Hot topics at this month's National Retail Federation Convention & Expo included consumer advocacy, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and the role technology will play in the store of the future. Last week, BTW looked at "Harness the Chaos in Today's Connected World," a session featuring author Daniel Pink (A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Riverhead) and Fred Balboni of IBM Global Business Services Store of the Future.

As part of its Save the Book Review Campaign and overall mission to promote book discussion, the National Book Critics Circle [NBCC] held a symposium, "The Age of Infinite Margins: Book Critics Face the 21st Century," last week in New York City.

Part II of a Bookselling This Week miniseries about web-centric undertakings that will help you stay current -- and stay connected to the tens of millions of people who engage in online conversations about books and reading. (Read Part I, "Booksellers Befriend MySpace.")

Becoming a blogger changed Jessica Stockton Bagnulo's life.

When Xtine Hanson, an artist and professor of Visual Communication at California State University, Fullerton, was visiting New York and looking for a cafe in SoHo, she had several to choose from -- all of them Starbucks. Dissatisfied with her lack of choice, Hanson, who prefers to frequent independent businesses, returned to California with the germ of an idea.

Part I of a Bookselling This Week miniseries about online endeavors that will keep you on trend and put you in touch with the tens of millions of people who engage in online social networking. Coming up next week: bookseller-bloggers, and why you might want to become one.

Beaufort Books Publishing Deal with Goldman Family

On August 14, Beaufort Books announced that it had finalized a publishing deal with the Goldman family for the O.J. Simpson tell-all book, If I Did It. The news comes some eight months after News Corp. and ReganBooks announced the cancellation of the controversial Simpson book and television special following a firestorm of protest raised by booksellers, Fox TV station affiliates, and many in the general public who vehemently decried the project.

Last November, Pubnet unveiled Instant Response, an alternative to the direct electronic order (DEO) dial-up systems that several publishers began phasing out with the introduction of ISBN-13 in January. Instant Response allows bookstores to place orders and receive backorder acknowledgements, invoices, and advance shipping notices through standardized electronic methods.

By Len Vlahos, ABA Director of Education & of BookSense.com

There I was, deep in the heart of Silicon Valley. No Blackberry, no roaming broadband connection for my laptop. Just a guy with a briefcase and hardcover copy of Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower to keep me entertained.

Books Inc. of Palo Alto to Move

This week, California's Books Inc. announced that it would be moving its Palo Alto store from the Stanford Shopping Center -- where it opened in 1957 -- to the newly renovated Town and Country Center on February 1, 2008. The 50-year-old store's new location will be 4,000 square feet.

"The New Rules of Marketing and PR for Retailers" was presented at BookExpo America on Saturday morning by David Meerman Scott. The hour-long session was based on Scott's new book of the same name subtitled, "How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing & Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly."