At BookExpo 2017 [7], which takes place from Wednesday, May 31, to Friday, June 2, at the Javits Convention Center in New York City, the American Booksellers Association will present four education sessions:

• Edelweiss+ for Booksellers will take place on Thursday, June 1, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Room 1E16. Edelweiss is a multi-publisher catalog service that enables store buyers to manage their orders in one organized place. In this session, Above the Treeline Education and Outreach Coordinator Joe Foster and Above the Treeline CEO John Rubin will provide book buyers with the tools and tips they need to successfully migrate over to the newly revamped service, Edelweiss+.
   

• Hiring for Diversity, which will take place on Thursday, June 1, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Room 1E10, will feature speaker Mecca E. Santana, Esq., vice president of diversity and community relations and chief diversity officer for Westchester Medical Health Network.

  Santana formerly served as chief diversity officer for the State of New York and as the executive director of the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management. A graduate of Hofstra University School of Law and the State University of New York at Albany, Santana also worked with the New York State Commission of Investigation and the New York County district attorney’s office.

• For Authors: Working With Independent Bookstores will take place on Thursday, June 1, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Room 1E02/1E03. Developed specifically for authors, this panel features booksellers who have formulated best practices to create events that benefit both stores and authors. The session will cover a number of issues, from author publicity to dealing with pre-event nerves.

  The panel will feature Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books [8] in San Francisco; Susan Hans O’Connor of Penguin Bookshop [9] in Sewickley, Pennsylvania; Valerie Koehler of Blue Willow Bookshop [10] in Houston, Texas; and Emmanuel Rivers of A Cappella Books [11] in Atlanta, Georgia.

• “ABFE Presents Selling Controversial Books: A Conversation,” which will take place on Friday, June 2, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in Room 1E10, will bring together four prominent booksellers in a discussion about how to handle the sale of controversial books, including how to approach stocking a title that bookstore staff oppose or what to do when a customer complains about a particular title.

  The panel will feature Lissa Muscatine, co-owner of Politics and Prose [12] in Washington, D.C.; Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books [13] in Miami; Amy Stephenson, store manager of The Booksmith [14] in San Francisco; and Vanessa Martini, associate buyer for City Lights Books [15] in San Francisco. The panel, which is sponsored by American Booksellers for Free Expression, will be moderated by Michael A. Bamberger, general counsel for Media Coalition [16], which defends the First Amendment rights of media and entertainment.

Booksellers attending BookExpo can visit the ABA Member Lounge, Booth 721 on the Javits Convention Center’s trade show floor, for a members-only galley room, exclusive author meet-and-greets, information on ABA programs and services from affiliated business partners, and one-on-one meetings with IndieCommerce staff. More information about ABA programming at BookExpo can be found on BookWeb.org [17].

Booksellers can register for free badges [18] to BookExpo by providing an ABA member ID number during the registration process. Booksellers who don’t know their ID number should send a request with their name, title, and store name to [email protected] [19] or call (800) 637-0037, ext. 7536.

Thanks to financial support from Reed Exhibitions, ABA member booksellers can reserve rooms at The Row NYC Hotel at a rate of $200 per night, including all taxes and fees; this rate is available until Tuesday, May 16. At publication time, a limited number of rooms were still available. The Row NYC Hotel is located at 700 Eighth Avenue. To access Hotel ABA reservation information [20], booksellers will need a BookWeb username and password.