VWi2023 Program

Meet booksellers from around the country! Breakout rooms will be devoted to affinity and subset groups so that you can meet booksellers with shared interests. You can connect with other Mission-Driven Stores, then head over to your LGBTQIA2S+ affinity group room before joining the conversation at the Pop-up Stores room! Join one room for the entire hour or hop from room to room to meet as many folks as you can. [Cameras on!]

Join a panel of booksellers as they discuss ways that they have become more efficient in basic bookstore operations. The panel will review how to organize invoices for efficiency, provide samples of easy-to-use forms to streamlined processes, discuss how to communicate with staff around new operations procedures, and more. Come to the session to listen and also share your own best practices. [Pre-recorded at Wi2023 in Seattle]

The rights of readers and the importance of representation in books is critical to the work of independent bookstores. The wave of book bans threaten these rights and these values as an orchestrated movement attempting to silence historically marginalized voices and experiences. As authors, publishers, and booksellers are under constant attack from random and targeted book bans, ABA has assembled a diverse group to discuss the effects of these bans.
Heather Hall from Green Feather Book Company; Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer ; Laura DeLaney from Rediscovered Books; and Kendrick Washington, Policy Advocacy Director of the Seattle ACLU, will share their experiences as well as their insight and wisdom on how to deal with an increasingly pervasive occurrence. The discussion will be moderated by Ray Daniels, Chief Communications Officer of ABA. Gather here to understand first hand what is at stake when book bans happen in your community and how you can respond or even prevent them. [Pre-recorded at Wi2023 in Seattle]

This idea exchange is an opportunity for booksellers to come together to discuss what’s happening surrounding banned books in their community and how individuals are responding to situations as they arise. Attendees will come away from the idea exchange with advice for resolution and support, and a network of peers to reach out to throughout the year. Presented by the ABC Children’s Group for all booksellers. [Cameras on!]

A school partnership is an important asset to any bookstore. It strengthens the community, introduces books to younger readers, generates future customers, and supports a bookstore’s bottom line. This session is a bookstore-presented panel on how to best establish school connections from square one. Booksellers will learn first steps to take to begin a healthy partnership, key roles in school administration to get to know, how to work with teachers, and what events and means of support a bookstore can provide to create trust and put the store front of mind when opportunities arise. Presented by the ABC Children’s Group for all booksellers. [Pre-recorded at Wi2023 in Seattle]

Join Michelle MiJung Kim, award-winning author of The Wake Up: Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Real Change, and Hannah Oliver Depp of Loyalty Bookstores for a thought-provoking conversation about how each of us can — and must — be a part of creating a more equitable world. Drawing upon her lived experiences as a queer immigrant woman of color and her work across various industries, Michelle MiJung Kim will share how to move beyond performative allyship to building real solidarity toward social change. Known for her compassionate criticality, Kim’s session is one you won’t want to miss. [Pre-recorded at Wi2023 in Seattle]