Today the American Booksellers Association provides a first look at programming for its ninth annual Day of Education, to be held on Monday, May 23, at BookExpo America. The Day of Education at BEA is sponsored by the Ingram Content Group.

This year, the ABA program spotlights children’s bookselling, with educational sessions and panels on such topics as turning mind share into market share in the children’s market, creating events for children, and reaching the YA audience.

The schedule also features programming for general booksellers, including beginner and advanced e-books sessions, panels on strategic thinking, effective marketing, a review of the latest ABACUS data, a session on how to increase nonfiction sales, and more.

The programming at the Day of Education is targeted to ABA indie bookstore members, but it is open to all BEA attendees. To register for BEA, visit the BookExpo America website.

Additional ABA programming, to be held at the convention center on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 24 - 25, includes a Users Group Meeting for ABA IndieCommerce stores, the ABA Town Hall and Annual Membership meetings, and more. Read upcoming editions of Bookselling This Week for ongoing BEA coverage, including an announcement the Day of Education plenary speakers.

In addition, the winners of the inaugural Indies Choice Book Awards will be honored at the Celebration of Bookselling Author Awards Luncheon also on Tuesday, May 24, which is open exclusively to booksellers at ABA member stores. (Registration is required.)

All ABA Regular Bookstore and Provisional members that register for BEA 2011 are eligible for a number of free badges. (Details of the free badge offer are available to members here.)

The Holiday Inn on 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan was secured by BEA exclusively for ABA bookseller members. The special low rate for ABA bookseller members ($175 for one or two beds, single or double occupancy; $190 for triple occupancy; and $205 for a quad) is good until May 3, 2011. (Learn more about the hotel and obtain the ABA member booking code here; other hotel options are available via the BEA website.)

To see a grid of the schedule below, click here.

2011 ABA Day of Education at BEA

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, NY
(As of 3/31/2011)

Monday, May 23, 2011

8:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.

Opening Plenary: Yet to be announced (1E13/1E14)

10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Small & Mid-Size Store Roundtable (Room 1E06)
A veteran bookseller will moderate this roundtable discussion for owners and managers of small to mid-size stores. Come and learn from each other! This session is open to booksellers only. Space is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.

·         Moderated by Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books (Mystic, CT)

E-Books 101 (Room 1E09)
Are you lost in the e-book woods? You are not alone! Come to this beginner-level discussion about the rapidly evolving digital marketplace. This session is for booksellers who need basic answers about what e-books are, how they are used, and why they matter.

·         Presented by Len Vlahos, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)

E-Books 201 (Room 1E10)
If you are actively selling, marketing, or promoting e-books, creating events around them, or otherwise interacting with your community through e-books, this conversation is for you! Come for the latest updates on Google eBooks (TM), e-readers, and apps, and how to sell digital. This session will be co-presented by an ABA member bookseller and a member of ABA staff.

·         Matt Supko, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)

·         Matt Norcross, McLean & Eakin Booksellers, (Petoskey, MI)

How to Create New Business Models Through Strategic Thinking (Room 1E11)
From the creation of new publishing ventures and stores within stores to offering space for community classes and more, indie booksellers are using their ingenuity and their roots in the community to develop models that enable them to sustain book sales. This process involves recognizing opportunity and using strategic thinking. This session will walk you through the strategic thinking process and provide you with the tools to plan new ventures. 

·         Moderated by Oren Teicher, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)

·         Chris Morrow, Northshire Books (Manchester Center, VT)

·         Panelist to come

Conversion Strategies for Turning Mind Share into Market Share (Room 1E12)
The recently released Bowker/PubTrack survey highlighted that independent children’s booksellers are highly prized for their knowledge of children’s books, yet overall sales continue to erode as other channels capture consumer dollars. This session will focus on how to improve your chances of both capturing sales while customers are in the store and closing the mind share/market share gap.

·         Moderated by Kristen McLean, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)

·         Diane Capriola, Little Shop of Stories (Decatur, GA)

·         Panelist to come

12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Large-Store Roundtable (Room 1E06)
A veteran bookseller will moderate this roundtable discussion for owners and managers of large stores. Come and learn from each other! This session is open to booksellers only. Space is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.

                      ·         Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Book Store (Denver, CO)

Reimagining Your Store (Room 1E09)
Learn how to organize your store to best meet customer needs in the 21st century. Topics include layout, signage and other visual cues, merchandising, staff expectations, technology, and more.

·         Moderated by Len Vlahos, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)

·         Jonah Zimiles, Words (Maplewood, NJ)

·         Chuck Robinson, Village Books (Bellingham, WA)

Free for the Asking: Marketing With PR & Social Media (Room 1E10)
Putting your store in the media spotlight and keeping it there does not have to cost a lot of money. In fact, it does not have to cost anything at all beyond the usual staff hours. This session will focus on how to take advantage of free media outlets to market and promote your store.

·         Moderated by Meg Smith, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)

·         Jarek Steele, Left Bank Books (Saint Louis, MO)

·         Rob Dougherty, Cliton Bookshop (Clinton, NJ)

Selling Non-book in the Children’s Department (Room 1E11)
Creativity is the key! This panel discussion will touch on how non-book items can be sold through creative merchandising, marketing, and events. A few top-selling items will be displayed.

·         Moderated by Becky Anderson, Anderson’s Bookshop (Naperville, IL)

·         Beth Puffer, Bank Street Bookstore (New York, NY)

·         Panelist to come

Creating Events for Children (Room 1E12)
This session will leave you with a notebook full of creative ideas for kids events! It will provide a brief overview of best practices as well as an example of an outstanding event from start to finish. Attendees will also have the opportunity to break into groups to learn from each other, and will then come together for a room-wide discussion.

·         Cynthia Compton, 4 Kids Books (Indianapolis, IN)

2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

 Children’s Roundtable (Room 1E06)
A veteran children’s bookseller will moderate this roundtable discussion for store owners and managers of children’s sections. Come and learn from each other! Space is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.

·         Moderated by Shelly Plumb, Harleysville Books (Harleysville, PA)

Making Nonfiction Sexy (Room 1E09)
Is your store as popular among the gardening clubs, the history buffs, and science wonks as it is with literary connoisseurs? A panel will discuss how you can curate and merchandise nonfiction titles to increase sales and provide a unique in-store experience for your customers. 

·         Moderated by Oren Teicher, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)

·         Joe Foster, Above the Treeline, LLC (Ann Arbor, MI)

·         Anne Leyhe, Mrs. Dalloway’s, (Berkeley, CA)

Handselling (Room 1E10)
Handselling inolves so much more than having a creative sales pitch and a good personal manner (although both of those are vital). Come to this session for a brush-up on your handselling skills and a look at new ways to handsell in the digital age.

·         Moderated by Dan Cullen, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)

·         Suzanna Hermans, Oblong Books & Music (Rhinebeck, NY)

·         Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books and Cafe (Wichita, KS)

ABACUS Data Revealed (Room 1E11)
ABACUS is a survey of independent bookstore finances that creates benchmarks for the measurement of store operations. These benchmarks are invaluable in helping participating booksellers evaluate the relative health of their businesses. At this session, ABA Chief Operating Officer Len Vlahos will review the summary results from the 2010 ABACUS Survey (based on 2009 numbers), identify key drivers of profitability, and share lessons that can be learned by all booksellers. He will also discuss how booksellers can participate in the 2011 ABAUCS Survey.

·         Len Vlahos, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)                                         

The Digital Market and the YA Audience (Room 1E12)
The recently released Bowker/PubTrack survey tells us that there is a correlation between the YA audience’s use of social media and their consumption of digital books. Join a discussion exploring how booksellers can leverage this information to connect with their YA customers. 

·         Moderated by Kristen McLean, ABA (Tarrytown, NY)

·         Jacob Lewis (Figment.com)

·         Meghan Dietsche Goel, BookPeople (Austin, TX)

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

    Closing Plenary: Yet to be announced (1E13/1E14)

Questions about any of the ABA’s events or programs should be addressed to Lisa Winn via e-mail or at (914) 373-6657.