Wi13 Advanced Education to Focus on Succession Planning, Capitalizing on Strengths

Throughout the four days of special events and programming to be held at the American Booksellers Association’s 2018 Winter Institute, booksellers have the opportunity to sign up for a number of special education events.

ABA is offering two Advanced Education Sessions for store owners and managers attending Wi13, which are designed for in-depth exploration among peers about management and operational concerns. Space is limited at each session; registration is first-come, first served and limited to two booksellers per ABA member company. Assignments will be e-mailed prior to the start of Winter Institute.

This year’s Advance Education Sessions are:

• Do Less, Then Obsess: Recognizing Your Store’s Strengths and Making the Most of Them: Morten Hansen, a professor of management at the University of California, will lead an interactive workshop on how bookstores and booksellers might find more success by identifying the work that their bookstore does best and then effectively obsessing about it. Hansen will share his “Seven Work Smarter Practices” and provide an opportunity for booksellers to identify ways to apply them to their daily business lives. This session will be held on Tuesday, January 23, 2018, from 10:40 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. and again from 2:10 p.m. to 3:10 p.m.
• Succession Planning: Exiting a much-loved business can be difficult to think about, but it is important to have a plan in place and to consider all succession options. Chuck Robinson, the former owner of Washington’s Village Books and the current owner of business and nonprofit consulting firm Chuck Robinson Associates, will lead the conversation along with a business professional experienced in succession planning. The session will be held on Wednesday, January 24, 2018, from 9:20 a.m. to 10:20 a.m.

Register now for an Advanced Education Session.

Booksellers can also sign up for several other special education sessions, to be held on January 22, ahead of the Winter Institute opening reception:

• Principles of Bookstore Finance Seminar: A six-hour, 101-level seminar that will cover the fundamentals of budgeting, cash flow, business financing, bookkeeping, and financial statements. This session, to be led by ABA Chief Financial Officer Robyn DesHotel and Books Inc. Director of Operations Andy Perham, will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on January 22, 2018.
• Used Bookstore Forum: This three-hour session will look at the art of selling used and rare books, from pricing, trade policies, and inventory acquisition to events, displays, sales, and more. This session, to be led by Shane Gottwals of Gottwals Books and the Walls of Books franchise, will take place from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on January 22, 2018.
• IndieCommerce Institute: The IndieCommerce Institute is a two-part, interactive, classroom-style workshop for users of ABA’s IndieCommerce platform. The morning seminar, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on January 22, will look at optimizing checkout pages for higher sales conversions as well as strategies for e-mail subscription, marketing, and promotional campaigns; the afternoon seminar, from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., will cover Google Analytics and Drupal Views. Booksellers can register for one or both seminars.
• Paz Workshop, “Introduction to Retail Bookselling”: A one-day crash course on the essentials of opening a new bookstore or buying an existing one. The workshop, to take place from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on January 22, will be facilitated by Donna Paz Kaufman and Mark Kaufman of the Paz & Associates Bookstore Training Group.

The 2018 Winter Institute will be held January 22–25 at the Sheraton Memphis Downtown Hotel and the Memphis Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee. The institute is made possible by support from lead sponsor Ingram Content Group and from publishers large and small.

Winter Institute registration is currently at capacity. Interested booksellers can add their names to a waitlist by filling out the registration form on BookWeb; those on the list will be notified on a first-come, first-served basis if space becomes available. Registered booksellers who are no longer planning to attend are asked to notify ABA as soon as possible so waitlisted booksellers can take their places.

Thanks to the Winter Institute’s sponsors and other industry partners, more than 70 scholarships will be awarded to booksellers to attend Wi13. Booksellers at ABA member stores that did not have a Winter Institute scholarship winner in 2016 or 2017 are eligible to apply for a publisher-sponsored scholarship even if they are not registered for Wi13. Booksellers are encouraged to fill out the Winter Institute scholarship application form by October 29 or drop off a business card at the ABA booth at any of the fall regional trade shows to apply for an award, which covers the conference fee, up to four nights plus tax at the Sheraton, and transportation costs up to $400.

Questions about Winter Institute can be addressed to [email protected].