UMBA Fall Trade Show Preview

This year's Upper Midwest Booksellers Association (UMBA) Trade Show will be held from Friday, October 10 to Sunday, October 12, at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minneapolis. Exhibit hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. Education programming, all free this year, will be held on Friday.

UMBA executive director Susan Walker is looking forward to a "really impressive roster of presenters and bookseller panels," along with "a lineup of terrific authors and something new and exciting this year -- a three-hour cruise down the Mississippi on a riverboat. Ingram is sponsoring the event; FSG is providing a poker mini-tournament with its author, James McManus (Positively Fifth Street); and University of Minnesota Press will have authors of books on the river."

Friday's educational program features an overview of ABA's 2003 ABACUS study, at 2:00 p.m., presented by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, who will explain the results and their value to booksellers. The ABACUS study contains rich data that shows the financial performance of almost 200 participating stores, as well as "data slices" grouped by profitability levels, sales levels, and area of the country.

At 3:00 p.m. on Friday, ABA staff and Nielsen BookScan representatives will hold a special double session, complete with live demonstrations, covering many of the important technological needs of booksellers. Features of ABA's new Book Sense Gift Card Program will be explained by ABA Marketing Director Jill Perlstein, and ABA's information technology director, Jeff Wexler, will present an overview of basic computer techniques; ABA's Electronic Book Buyer's Handbook; online discussion forums; BookSense.com; and methods of reporting to the Book Sense Bestseller List.

Booksellers can participate in a hands-on demonstration of the new electronic Book Sense Gift Card program at the ABA/Book Sense booth on the trade show floor on Saturday and Sunday. Booksellers who attend a demonstration at the booth will automatically be entered into a raffle to win a free $50 gift card training session or 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).

Programming on Friday afternoon also includes presentations by three well-known guest authors with proven strategies to improve productivity, increase sales, and reduce stress. Presenters include Jack Mitchell, CEO of Mitchells/Richards clothing stores and author of Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results (Hyperion); David Allen, management consultant and author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (Viking/Penguin); and Jeffrey Stamp, co-author, with Doug Hall, of Meaningful Marketing: Selling More With Less Effort (F&W).

Panel discussions on relevant topics from buying carefully to handling returns cost effectively also run throughout the afternoon.

On Saturday, beginning at 7:30 a.m. will be the 12th Annual UMBA Book & Author Breakfast -- Celebrating Midwest Authors. Appearing will be Roger A. MacDonald (A Country Doctor's Casebook, Minnesota Historical Society Press); Shannon Olson (The Children of God Go Bowling, Viking/Penguin); Susan Allen Toth (Leaning Into the Wind: A Memoir of Midwest Weather, University of Minnesota Press); Larry Watson (Orchard, Random House); and Kathy-jo Wargin and Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen (The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell, Sleeping Bear Press). Advance ticket purchase is necessary for this event.

Before the show floor opens at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, there will be an hour-long general UMBA membership meeting, scheduled for 9:15 a.m. At the meeting, ABA's Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher will talk about Book Sense and BookSense.com, Internet sales tax initiatives, BookExpo America, and more. An update on the activities of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is also planned. All show attendees are welcome.

Walker told BTW that "booksellers can expect to find all the major players on the exhibit floor -- the commission sales groups, regional publishers, and major publishers." A change this year is the option for exhibitors to appear for Saturday only. Most exhibitors have opted to stay for both days, but a small group will leave at the close of the show floor on Saturday." Over 400 publishers and vendors at nearly 200 exhibit tables and booths will be on hand. A color-coded map will be distributed to guide visitors to publishers and other vendors in their designated day blocks. Formal autographing sessions will be held from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and 10:00 a.m. - noon on Sunday.

The UMBA Book & Author Dinner will be held at the Radisson Riverfront Hotel, just three blocks from RiverCentre. The event begins with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. Dinner tickets must be purchased in advance. General admission tickets are available for those who plan to come only for the speakers.

The evening's theme is "a world of things imagined, myth and mystery." Guest authors are Thomas Cahill (Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, Doubleday); Diana Gabaldon (Lord John and the Private Matter, Delacorte); Malachy McCourt (The Claddagh Ring: Ireland's Cherished Symbol of Friendship, Running Press); Anne Perry (No Graves As Yet, Ballantine); and Walter Wangerin Jr. (The Crying for a Vision, Paraclete).

Sunday morning from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. attendees will be treated to a sparkling line-up of authors at the 17th Annual Children's Book and Author Breakfast. Esmé Raji Codell (How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, Algonquin, and Sahara Special, Hyperion) joins Paula Danziger (Amber Brown Is Green With Envy, Penguin); Jane Dyer (Little Brown Bear Won't Go to School! Little, Brown); Kevin Henkes (Olive's Ocean, Greenwillow/HarperCollins); and Doug Wood (Old Turtle and the Broken Truth, Scholastic). (To read this week's BTW interview with Esmé Codell click here.)

Jacquelyn Mitchard (Christmas, Present, HarperCollins) will be the keynote speaker at the noon Second Annual Authors Lunch: A Moveable Feast. Over 20 authors will join booksellers for conversation and lunch. Authors will move in pairs from table to table, talking with booksellers for about 15 minutes per table.

For complete show information and registration, contact Susan Walker at (800) 784-7522, (612) 926-5868, or [email protected].