Winter Institute: Some Important Reminders

In less than a week, some 500 indie booksellers will be gathering in San Jose, California, for the kickoff of the American Booksellers Association's Fifth Annual Winter Institute. There's a lot packed into the three-day event, including 30-plus education sessions and roundtables, special events, and networking opportunities. To help you get the most out of your time in San Jose, we've put together some program highlights and timely reminders.

A Few Education Program Highlights

An updated Wi5 program schedule, featuring session presenters, panelists, and moderators, as well as downloadable session handouts, is available on BookWeb.org. Among the education program highlights are:

Wednesday, February 3

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: "Ingram Digital: A Report," presented by Andrew Weinstein, vice president and general manager, retail development, and vice president, business development, for Ingram Content Group;

12:45 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.: "Google Editions," a luncheon keynote, presented by Daniel Clancy http://news.bookweb.org/read/7287, director of Google Books;

2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.: "The State of General Trade Publishing: Three Noted Publishers Discuss How Digitization Is Impacting Their Business & the Industry," featuring Drake McFeely, president of W.W. Norton & Company; David Young, chairman and CEO of Hachette; and Madeline McIntosh, president, sales, operations, and digital, for Random House, and moderated by Barry C. Lynn, author of Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction (Wiley).

Friday, February 5

10:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.: "Consolidated, Concentrated and Cornered: Fighting the Powers of Consolidation," featuring Barry C. Lynn, author of Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction (Wiley) and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, interviewed by ABA CEO Oren Teicher;

Noon - 1:30 p.m.: Luncheon featuring Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, published by Riverhead this month.

Appointments for the Consultation Station

There's still time to schedule one-on-one conversations with a wide variety of service providers who will be on-hand at the Wi5 from 3:00 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. on Thursday. Scheduled to have representatives at the Consultation Station are 14 book industry service providers, including POS vendors, trade associations, Ingram, LIBRIS insurance, W.G. Ellerkamp Paper Company, PartnerShip, and more. ABA is encouraging booksellers to contact the participants now to schedule one-on-one conversations. The complete list, with contact information, is here.

Rep Picks and Galley Room

Rep Picks Speed Dating will be held in two parts: over lunch on Thursday and over breakfast on Friday. Booksellers will need to bring their table assignments, which were sent this week in an e-mail from Mark Nichols, ABA industry relations officer. If you're registered for Wi5 and haven't received a seating assignment for the Rep Picks, please e-mail Nichols now.

Books and ARCs of the books discussed at the Rep Picks will be available in the nearby Galley Room (Oak Room). A full listing of Galley Room hours will be posted outside the room.

Getting to the Hotel

The San Jose Doubletree offers complimentary shuttle bus service from nearby San Jose International Airport. Booksellers should use the Doubletree courtesy phone at the airport to call for pick-up. Super Shuttle Service is available from San Francisco International Airport to the Doubletree San Jose for about $35 per person.

Detailed driving directions are available on the Doubletree website. Discounted parking for attendees is $5/day.

The Welcome Desk

Booksellers should stop by the ABA Welcome Desk in the Doubletree lobby as soon as possible to pick up their badge for access to all Wi5 events and sessions, as well as other materials, including a memory stick containing all session handouts. (ABA is experimenting with providing handouts on the memory stick based on input from the Booksellers Advisory Council; the association welcomes bookseller feedback after Wi5 about this effort to become greener and cut down on waste.) All session handouts are also available to all ABA member booksellers via BookWeb.org.

The Welcome Desk will be staffed during the following hours:

Tuesday, February 2, from 4:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 3, from 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Thursday, February 4, from 7:30 a.m. - Noon

An Information Desk will be set up near the session rooms from noon - 5:00 p.m. on Thursday and from 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. on Friday.

Evening Receptions

On Wednesday, all Winter Institute participants are invited to an opening reception hosted by Kepler's Books in Menlo Park from 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Shuttle buses to the reception will run continuously from the Doubletree and back, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The last bus will leave the bookstore for the hotel at 10:00 p.m.

The popular Wi5 Author Reception will cap the day of education on Thursday. All Winter Institute participants are invited come meet the 42 authors and illustrators who will be on hand to autograph their latest or upcoming works. The reception will run from 6:15 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.

A Wi5 closing reception will be held on Friday, from 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

The NCIBA Lounge

Thanks to the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, Wi5 participants will have a place to rest and meet up with fellow attendees. The NCIBA Lounge in the Silicon Valley Room will be set with tables and chairs to provide an informal meeting place for all Wi5 participants. The lounge, on the second floor, near Wi5's meeting rooms, will be open 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. from Wednesday through Friday.

Shipping Books Home

Booksellers enrolled in PartnerShip, ABA's Discount Shipping Program provider, will be able to ship books and other packages from the host hotel, the Doubletree San Jose, at significant savings. An enrollment form for those not already taking advantage of this free ABA member benefit is available here. Additional information is available at (800) 599-2902 or at PartnerShip.com/07aba. The Shipping Desk, which will be located at the top of the stairs, near the Gateway Ballroom, will be open from 2:30 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, and from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Friday.

Laptops, Handouts, Wireless, and Power

Winter Institute session handouts will be provided to attendees when they arrive on a 256MB USB memory stick, which plugs into your computer and functions as an external drive. If you have a laptop, ABA encourages you to bring it. ABA has also made handouts available for download by all members on BookWeb's Wi5 schedule.

While the Doubletree does offer free Internet access in the lobby (and paid access in guest rooms), there will be no access in the meeting rooms. Each meeting room will have small charging stations located at the back of the room. ABA is asking everyone to be mindful of needs of others, and to limit their charging time to only what is necessary.

Behind the Wheel of the Bookmobile

As part of his multimedia and documentary film project, Tom Corwin invites Winter Institute participants to visit his bookmobile, which will be parked outside the main convention area entrance on Wednesday from 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. The Behind the Wheel of the Bookmobile film project follows a classic bookmobile across country on back roads with acclaimed authors taking turns at the wheel. At each stop, members of the public are invited to take their choice of digital and analog titles in exchange for interviews about books that have changed their lives. Highlights of the journey will be distributed in a literacy outreach campaign through the web, and the project will culminate in a documentary film.

Places to Eat, Things to Do, Maps and Transportation

Check out the San Jose Visitor's Bureau website for a calendar of local events, restaurant listings, downloadable maps, information about sightseeing tours and cultural institutions, and much more.

A Big Thanks to Our Wi5 Sponsors

Ingram has generously sponsored the Winter Institute and all of ABA's 2010 educational efforts. Through their support, ABA is able to offer stellar programs and events for booksellers, as well as to make available low-cost hotel rates. ABA is asking all Wi5 participants to join in extending a special thanks to Ingram and to all of Wi5's publisher partners and friends, whose gracious support makes this event possible.