NEBA Fall Trade Show Preview

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If advance hotel reservations are any indication, this year's New England Booksellers Association Annual Meeting & Trade Show will boast very robust attendance. The show, NEBA's 30th, will be held in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Rhode Island Convention Center from October 24 - 26. The trade show floor will be open from 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. on Sunday. 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. For a second chance at winning, 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).

According to NEBA executive director Rusty Drugan, "Hotels are close to booked up well before the October 1 deadline. We're expecting a full show with a plethora of new exhibitors. We have an extra large contingent of authors. We're up to 15 for the Saturday night dinner; at 90, all of the autographing spots are full. This year we're adding an ABA Open Forum right after the NEBA Annual Meeting on Saturday, and we're delighted to have Doris Kearns Goodwin accept our President's Award from Linda Ramsdell at the Industry Luncheon." Drugan also mentioned a comprehensive BookScan presentation and a review of ABACUS, Year One.

Show registration and educational programming begin at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning. Booksellers can learn proven ways to multiply the impact of every dollar and hour spent on sales and marketing at a day-long workshop with Doug Hall and Jeffrey Stamp, dynamic authors of Meaningful Marketing: Selling More With Less Effort (F&W Publications).

All attendees are encouraged to purchase required advance tickets for the much-anticipated industry luncheon scheduled for noon on Friday. Keynote speakers are Robert D. Putnam and Lewis M. Feldstein, authors of the forthcoming Better Together: Restoring the American Community (Simon & Schuster). Doris Kearns Goodwin, eminent historian and winner of the 1995 New England Book Award for Nonfiction, will receive the President's Award for her lifetime contribution to arts and letters at the event. Goodwin is currently working on a biography of President Lincoln to be published by Simon & Schuster. Also presented will be the Gilman Award for outstanding service as sales representatives to the New England Random House sales force, collectively.

Friday evening's main event is the Children's Books Author/Illustrator Dinner in the Westin Hotel. Advance tickets are required for the dinner with guest speakers Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 3: Lucinda's Secret, S&S), Jim LaMarche (The Elves and the Shoemaker, Chronicle), and Walter Dean Myers (The Beast, Scholastic).

Saturday's programming begins with the Breakfast With Authors featuring Caroline Alexander (The Bounty, Viking), Tracy Kidder (Mountains Beyond Mountains, Random House), and Jonathan Lethem (The Fortress of Solitude, Doubleday). Advance tickets are required.

At 10:15 a.m., booksellers can spend an hour with Ivan Barkhorn, a partner at the Meridian Strategy Group and a consultant to ABA on strategic matters, and bookseller Fran Keilty, who will lead "Succession Planning II: Business Valuation." This session is being presented at the request of participants in "Basic Succession Planning," presented at last year's show. Those who bring year-end income statements and balance sheet can learn to value their businesses via several appraisal methods. Advance tickets are required.

At 11:30 a.m., Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, will moderate an hour- long session on the Freedom to Read Protection Act. The bill, sponsored by Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders, seeks to restore the privacy of library and bookstore records that was taken away by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

On Saturday afternoon, from 12:45 p.m. - 1:15 p.m., is the first of two presentations of "Book Scan: The Next Chapter in the Industry." The session, which will be repeated on Sunday from 10:15 - 10:45 a.m., features Ruth Leibmann, director of independent bookselling at Random House, Susan Taylor of Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and moderator Chris Muratore, director of retail relations, Nielsen BookScan. Attendees will learn about the ease and benefits of reporting to BookScan.

From 1:15 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., the New England Children's Booksellers Advisory Council (NECBA) will present "Connecting with Teachers & Librarians: How to Bring Schools Into Your Stores." The panel will feature librarians, educational marketing specialists, and booksellers. Immediately following will be the NECBA Annual Meeting.

The NEBA Annual Meeting will begin at 4:45 p.m. with the introduction of NEBA's new Board of Officers for the 2003-2005 term. Refreshments will be provided. At 5:30 p.m., ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, ABA Board member Suzy Staubach (UConn Co-op, Storrs, Connecticut), and Booksellers Advisory Council members Dale Szczeblowski (Concord Bookshop, Concord, Massachusetts) and Linda Ramsdell (Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, Vermont) will respond to questions and comments at the ABA Open Forum.

Saturday evening's Dinner With Authors will permit attendees to meet some of the 15 authors in attendance as they move from table to table. An assortment of five autographed books or galleys will be distributed. Authors include Khassan Baiev (The Oath: The Remarkable Story of a Surgeon's Life Under Fire in Chechnya, Walker), Cathleen Schine (She Is Me, Little, Brown), and Jane Yolen (The Radiation Sonnets, Algonquin). Advance tickets are required.

Sunday morning brings the presentation of the 2003 New England Book Award winners at the Breakfast With Authors. The awards have been given annually since 1990 to New England authors and publishers who have produced a body of work that stands as a significant contribution to New England culture. Recipients for 2003 are Lois Lowry in the children's category, Jodi Picoult for fiction, Simon Winchester for nonfiction, and Candlewick Press for Publishing. Advance tickets are required.

At 10:15 a.m., the BookScan session will be repeated, and, at 11:00 a.m., ABA CEO Domnitz will present the findings of the first year of the ABACUS study on the financial operations of independent bookstores using data from close to 200 booksellers. Close attention is paid to drivers of success identified in the study.

For the most up-to-date information and for registration, go to the NEBA Web site at www.newenglandbooks.org or call (800) 466-8711.