE placement; assignments will be e-mailed the week of January 11, 2016.

  Human Resources Essentials for Bookstores will be held on Sunday, January 24, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Dr. John Sherlock, director of the Master of Science Program in Human Resources at Western Carolina University, will present an overview and best practices for small businesses on the topics of recruiting, judging staff performance, and what you need to know about the law.

  Advanced Topics in Human Resources will be presented on Sunday, January 24, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Dr. John Sherlock will lead a group workshop to help booksellers map out a human resources strategy that will work in their stores.

  The Open-Book Management Method and the Bookstore will be presented on Monday, January 25, from 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. Panelists who will be discussing the various ways that open-book management has helped them to empower employees, establish a better working environment, and build a cohesive team are Bradley Graham of Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.; Carole Horne of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Peter Schertz of Maria’s Bookshop in Durango, Colorado.

  Effective Leadership for the Retail Setting will be presented on Monday, January 25, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Ed O’Malley, the president and CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center, will facilitate a conversation and workshop exercise to help owners and managers embrace their leadership positions. Participants will learn and practice a set of skills that helps transform the way they exercise leadership in their stores and communities and will be introduced to a mindset and approach that will help them make progress on daunting challenges as well as gain tools they can introduce to their employees.

Watch for more details and registration links in next Thursday’s edition of Bookselling This Week.

Winter Institute 11, which will be held in Denver, Colorado, from Saturday evening, January 23, through Tuesday, January 26, 2016, is made possible by the generous support of Ingram Content Group, the event’s lead sponsor, and additional support from more than 70 publishers large and small.