New Events, Expanded Educational Offerings Planned for SIBA Show

The 2006 Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Fall Trade Show, which will be held from Thursday, September 7, through Sunday, September 10, in Orlando, Florida, at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, will feature an array of educational offerings and author events. This year, in addition to SIBA's educational seminars, The Spoken Word Reading Room, the Saturday night Moveable Feast and other author events, the show will feature five American Booksellers Association education sessions: "Shop Local: Forming Business Alliances in Your Community"; "Above the Treeline: An Introduction"; "How to Be the Story: Developing and Implementing a Public Relations Plan"; "Creating Killer Events"; and "Improving Efficiency to Achieve Success."

The ABA booth on the trade show floor will provide booksellers with the opportunity to meet with ABA staff and to learn about the association's products and services. Information will be available about the Winter Institute, to be held in Portland, Oregon, on February 1 - 2, 2007, the Book Sense marketing program, and much more. In addition, there will be demonstrations of the ABA Book Buyer's Handbook and Constant Contact. ABA Board member Carla Jimenez of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Florida, will be at the show, and she and ABA staff will be available to discuss any issue of concern to members.

ABA member booksellers who stop by the booth and drop off a business card will be eligible to win prizes. In a random drawing, ABA will award a color inkjet printer. The printer winner will then be entered into a grand prize drawing with the eight printer winners from the other fall trade shows. The grand prize winner will be awarded airfare to, and up to a three-night hotel stay at, the association's 2007 Winter Institute.

In addition, ABA members will have a chance to win up to a four-night stay at Hotel ABA in Brooklyn for BookExpo America 2007 in New York City, compliments of BEA. Booksellers can enter the drawing for the BEA prize at either the ABA booth or BEA's booth at the show.

ABA is asking all member booksellers at this year's shows to participate in the formulation of the association's next Five-Year Strategic Plan by filling out a strategic planning survey. Surveys will be available in the ABA booth. (ABA is encouraging booksellers to contact ABA staff members prior to the show if they have questions, suggestions, or comments. Questions and requests for information about ABA's participation at SIBA may also be directed to Kristen Gilligan, associate director of programming and constituent groups liaison, at [email protected].)

ABA's education sessions are free to all show attendees. The five sessions, which will be held on Friday, September 8, are:

• Shop Local: Forming Business Alliances in Your Community, 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
  ABA COO Oren Teicher moderates a presentation by Betsy Burton of The Kings English in Salt Lake City, Utah. Burton will discuss how locally owned businesses have a far greater economic impact on their communities than do national chains and the growing evidence that working with other local, independently owned businesses can lead to more profitability.
  
  
• Above the Treeline: An Introduction, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
  ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz will introduce booksellers to Above the Treeline, an online software product designed to help bookstores improve finances by optimizing inventory selection.
  
  
• How to Be the Story: Developing and Implementing a Public Relations Plan, 11:00 a.m. - Noon
  Len Vlahos, the director of ABA's education program and of BookSense.com, will demonstrate how a comprehensive public relations plan can have a greater impact on a store's visibility than advertising and at a much lower cost.
  
  
• Creating Killer Events, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
  Teicher will moderate a discussion featuring Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books in Miami and Jake Reiss of The Alabama Booksmith in Homewood, Alabama. These two veteran booksellers will explain how any bookstore can create killer events and what should be on a store's event prep checklist.
  
  
• Improving Efficiency to Achieve Success, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
  In this session, intended for owners and senior staff of bookstores of all sizes, Domnitz will focus on how booksellers can streamline routine functions so that more time and energy can be devoted to achieving the goals set for a store.

Wanda Jewell, SIBA executive director, told BTW that she was excited about this year's show. "SIBA is doing many things differently from previous years, and it is my highest hope that both booksellers and exhibitors will benefit and enjoy the changes and additions," she said.

On Thursday, September 7, SIBA will offer an all-day program, "Finding New Sales Before They Find You! Bookseller School," featuring Miriam Fleischmann, who will focus on how to create local bestsellers, hold author-less events, embrace sponsorships that result in outside sales, and hold off-site events. This event requires the purchase of a $75 ticket, which will admit up to three people per store. A "Rep Appreciation Reception" will cap the day.

On Friday, programming begins at 8:00 a.m. with "Breakfast and Annual Meeting With the SIBA Board," featuring Betsy Burton, The King's English (Gibbs Smith).

Also on Friday, at the top of every half-hour in The Spoken Word Reading Room, an author will be taped reading from their work for The Spoken Word radio show. Sixteen authors will be recorded, and booksellers are invited to sit in on the readings. Authors include Patricia McKissick (Porch Lies, Schwartz & Wade) and Esme Raji Codell (Vive La Paris, Hyperion Books for Children).

At 11:00 a.m. Barbara Mead of Reading Group Choices will present SIBA's "Reading Groups Mean Business." The panel includes two authors from Reading Group Choices and a bookseller. The authors will read a passage from his/her book and will briefly discuss why the passage can lead to a lively book discussion. The bookseller will provide tips and guidelines for reading groups, as well as information about reading group guides that have proved successful at his/her store.

The "Kick-Off Book Award Winners Lunch," at noon on Friday, will feature SIBA Book Award winners Joshilyn Jackson (Gods of Alabama, Warner); John Grogan, (Marley & Me, Morrow); Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays (Being Dead is No Excuse, Miramax); Nikki Giovanni and Bryan Collier (Rosa, Holt); Darnell Arnoult, (What Travels With Us, LSU Press).

Other SIBA educational offerings on Friday include, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., "Dark & Stormy Nights: Marketing Mysteries." Molly Weston will bring innovative and tried-and-true tips for one-time and continuing "whodunit" events.

Authors abound at several panels given throughout the day, including "All Out of Faith Author Panel," "Harper Lee, John Henry & People Like Me," "A People's History," and "Moon Rising on Books for Kids." Among the numerous authors scheduled to appear are Jennifer Horne (All Out of Faith, University of Alabama Press), Jennifer Armstrong (The American Story, Knopf Books for Young Readers), and Watt Key (Alabama Moon, FSG).

The day will end with the "SIBA Supper," featuring authors Elizabeth Kostova (The Historian, Little Brown), Doug Marlette (Magic Time, FSG), and others.

On Saturday and Sunday, dozens more authors are participating in various SIBA signings, feasts, breakfasts, and lunches. Autographing will take place from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, and on Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The trade show floor will open on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will close from noon to 1:30 for lunch. On Sunday, it will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Saturday begins with "Judge a Book by Its Lover William Morrow Breakfast" and ends with the ever popular "The Moveable Feast of Authors," featuring almost 50 authors, including Ron McLarty (Traveler, Pen/Viking); Sonny Brewer (Cast of Characters, MacAdam Cage); and Janis Cooke Newman (Mary, MacAdam Cage).

On Sunday morning, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., SIBA will hold a "Rep Around Galley Breakfast" with reps from Random House, Hachette USA, HarperCollins, Hyperion, Ponder House, Unbridled, Penguin Group, Scholastic, and Merriam-Webster.

For registration information, including ticket information, a full schedule with times and locations, and updates to this information, go to the SIBA website, www.sibaweb.com, or send an e-mail to [email protected]. --Karen Schechner