The Winter Institute in Photos

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

For the hundreds of booksellers at the American Booksellers Association's Second Annual Winter Institute, which ran from February 1 - 2 in Portland, Oregon, the days were jam-packed with education, networking, and socializing. A daily overview tells one story (here and here, and a bookseller's firsthand account tells another. But for a vocation that rest on a foundation of words, sometimes it's hard to beat a round-up in images.

Here are a few highlights in pictures of the booksellers' blast in Portland.

Wednesday, January 31

The Winter Institute's events kicked off with an evening reception at Powell's Books, where booksellers, authors, and publishers were treated to dessert and coffee, a preview of the store's newest art exhibit, and behind-the-scenes tours showcasing Powell's huge inventory and operations.
Thursday, February 1
The 500 registered booksellers checked in at the reception desk, where they received their badges, a binder full of handouts for each session, and a bag of materials provided by the Winter Institute sponsors.

Thursday began with a packed breakfast, where ABA President Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, welcomed booksellers to a sunny Portland and encouraged them to make the most of the two days of free educational sessions, as well as the many chances to network with their peers.
At the Plenary Session following breakfast, with props (notice the brain) and wit, Daniel Pink, a contributing editor at Wired magazine and the author of A Whole New Mind (Riverhead), offered a logical, sequential (and very left-brain) argument that key forces in the U.S. economy are making such skills as empathy, storytelling, and inventiveness (all decidedly right-brain oriented) much more valuable for individuals, businesses, and, ultimately, society. Thus, he said, bookstores are natural places for consumers to deepen and enrich their lives.


In the Galley Room, booksellers picked up some of the latest titles from the Winter Institute's Publisher Sponsors.

 


The time between sessions provided opportunities to network and socialize.



At the ABACUS Lunch, ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz presented the results of the 2006 study.

Following lunch on the first day were eight education sessions including "Buying and Selling Used Books," featuring key staff members of Powell's Used Books Department, Jon Guetschow, Jay Wheeler, and Chris Hagen, who took questions from the audience.

 


The panel "Making Magazines Profitable," moderated by ABA COO Oren Teicher, featured Christine Crowley of Trofie, Michael Tucker of Books Inc. in San Francisco, and Gary Judy of Circ. One, Inc.
Following the educational sessions, booksellers had the choice of attending any of three Reps' Picks sessions -- two featuring adult titles and one, children's titles -- that were repeated on Friday. Then everyone was invited to the publisher-sponsored Author Reception, where they enjoyed wine, beer, and hors d'oeuvres and had the opportunity to meet 26 authors who were autographing their latest titles.


Barry Eisler, Requiem for an Assassin (Putnam/Penguin Group)


Mark Slouka, The Visible World: A Novel (Houghton Mifflin)


Steven Hall, The Raw Shark Texts (Canongate U.S.)

Willy Vlautin, Motel Life (Harper Perennial)
Friday, February 2

ABA Vice President Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Book Store in Tempe, Arizona, invited booksellers to help formulate ABA's next five-year strategic plan by completing a survey at the ABA Strategic Planning Breakfast.
Between breakfast and The New Media Lunch, booksellers had the choice of four education sessions.

"Coping With Disaster," moderated by ABA's Teicher, featured Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness, co-founder of the Children's Health Fund, and author of Americans at Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared for Megadisasters and What We Need to Do Now (Knopf), and Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books in Miami, Florida.

At "Getting the Most Out of the ABA," ABA Marketing Director Jill Perlstein, Book Sense Marketing Director Mark Nichols, and BookExpo America Show Director Lance Fensterman talked about the many advantages of belonging to ABA and to attending the annual BEA trade show, which this year will be in New York City from May 30 to June 3.


At the New Media Lunch, moderator Scott Rosenberg, co-founder of Salon.com, and panelists Madeline McIntosh, senior vice president, publisher of Random House Audio Publishing; Amanda Edmonds, strategic partner manager of Google Book Search; and C.J. Rayhill, chief information office for O'Reilly Media, discussed the dramatic effect such technological developments as the digitization of content and online social networking are having on independent booksellers and their customers.


Following lunch, booksellers again had a choice of four education sessions, including "Building and Rewarding Customer Loyalty," moderated by ABA's Domnitz and featuring Daniel Goldin, buyer at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee, and Nicole Magistro, owner of The Bookworm of Edwards, in Edwards, Colorado.

The importance of independent retailing was the focus of "How to Create an Independent Business Alliance in Your Community," where Matt Cunningham and Dan Houston, the cofounders of Civic Economics, and David Nimkin, former executive director of the Utah Small Business Development Center and cofounder and vice president of Local First Utah, joined ABA's Teicher, to provide booksellers with new data about the importance of shopping locally.

"How to Do a Customer Survey: A Case Study," was led by Len Vlahos, ABA's director of education and BookSense.com.
And to top things off, from the Doubletree's glass elevators the Winter Institute's participants had a spectacular view of Mt. Hood.

NEWS - About ABA, Winter Institute,