ABA BEA Education Day Update

At the end of February, ABA published a first look at the presenters for its Thursday, June 2, "Day of Education" at BookExpo America 2005 (June 2 - 5, at New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center). The association is now able to complete the list, with the announcement of presenters for the afternoon sessions "Understanding Co-Op, 201" and "The Bookstore as a Third Place: Making Your Store a Community Center Through Innovative Events." Both sessions will be held on Thursday from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

"Understanding Co-op, 201" will feature a panel of bookstore co-op experts -- Heather Duncan of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver; Tom Campbell of Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina; and Tracy Adams of Co-op Advertising Solutions -- who will discuss best practices for claiming, using, and managing co-op. Topics will include creating a marketing/advertising plan, how to use co-op efficiently, measuring the success of advertising and marketing activities, tips on communicating with publisher co-op departments, and more. This session will be moderated by Book Sense Marketing Director Mark Nichols.

Carla Cohen of Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.; Vivien Jennings of Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kansas; and Kelly Justice of Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia, are all experts in creating events that position their bookstores as centers for community and political action. Booksellers are invited to come hear this distinguished panel share their experiences and knowledge at "The Bookstore as a Third Place: Making Your Store a Community Center Through Innovative Events," moderated by ABA COO Oren Teicher.

There is no more important mission for a bookstore than to serve as a gathering place for members of the community to foster the free flow of ideas. This panel of experts will discuss how events in a bookstore can be about much more than books.

For a complete description of ABA's Day of Education and other BEA events, as well as hotel information, go to www.bookweb.org/aba/convention/.