Meet ABA’s Education Development Team

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

In this installment of Bookselling This Week’s series profiling American Booksellers Association staff, we introduce the education development team, which consists of Education Manager Lisa Winn and ABC Group Manager Matthew Zoni.

In her role as education manager, Winn develops educational programming for Winter Institute, the fall regional shows, the Spring Forums, and other events.

“The whole scale of education at ABA has changed over the years,” said Winn, who started at the organization nine years ago, “And, overall, our year-long education calendar keeps growing. It’s exciting to see.”


Lisa Winn

For instance, this fall, ABA is offering a human resources education workshop with Dr. John Sherlock, whose HR session at Winter Institute 10 in Asheville, North Carolina, was very well received by booksellers, Winn said. (There is still time to sign up for the seminars, which will be offered in conjunction with the PNBA and NEIBA regional trade shows.)

Winn’s preparations for each year’s Winter Institute begin practically from the moment the prior one ends. In addition to keeping a running list of ideas and feedback gleaned from ABA staff’s interactions with booksellers throughout the year, Winn uses information from the post-Winter Institute online questionnaire and post-session evaluation sheets.

The bookseller members on ABA’s Education Task Force also suggest topics based on what is happening in the retail and bookselling environment, plus possible bookseller panelists. “We talk to the Task Force about different ideas we have about how to structure the sessions, and then they give us feedback and share their own ideas, so you end up getting this great big pool of session ideas and topics,” said Winn.

In addition, site visits to an institute’s host city allow Winn to meet with local small business associations and merchants, who also offer their thoughts on possible presenters and panelists living in the surrounding area.

Leading up to an event, Winn has multiple phone conversations with presenters to talk about the content of their presentations, and, once the event rolls around, she is the one who puts together the majority of the speakers’ PowerPoint presentations.

Winn said her job description as education manager also includes environmental scanning of the retail sector, research that has spawned new educational programs on topics that are trending in the general retail business world; sessions on omni-channel marketing, data security, and paid social media are scheduled for this year’s Winter Institute 11 in Denver, Colorado.

Prior to ABA, Winn worked at Farley’s Bookshop in New Hope, Pennsylvania, for three years. “Farley’s Bookshop is a great community store, and during my time there I had the privilege of working with some of the smartest people I know,” Winn said.  

Winn, who has a bachelor’s degree in English, had previously worked at nonprofits, in marketing, and as an economic writer for an international real estate company.

Booksellers should contact Winn to share suggestions for new educational programming and if they have expertise in a certain area and would like to be panelist.

“We’re always trying to find new participants for sessions, so anybody who has never presented before and thinks they would like to do it should definitely contact me,” said Winn.

Winn can be reached at (800) 637-0037, x7557, or [email protected].


Matthew Zoni

Upon taking over management of the ABC Children’s Group at ABA in 2013, Matthew Zoni was tasked with organizing the first stand-alone ABC Children’s Institute, which was held in San Antonio, Texas, in 2014 and drew 130 booksellers; the following institute, in Pasadena, California, increased the number of participants to 190.

“When I came in, we had the date and the hotel for the Children’s Institute [in San Antonio] and that was it, so we had to put the program together pretty quickly so we could open registration,” said Zoni.

In his position as ABC Group Manager, Zoni oversees all children’s educational programming at Winter Institute, which usually comprises four sessions; any children’s education at the fall regional trade shows and Spring Forums; and children’s programming for BookExpo America, where he coordinates the ABC/CBC Speed Dating Lunch With Children’s Book Authors and the ABC/CBC Tea With Children’s Book Authors & Illustrators.

Like Winn, Zoni works with the Education Task Force to determine the education topics, as well as the ABC Advisory Council, which offers direction on education and all matters concerning the ABC Group.  He also reviews previous session evaluations and post-event surveys for potential topics, and puts out a call to booksellers for presenters and panelists. Once the session topics are locked down, he engages in multiple conference calls to develop and review content with the presenters.

Zoni said he enjoys knowing that booksellers often put what they learn at Children’s Institute to use. “It’s really gratifying to hear that the sessions we do are connecting with people. They’ll share stories with us about going back to their stores and implementing a lot of the ideas. That’s very rewarding to know that we are a part of that,” he said.

Zoni’s previous job at Barnes & Noble, where he spent 13 years in event marketing and business development, involved working with authors and customers; coordinating with schools on bulk sales, store field trips, and book fairs; and handling institutional and business-to-business sales and community relations.

“I think at Barnes & Noble, when I started gravitating more toward working with kids’ books, it coincided with me having a child of my own,” Zoni said. “Now I see firsthand the importance of books for children and how they can help them grow and learn, and help with their development.”

Zoni’s job description at ABA also includes producing the annual ABC Best Books for Young Readers Catalog. This involves gathering more than 200 book recommendation submissions from booksellers to create a curated list for customer use, and then negotiating support from publishers for those books.

As his tenure at ABA continues, Zoni said he wants to grow Children’s Institute and expand programming for ABC members. He also plans to resume ABC’s annual summer reading program for 2016 and into the future.

Zoni can be reached at (800) 637-0037, x7551, or [email protected]

Categories: