Registration Now Full for 15th Annual Winter Institute

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Winter Institute 15 logo

Updated at 12:20 p.m. ET on Thursday, September 19.

Registration is now full for the American Booksellers Association’s 15th annual Winter Institute (Wi15), which will take place January 21–24, 2020, at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Booksellers can visit BookWeb.org to be added to the waitlist. The event fee is $159 per bookseller, with a maximum of three booksellers per ABA member company. The ABA hotel room block will open on October 1, and rooms will cost $139 per night plus tax.

While registration for the full event is at capacity, booksellers can still register for the Winter Institute Day Pass option, which will give booksellers access to the institute on Friday, January 24, in addition to the Author Reception on Thursday, January 23, at 5:15 p.m. The day pass will cost $75. In addition to regular education sessions, special events taking place on Friday, January 24, include a bookselling bootcamp, an employee manual workshop, and Baltimore-area bookstore tours.

Booksellers should arrive in Baltimore on Monday, January 20, if they plan to take part in any special events ahead of the Tuesday evening opening reception, including an Antitrust Symposium in Washington, D.C.; the new Publishers by Appointment program; tours of the Penguin Random House warehouse in Westminster; the Paz & Associates Workshop “Introduction to Retail Bookselling”; the IndieCommerce Institute; and educational programming on the lifecycle of the book, used books, and buying for small stores.

Once the institute begins, booksellers can expect to see some new items, such as TEDx-style talks on innovations in bookselling, informal fireside chats, time set aside for open discussions, a board game playroom, and more, in addition to the return of their favorite programming, including the ABA Town Hall, Galley Room, Author Reception, Bookseller Discussion Groups, Rep Picks Speed Dating lunches, and Publisher and Bookseller Focus Groups.

Educational sessions planned for the event will cover cost-cutting, managing relationships with sales reps, bookstore cafés, bookstore podcasts, hiring for success, and many more topics. Programming for children’s booksellers includes subscription boxes, capturing the teen market, and best practices for training general booksellers for the children’s section.

Visit the Winter Institute page on BookWeb to learn more about the event. Questions about Winter Institute can be directed to [email protected].

Refunds will be given for event cancellation requests received by 9:00 p.m. ET on November 22, 2019. Thereafter, there will be no refunds except if ABA cancels the event for any reason. All cancellation requests should be e-mailed to [email protected].

For questions about accessibility or to make a request, contact ABA Meetings & Planning Officer Jill Perlstein at (914) 406-7542 or [email protected].