NCIBA Puts on an Upbeat Show in Oakland

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The 2003 Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) Trade Show was held at the Oakland Convention Center/City Center Marriott in Oakland, California, from October 3 - 5. Hut Landon, executive director of NCIBA, told BTW, "We were very pleased with the workshops and events at this year's show, which many booksellers called the best overall program we'd ever offered. Both ABA programs [Steve Bercu's presentation on the impact of locally owned businesses and the ABFFE/Privacy session] were well received, and our Moveable Feast, Jim McManus Poker Clinic, and a special appearance by Madeleine Albright were the talk of the show."

Alzada Knickerbocker, owner of The Avid Reader in Davis, California, and president of NCIBA, said of the show, "It was three days of rich offerings. The movable feast was a winner. It gives booksellers the chance to talk directly with authors. And people really enjoyed Madeleine Albright's presentation."

The first event of the trade show was the session "Economic Impact of Locally Owned Businesses" at 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning. Oren Teicher, ABA COO, moderated the discussion led by Bercu, who is the owner of BookPeople in Austin, Texas, and one of the driving forces behind the study "Economic Impact Analysis: A Case Study, Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers," conducted by Civic Economics for Liveable City and the Austin Independent Business Alliance. (To read the study, click here.)

At the show, Bercu revealed that new data is being developed to further bolster the report's findings that locally owned businesses contribute more to the community than do chain stores. (Watch for more on this in upcoming issues of BTW.)

"We had city officials from four different cities in the Bay Area who were invited by booksellers," said Landon of the session. "The three who I talked to were very impressed with the facts and figures. It's important that the people who make the decisions hear this information."

Bercu told BTW, "I thought [the session] went really well. There was a very lively discussion. Some city council members in attendance ... asked incisive questions, because, of course, they know city council issues that most of us don't. They were good -- they pointed us in really good directions and, I think, they got us to talk about things we might have glossed over as booksellers."

Judith Timmel, manager of Discovery Corner Store at the University of California, Berkeley, remarked that the economic impact session was "very important and really heartening. It's a topic of interest to everyone. My store is owned by the university, so it doesn’t apply to my business personally, but it does apply to the entire community."

At the ABA/Book Sense booth, attendees participated in a hands-on demonstration of the new electronic Book Sense Gift Card Program. Booksellers who participated in the demonstrations or who brought a photo of a recent Book Sense display had the chance to win a free gift card training session and a color inkjet printer. Book Works in Pacific Grove, California, was the Grand Prize winner of a free gift card training session and the printer; Bookshelf Stores in Quincy, California, won a free gift card training session.

The Avid Reader's Knickerbocker said she was "very enthusiastic about the gift card program. Gift cards are in the marketplace now. And you can have them right at the register to catch people's eyes; the paper gift certificates we have to keep behind the counter. It's a great solution for gift giving."

At noon on Friday was the annual author lunch. The luncheon featured Elisabeth Robinson, author of The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters (Little, Brown), and Amy Stewart, author of The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of the Earthworms (Algonquin) -- and a demonstration of Worm Cam.

The afternoon sessions included a well-attended ABFFE workshop on customer privacy, moderated by ABA's Teicher, featuring author Christian Parenti (The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America From Slavery to the War on Terror, Basic Books) and the screening of the documentary film Reading Your Rights, about the Tattered Cover's fight to protect customer privacy.

Friday programming ended with the NCIBA Welcome Reception hosted by Sasha Cagan, author of QuirkyAlone: A New Idea About Being Single, coming in January from HarperSanFrancisco, followed by a poker clinic featuring Jim McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street (FSG).

New, on Saturday morning, was the Author Breakfast with Sara Paretsky (Blacklist: A V.I. Warshawski Novel, Putnam); Jonathan Raban (Waxwings, Pantheon); and Mark Kurlansky (1968: The Year That Rocked the World, Ballantine). Later that day, at "Tea at Two," former secretary of state Madeleine Albright discussed her book and hosted a Q&A session with an audience of 150 booksellers. Attendees received an autographed copy of Madam Secretary at the door in exchange for a $1 donation to ABFFE.

At 4:00 p.m. was the NCIBA General Membership Meeting where, Landon said, the association's activities and priorities were discussed, including NCIBA's commitment to promoting the Book Sense gift cards.

At the second annual "Moveable Feast" on Saturday evening, booksellers were able to mingle with guest authors, who moved from table to table. The dinner featured Sena Jeter Naslund (Four Spirits, William Morrow); Jonathan Lethem (Fortress of Solitude, Doubleday); James Carroll (Secret Father, Houghton Mifflin); Caroline Alexander (The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, Viking); Ayelet Waldman (Daughters Keeper, Sourcebooks); Michael Perry (Population: 485, HarperPerennial); Frances Itani (Deafening, Atlantic Monthly); Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Travelers Wife, MacAdam/Cage); Julie Orringer (How to Breathe Underwater, Knopf); Kara Swisher (There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere, Crown Business); Joel ben Izzy (The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness, Algonquin); and Mark Arrax (co-author of The King of California, PublicAffairs).

On Sunday, October 5, the Children's Author Breakfast included Tomie dePaola (Trouble in the Barker's Class, Putnam); Jon Agee (Z Goes Home, Hyperion); and Jim LaMarche (The Elves and the Shoemaker, Chronicle).

Sunday afternoon's "Cookbook Celebration" was a favorite of booksellers who tasted recipes from some of this fall’s selection of cookbooks. "The food thing was fabulous," said Timmel. "Chefs prepared a dish from each cookbook. It was really a fabulous thing to do."

Overall, Landon said that, despite lower numbers on the trade show floor, "exhibitors were sanguine and … upbeat. Several commented that they had more time for conversations with booksellers and many were pleased with the orders that were placed." --Karen Schechner