Spring Forum Education Refocuses on the New Localism

In response to booksellers’ feedback at Winter Institute 11, the American Booksellers Association’s Spring Forums will now feature a new education session based on the Civic Economics report “Amazon and Empty Storefronts: The Fiscal and Land Use Impact of Online Retail,” released during last month’s education event in Denver, and the related featured session on the New Localism.

Data from the study, which was commissioned by ABA, suggests that the localism movement is now at a transition point, and that indie booksellers, indie retailers, and their colleagues in the Shop Local/Local First movement have an opportunity to refocus their efforts and bring about real change in public policy and perception. During the session “Indie Bookstores and the New Localism: What You Can Do,” ABA will report on the study’s findings and provide important resources and data to empower everyone connected with independent bookselling to communicate the “new” localism message to colleagues, customers, community members, elected officials, and the media.

“Indie Bookstores and the New Localism” will be presented at each of ABA’s nine spring Booksellers Forums, to be held between March 1 and April 19 in locations across the country. Each will also provide booksellers — ABA members and non-members alike — with the opportunity to discuss and share their concerns, questions, and ideas with their colleagues and with ABA staff.

Here’s are the dates and locations for the 2016 Spring Forum season; watch for more details in upcoming editions of Bookselling This Week.

• Tuesday and Wednesday, March 1–2: At the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, Georgia; with the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
• Friday, March 4: In Portland, Oregon; with the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
• Sunday, March 6: At the Beverly Garland Hotel in Los Angeles, California; with the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association
• Monday, March 14: Chicago, Illinois; with the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association
• Wednesday, March 16: At the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, Minnesota; with the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association
• Friday, March 18: Boston, Massachusetts; with the New England Independent Booksellers Association’s All About the Books
• Friday, April 8: Boulder, Colorado, with the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
• Sunday, April 10: San Francisco, California, with the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
• Tuesday, April 19: At the office of Arent Fox, New York, New York, with the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association