NCIBA and UMBA Trade Shows This Weekend

The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) and Upper Midwest Booksellers Association (UMBA) fall trade shows will be held from Friday, October 1 - Sunday, October 3, in Oakland, California, and St. Paul, Minnesota, respectively. At each, ABA is sponsoring educational programs and featuring Book Sense Gift Card demonstrations in a booth on the trade show floor.

This year, ABA and NCIBA will be exhibiting together on the trade show floor at the Oakland Convention Center/Oakland Marriott in Oakland. At UMBA's show at the RiverCenter, ABA will have its own booth, but at both shows the emphasis will be on Book Sense gift cards. In addition to presenting gift card demonstrations, ABA staff will be seeking bookseller input to help guide the direction of future educational programming.

ABA-sponsored sessions at NCIBA on Friday, October 1, are "The 2% Solution" from 10:00 a.m. - noon and "Guerrilla Marketing for Independent Booksellers With Jay Conrad Levinson" from 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. On Saturday, October 2, a Book Sense Gift Card Users Group will meet 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., and a BookSense.com Users Group will meet from 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. (For complete details, click here.)

At UMBA, ABA is sponsoring a Book Sense Gift Card Users Group on Saturday, October 2, from noon - 1:00 p.m. (For complete details, click here.)

As an incentive to try the gift card, ABA will waive the one-time $25 set-up fee for booksellers signing up at the shows. (Booksellers planning to sign up at the show will need to bring their checking account information. For more details about Book Sense gift cards, click here.)

Booksellers dropping off the "ABA Education 2005 Survey" -- which was sent to members via e-mail and can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking here -- at the ABA booth will be entered into a sweepstakes to win a color, inkjet computer printer. Survey forms will also be available at the booth.