72 Hours in New Orleans

Dear Booksellers,

In only eight days, ABA booksellers and book people from all over the country will meet in New Orleans for the sixth ABC Children’s Institute (Ci6). Just traveling to such a wonderful place  — the music, the FOOD, the architecture, the art — is excitement enough. Combined with the education sessions, authors, special events, and keynotes like Mallika, Chelsea, Temple and Angie — all focused on children’s booksellers and children’s books — we are anticipating an outstanding few days. Come ready to network, learn, and experience the glorious NOLA summer weather! 

 

Perhaps you are coming to NOLA early or staying for a bit. I won’t bother with travel tips; there are many books, articles, blogs, and websites to provide those. But if you, like me, read to get into the mood of a place, I have a suggestion - Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas (University of California Press), which I bought recently at Octavia Books. Its unusual color and trim size intrigued me. The beautiful maps, illustrations, and words are both a mystery and a surprise. Unfathomable City is a curious visitor’s guide to the many layers that make up the map of New Orleans and all its history, culture, music, and drama. 

Now, let's get this Institute started!

 

Tuesday, June 19

9 am to 7 pm
Try to ignore the siren song of the French Quarter if you can and stop at the ABA Welcome Desk on the fifth floor of the Sheraton New Orleans for badges, bags, programs, journals from lead sponsor Baker & Taylor, and other welcoming goodies. Need a last-minute doodad to complete your costume for the Welcome Mardi Gras & Favorite Backlist Kids’ Books Character party? Canal Street and the surrounding area is home to delightful shops selling all kinds of garb, from hats and beads to feathers and masks.

10 am to 4 pm
Ci6 is all about the business of bookselling and there is no better starting point than the Principles of Bookstore Finance Seminar presented by bookseller Cynthia Compton (owner 4 Kids Books & Toys, Zionsville, IN) and ABA CFO Robyn DesHotel. Cynthia and Robyn will make this one fun look at accrual accounting! Pre-reg was required but walk-ins will be accepted; so stop on by. Lunch will be served.

1 pm to 4 pm
Get out of the midday sun and meet with ABA IndieCommerce Manager Geetha Nathan and specialist Chanthee Keokhaw, who are offering IndieCommerce one-on-ones on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Plan ahead or walk in. Geetha and Chanthee are happy to help with questions about either the full or IndieLite platforms.

Or, if you’ve registered for the Literary Walking Tour, embrace the midday sun as you visit the haunts of the literary and famous within the French Quarter. Surprises and plenty of shade and indoor stops are promised! Seriously, even ABA doesn’t know what surprises are in store. The tour guide is playing coy. Text us when you know!

Also scheduled for the afternoon is the Chalkboard Lettering Workshop. I can’t wait to see the results! Each bookseller gets his or her own chalkboard to practice. Hopscotch anyone? (How badly does that date me? Do kids play hopscotch anymore?)

5:30 pm to 7 pm (Scholarship Meet and Greet begins at 5 pm)
An opening night Welcome Mardi Gras & Favorite Backlist Kids’ Book Character costume party, you say? Ci6 will present its own version of Fat Tuesday to start off the Institute, including costumes, judging in multiple categories, refreshments, and prizes! Costumes can be elaborate or not. I, for instance, will be carrying a magnifying glass and looking Smart. Sophisticated. Independent. Fashionable. Fearless. Oh, do bring a copy of the backlist book featuring your character.

9 pm to 10:30 pm
Exclusive screening and sneak peek at Ci6! Join us for the Hilda Netflix original screening party. Hilda is based on the series of graphic novels by Luke Pearson and follows the adventures of a fearless blue-haired girl. Coming to Netflix this fall.

Rumor is that New Orleans just gets started around 10:30 pm, so whether you go Uptown or Downtown, to Bywater or the Arts District, have dinner, see music, or devour beignets, save a little something for the two full days of bookselling fun ahead.

 

Wednesday, June 20

7 am to 5 pm
The ABA Welcome Desk opens early if you didn’t make it there the day before. Say hi to your MRMs, Liz and Daniel. They are the best resources for all of your questions about the Institute and ABA.

7:45 am to 8:45 am
Number one on my gratitude list for the day is that author, entrepreneur, and meditation expert Mallika Chopra is the Opening Breakfast Keynote speaker. I am visualizing a group guided meditation to manage bookseller anxiety.

Mentees and mentors will meet at their assigned (reserved) tables at 7:30 am for both the Wednesday and Thursday breakfasts.

 

9 am to 10 am

The first block of hour-long education sessions begins promptly at 9 am with a range of bookseller and expert led discussions. Check the Ci6 app for descriptions, speaker bios, and evaluations. There will be no paper evaluations this year! The trees thank you. And ABA thanks you for completing the easy-to-access evals on the Ci6 app.

One new format to note: Ask an Edelweiss Expert is more like a one-on-one troubleshooting session than a standard user group. I suggest you take advantage of John Rubin’s time and attention!

9 am to 7 pm
My colleagues are magicians. They can turn "before" to "after," a filled-to-the-brim with-hundreds-of-new-titles Galley Room, in just two heavy-lifting days. Search out room Grand A on the fifth floor, down the corridor to the right of the elevators. The Galley Room is open on Thursday, too, from 8:45 am to 6 pm.

10:15 am to 11:15 am
Allison Risbridger from NPD is back to deliver a deep dive into the trends relating to children’s books and bookselling. The children’s market is still growing, but the devil is in the details, and that’s where you’ll want to take note and perhaps adjust your buying emphasis.  

11:30 am to 12:15 pm
​For the first time at Children’s Institute, booksellers meet for Bookseller-to-Bookseller Discussions on set topics, this year the NPD session on trends and how to use the ABC Best Books for Young Readers catalog. The groups are another great way to share best practices and tips! You never know where the next great idea for the store will come from.

12:30 pm to 2:30 pm
Part Gong Show, part matchmaking, part performance art, and all books, the Rep Picks Speed Dating Lunch is a noisy, fun affair. So don’t miss it! And stay for the full event. Publisher sponsors underwrite the lunch, indeed the entire event to keep costs low for booksellers, and they really want to tell you about their books. (And you can tell them about your store during the Bookseller and Publisher Focus Groups from 4 pm to 5:20 pm. Bring your media kits.)

12:30 pm to 5 pm
Ah, the sound of packing tape and the sight of cardboard boxes of books: it must be the Shipping Desk, ready for business. As requested by many members, ABA arranged for UPS to handle shipping at Ci6 (though FedEx has an office in the Sheraton if you’d rather).

 

2:45 pm to 3:45 pm
Education block #2 offers a range of presentations, including the unlikely sounding but very popular at Winter Institute Sharing Favorite Bookstore Forms roundtable. Forms like employee evaluations, monthly tasks and schedules, training guides, and job descriptions. ABA has a bunch on BookWeb.org but we would love to expand the repertoire. Only another bookseller can truly appreciate the beauty of your well-designed manager sheet.

5:40 pm to 7 pm
Following the aforementioned Bookseller and Publisher Focus Groups is the reward of a long day of bookselling learning, the Author Reception. Close to 70 authors will be signing and chatting. At one per minute you can meet them all and still have time to sip the wine.  

~7 pm
Dinners out are key face-to-face time at Ci6, so if you don’t have a publisher dinner invite and would like one, email [email protected] and we will see what we can do. And for sure, if you have received an invitation, the publishers ask that you kindly RSVP, whether you can join or not.  

9:30 pm to 11:30 pm
No Institute is complete without the Scholastic “Power of Story” After-Party. Featured authors are Mac Barnett (Mac Undercover), Rafael López (We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands), Daniel José Older (The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone), and Kody Keplinger (That’s Not What Happened). Enjoy the before-bedtime stories.

 

Thursday, June 21

What a special day… four keynote presentations by spectacular guests! And three separate education blocks and a special luncheon, capped by a kids’ lit trivia party! I can’t wait. As a special treat for ABC Group members, there will be a raffle to win boxes of books by the keynote speakers. And here they are:

7:45 am to 8:45 am
Breakfast Keynote: She still persists —Chelsea Clinton in Conversation With Lissa Muscatine (co-owner of Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., journalist, and former speechwriter for Hillary Clinton).

 

10:15 am to 11 am
Morning Keynote: We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices! Phoebe Yeh talks with Cheryl Willis Hudson, Wade Hudson, and Kwame Alexander about the question of what to tell our children in a divisive world, ahead of the publication of the book of art and prose for young people.

2:15 pm to 3 pm
Afternoon Keynote: The amazing Temple Grandin will discuss her childhood love for inventors and the importance of kids having time to tinker. Hear, hear.

 

4:30 pm to 5:15 pm
Closing Keynote: Prize-winning author — and former rapper — Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give) will talk about how we all can make a difference in the world by taking even the smallest actions.

 

 

The right keynote can transform an event, inspiring, teaching, and creating community. And yet what we respond to is very personal. What energizes you? If it’s active listening and participating in a breakout session, you’ll do well with the many choices, as suggested by NOLA booksellers, members of the Education Task Force, and members of the ABC Advisory Council.

9 am to 10 am
The education options in this block really highlight the importance and influence of good children’s bookselling: LGBTQIA programs, using social media, selling STEM and STEAM books, and launching pop-up shops.

1 pm to 2 pm
Education block #3, following lunch, offers a second chance to Ask an Edelweiss Expert plus Planning and Executing Successful Book Festivals, The Creation of Cover Art, and Teen and Tween Advisory Boards as Bookstore Influencers.

3:15 pm to 4:15 pm
Expect more original and unique programming in the final education block, covering author visits, working with libraries, and, in what is sure to be eye-opening, Hindsight Is 20/20: What Store Owners Wish They’d Known Before They Opened Their Stores. (Attention those of you on the cusp of opening!!)

5:15 pm to 6 pm
We call it the Post-Ci6 Trivia Party, but as anyone who has competed at one of these at the regionals — I’m looking at you, MPIBA — knows, the trivia party is a silly and smart group-hug of a farewell. This party is a wonderful way to say goodbye to your colleagues and, if you need to get back to the store, the charm of New Orleans. Thank you to Margaret Brennan Neville (The King’s English, Salt Lake City), who has been working on the trivia questions for months.

The ABC Children’s Institute has become a force in the kids’ book world, so much so that Publishers Weekly released a special ABC Children’s Institute supplement highlighting the books and authors of Ci6. The issue is a great way to prep for the days ahead. Thank you, PW!

On behalf of my colleagues at ABA, a big thank you to all the booksellers, publishers, Consultation Stationites — and particularly lead sponsor Baker & Taylor — for your support and enthusiasm for this very special event.

See you in NOLA!

Safe travels,

Meg Z. Smith
Membership and Marketing Officer