ABA to Meet With Booksellers in Chicago Next Week

ABA Board members and senior staff will be in Chicago on Thursday, January 15, to meet with booksellers in the Great Lakes region. The ABA Booksellers Forum, held in conjunction with the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, will convene at the Allerton Crowne Plaza, the Hotel ABA/Chicago for BookExpo America 2004, located at 701 North Michigan Avenue (corner of Michigan & Huron).

The forum will provide booksellers with the opportunity to ask questions, express opinions, and hear about ABA's activities and plans for the future, including Book Sense at Five, celebrations to mark the fifth birthday of Book Sense. Input from forum attendees will be used by the association to develop future programs and initiatives that best serve the needs of all booksellers.

Representing ABA at the forum will be President Ann Christophersen of Women & Children First in Chicago and Board member Karl Pohrt of Shaman Drum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as well as ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher.

The roughly half-day of programming (from 11:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.) will begin with a Book Sense gift card demonstration, explaining how the gift card works and how easy it is to get started. The presentation will include specific case studies of bookstores' experiences this past holiday season when stores converted from paper to plastic.

The gift card demonstration will be followed by an open forum, from noon - 1:45 p.m., at which booksellers are invited to discuss whatever issues are on their minds relating to ABA, Book Sense, bookselling in general, and more. Lunch will be provided.

Immediately following the forum, from 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., Domnitz will be available for one-on-one meetings with booksellers to demonstrate how easy it is to submit financial information to the ABACUS study, which participants have found to be an invaluable tool in their efforts to improve store operations. (For more information about ABACUS, click here. Booksellers wishing to schedule a meeting with Domnitz should send an e-mail to [email protected].)

Booksellers planning to attend the forum are asked to RSVP to Kristen Gilligan at ABA at (800) 637-0037, ext. 1286 or at [email protected].

A second Booksellers Forum in the Great Lakes region will be held on Tuesday, March 30, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Details will be provided in an upcoming issue of Bookselling This Week and in an e-mail from ABA to area booksellers.

For the complete schedule of this season's ABA Booksellers Forums, click here.