Good morning!
Welcome to Winter Institute 2024!
Last week as I was preparing to come here, someone asked me,“How long does it take to get to Cincinnati?”
It takes 3 years.
It takes 3 years to get to Cincinnati, it turns out.
As many of you know, this event was originally planned for 2021, then 2022, and now in 2024, we’re finally here and we’re thankful to all of you for joining us in The Queen City for what promises to be the best Winter Institute ever!
We have with us here this week the oldest bookseller ever in attendance at Winter Institute—at the age of 85. We have with us here this week the youngest bookstore owner ever in attendance at Winter Institute — at the age of 14. And we have with us here this week 951 booksellers, the most we’ve ever convened for Winter Institute.
The week ahead represents thousands of hours of planning and preparation. But it’s just a giant spreadsheet until now. It’s your energy and spirit that bring it to life. It’s all of you being together that makes it magic.
Last year at Winter Institute in Seattle we were all still emerging from the early Covid days. It felt like we were groundhogs coming up out of the dark earth, blinking, at the light, trying to determine whether spring would ever come.
But a year later there are signs of spring everywhere. The re-energizing of the buy local movement, consumers’ desire to know who they’re buying from, people wanting to shop in alignment with their values and have an authentic experience, an FTC lawsuit against Amazon — independent bookstores are ready for this moment and the value proposition that you offer combined with the hard earned insights and resilience you built during the pandemic, indicate a bright forecast for the future.
But we still have work to do to ensure that the foundation for that future is solid enough to build on.
And this week is the opportunity for you to fortify that foundation for your stores, and for all of us to fortify that foundation for our community.
To that end, I hope this week you share ideas, find inspiration, and get a chance to think about your business, both on the micro level–how to track KPIs, how to optimize operations, how to manage projects — and on the macro level — “What business am I really in?” “What do I want my store to be for my community?” “What do we want the future of independent bookstores to look like?”
At this early morning hour when you're half asleep I’d like to ask you all to commit to three actions that I believe are critical to the foundation of our collective future. Think of them as alphabet blocks. A, B, C.
A — Report to ABACUS
ABACUS is ABA’s free annual financial benchmarking survey for bookstores. We send it to you in May/June, you share your financials confidentially with our third-party vendor, and in the fall we send back to you a report that compares your financials to the financials of stores like yours. This is an incredible tool for this industry. It helps you analyze your financials and discover opportunities to improve your store’s profitability.
ABA also uses this data to advocate for your stores with government officials and with publishers. The more data we have, the more effectively we can act on your behalf.
B — Sign up for Batch
Batch is a payment system that streamlines your accounts payable with publishers. In the UK every single bookstore and every single publisher uses Batch. It’s an incredibly efficient system that saves everyone time and money that bookstores can reinvest in their business. We need Batch here. If you’re waiting for more publishers to sign up, please don’t wait. The more booksellers we have sign up for Batch, the more publishers will sign up. There are two publishers — who you probably buy significantly from — in talks with Batch right now. You all signing up this week could make the difference.
C — Consider the Indie Channel, Report your Sales.
If every independent bookstore reported its sales to Bookscan, we could demonstrate the full power of the indie channel. Reporting your sales is like voting–make your sales count. ABA can help you easily get started, just reach out.
An election year seems like a good time to remember that the future doesn’t just happen. We build it. I hope this week is all about building a bright future for independent bookstores, together.
Speaking of doing things together… There are many people to thank for the amazing days ahead.
First, I want to thank our lead sponsor Ingram. We’re deeply grateful for Ingram’s continued support of both Winter Institute and Children’s Institute. I met with the Ingram team yesterday and it was amazing to hear how they are investing in the indie channel. We appreciate their support of independent bookstores.
Thank you to the publishers who sponsor Winter Institute and share their authors — and their galleys! — with us.
Thank you to the authors who are here. We’re thrilled and honored that you’ve joined us.
Thank you to the many business partners who are here investing in our industry.
Thank you to the booksellers who are serving on panels, facilitating idea exchanges, hosting buses, moderating conversations, and sharing their expertise and experiences with all of us. As a nonprofit trade association, members helping members makes this event possible.
Thank you to the ABA staff. This conference is absolutely a labor of love for our team, but it’s a helluva lot of labor. I’m grateful to the ABA team for the hard work, creativity, and perseverance that they’ve demonstrated all these months leading up to today. Please be patient with them and kind to them as we cross the finish line this week. I know I speak for all of us when I say that seeing you here this morning, it’s been worth it.
And, finally, thank you to our opening keynote speaker who I’d like to introduce you to now . . .
James Rhee is a business guy. He has degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law. He’s the CEO and founder of FirePine Group, a family-office impact investment platform. He serves as the Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship at Howard University and the Executive in Residence and Strategic Adviser at the MIT Leadership Center.
The National Retail Federation awarded James the prestigious Power Player designation — which sounds a lot like Power Ranger, and is kind of a superhero designation — the NRF gives this honor to individuals most impacting the future of retail.
But as you can probably tell from the name of his book, James is not your typical business guy. He’s a former high school teacher. His career in the private equity world has focused on brand, capital, and human intersectionality. He teaches kindness as a business principle. He serves on the Executive Committee of Conscious Capitalism and is a 2022 recipient of the New York Urban League's Frederick Douglass Award.
And now, he’s an author. His book is called red helicopter — a parable for our times — lead change with kindness (plus a little math) and it comes out in April with Harper One, helping them live up to the mission you know them for, of sharing ideas that “transform, inspire, change lives, and influence cultural discussions.”
James Rhee is here today to do all of that and more. Please join me in welcoming him to the stage.