GLBA Fall Trade Show Preview

The Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA) Trade Show will be held October 3 - 5 at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Michigan. The show will feature a broad range of educational programming, author events, and games of skill and chance.

Jim Dana, executive director of GLBA, recently spoke to BTW about his expectations for this year's show. "We're hoping to hold even this year," Dana explained. "Last year was very successful, and there seems to be a lot of excitement about some of the new events we're doing this year, so we think all of that will help draw attendees. At the same time, it's been a tough year economically for the industry from top to bottom, so that's resulting in some belt-tightening. We're hoping the two factors balance each other out."

On Friday, October 3, from 10:30 a.m. - 11:20 a.m. ABA programming at the show begins with an introduction to the new electronic Book Sense Gift Card Program; Nielsen BookScan, the most advanced and efficient way to report sales to the Book Sense Bestseller Lists; and other new technologies for booksellers. Rita Williams of Books of Aurora in Aurora, Ohio, will moderate. Panelists will be Liz Murphy of the Learned Owl Book Shop in Hudson, Ohio; Book Sense Marketing Director Mark Nichols; Nielsen BookScan's David Lopez; and Christian Waters of Random House.

Later the same day, from 2:30 p.m. - 3:20 p.m., ABA's information technology director, Jeff Wexler, will present "ABACUS: Year One." This session will address important trends among bookstores. The ABACUS study contains rich data that shows the financial performance of almost 200 participating stores, as well as "data slices" grouped by profitability levels, sales levels, area of the country, and much more. Close attention will be paid to those drivers of success that are so clearly revealed by the study's results.

Also on Friday, from 3:30 p.m. - 4:20 p.m., Nichols will moderate a discussion about the new BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program. Through the reimbursement program, booksellers with BookSense.com Web sites can earn newsletter co-op dollars by featuring participating publishers' titles, both online and in stores. Attendees will also learn about an easy way to offset the cost of maintaining their Web sites. A Q&A session will follow a brief presentation.

On Saturday, at the ABA/Book Sense booth, attendees can participate in a hands-on demonstration of the new electronic Book Sense Gift Card program. Booksellers receiving a demo will automatically be entered into a raffle to win a free $50 gift card training session and a color inkjet printer. (This is the same printer that ABA offers at a discounted price through its business affinity program with CDW. For more details on purchasing one of these printers, click here). For a second chance at winning the training session, booksellers should bring a recent photo of a Book Sense 76 display (with store name, address, phone number, and contact name printed on the back).

GLBA has many special events planned for the three days of the show. New this year are a team spelling bee, sponsored by American Heritage, and Late-Nite Poker with Jim McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street (FSG), the bestseller about the 2000 World Series of Poker.

The annual Great Lakes Book Awards Presentation will be held on Friday, October 3, at 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. The presentation is GLBA's celebration of the best of the previous year's writing about the Great Lakes region. The winning authors will be present and will autograph following the luncheon.

Also of note is GLBA's third annual "moveable" Author's Feast. Approximately 25 authors will participate in the event on Friday, starting at 7:30 p.m., where the keynote speaker will be Mitch Albom (The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Hyperion). There will be an author at each table who will change tables as the dinner courses change. In addition to the chance to talk with favorite authors, attendees will receive many signed books.

GLBA members are invited to Breakfast with the Board at the GLBA Annual and Town meetings from 8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. on Saturday, October 4. Among the items on the agenda are the introduction of new board members and officers; a review of the annual report; a revision of GLBA's strategic plan; and time for a discussion among booksellers.

At 6:15 p.m. on Saturday, attendees are invited to the New Voices Reading Room to hear author Larry Watson (Orchard, Random House) and others to be announced.

Following the Reading Room, an Author & Rep Reception will be held prior to the Booksellers Banquet, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Authors featured at the banquet are Haven Kimmel (Something Rising -- Light and Swift, The Free Press); Jacqueline Mitchard (Christmas, Present, HarperCollins), and Chris Bohjalian (Idyll Banter, Random House). The Get Caught Reading Photo Contest Recognition Ceremony will also be held during the banquet. Winners of the contest will be recognized, and the "Readers of the Great Lakes" poster will be unveiled.

Tickets are required for the Friday Book Awards Luncheon, the Author's Feast, and the Booksellers Banquet.

Educational programming will be based on the theme "If It Niches, Scratch It," said Dana. "So we have seminars on some of the newer niches, like graphic novels and DVDs, as well as traditional ones like mysteries." Educational programming begins on Friday, at 8:30 a.m. at the First-Timers Breakfast, where newcomers can find out what the show has to offer and how best to take advantage of it.

Dana also described the trade show's focus on new techniques for bookselling, which will be featured in the opening session "Ideas That Work." Dana said of the session, "We'll be devoting considerable time this year, as usual, to bookselling technology. One of our panels will cover the new Book Sense electronic gift cards, BookScan, and other new technologies. We're also doing a seminar on ABACUS and on the BookSense.com co-op program. We're going to be using our technology to aid in our grassroots efforts on issues like the Patriot Act and sales tax equity. We intend to have a Grassroots Cafe, where attendees can fax and/or e-mail messages to their elected representatives at both the state and federal levels."

A highlight of Sunday's programming will be "From Monica to the Patriot Act: Customer Privacy Today," from 10:00 a.m. - 10:50 a.m., moderated by Chris Finan, president of American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. Finan will address customer privacy as one of the most important First Amendment issues to confront booksellers. From Kenneth Starr's efforts to obtain Monica Lewinsky's book purchase records to the Tattered Cover Book Store's two-year fight against a search warrant seeking customer information, Finan will discuss the evolution of customer privacy issues.

Also on Sunday is "Plenary Session: Creating New Readers" at 11:00 a.m. Featured authors Esme Raji Codell (How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, Algonquin) and Nancy Pearl, (Book Lust, Sasquatch) will discuss the chronic challenge of the bookselling industry--how to create new readers.

For complete, up-to-date information, contact GLBA at (800) 745-2460; [email protected]; or visit www.books-glba.org.