UMBA Presents Two Days of Exhibits and an Abundance of Authors and Educational Events

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The Upper Midwest Booksellers Association (UMBA) held its 2003 fall trade show from Friday, October 10, to Sunday, October 12, at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minneapolis. All education programming was free, and the number of bookstores represented was the highest in years.

A highlight of the trade show was the UMBA Welcome Reception held on the riverboat "Betsey Northrup" on the Mississippi River. "The show ran very smoothly," said UMBA Executive Director Susan Walker. "We had our Friday night welcome party on a riverboat. Everybody said that was great. It was a beautiful night to float down the Mississippi, a really fun party. And we had wonderful book and author events."

Walker also told BTW that booksellers were pleased that the UMBA trade show is back to having the trade show floor open for two days instead of one long day and that "a vast majority of exhibitors chose to stay for both days."

Coleen Harty, who opened Invest in Yourself in Middleton, Wisconsin, seven months ago, said she loved the trade show and the educational programming. Harty, who had already signed up for the new Book Sense Gift Card Program, visited the ABA booth to see a live demonstration of different features of the card program. "I'd already visited the Web site, so I had an idea of how the gift cards worked, but Jeff Wexler [ABA's information technology director] did a great job of explaining how to track unredeemed cards. It was very helpful."

ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz presents ABACUS study results.

An overview of ABA's 2003 ABACUS study was featured on Friday, presented by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, who explained 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. (For more on the ABACUS study, click here.)

In the afternoon on Friday, ABA staff and Nielsen BookScan representatives held the seminar "Technology Tools and Resources for Independent Bookseller," which covered many of the important technological needs of booksellers. ABA Marketing Director Jill Perlstein discussed features of ABA's new Book Sense Gift Card Program, and ABA's Wexler presented an overview of basic computer techniques, the electronic ABA Book Buyer's Handbook, online discussion forums, BookSense.com, and methods of reporting to the Book Sense Bestseller List. About Perlstein's explanation of the gift card program, Sandra Torkildson of A Room of One's Own in Madison, Wisconsin , said, "The stuff about the gift card, and what was involved, was easier to understand than at BEA. The seminar eliminated all fears about it being overly complicated."

ABA Information Technology Director Jeff Wexler (right) talking about the gift card program to John Bennett of Bennett Books in Wyckoff, New Jersey, who was at the show in conjunction with the ABA Board meeting.

Anita Zager of Northern Lights Books & Gifts in Duluth, Minnesota, said she was "most excited about the gift card program" and enrolled after attending the "Technology Tools" seminar.

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. Bookin' It in Little Falls, Minnesota, was the Grand Prize winner of a free gift card training session and the printer; Fishing with Your Mind in Walker, Minnesota, won a free gift card training session.

Friday programming also included presentations by four well-known guest authors with tested strategies to improve productivity, increase sales, and marketing skills. Presenters included 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); Jeffrey Stamp, co-author, with Doug Hall, of Meaningful Marketing: Selling More With Less Effort (F&W/Betterway); and James J. Farrell, author of One Nation Under Goods: Malls and the Seductions of American Shopping (Smithsonian Books). Bookseller Harty told BTW that she found the marketing seminars especially useful, particularly Stamp's "Meaningful Marketing," which explained how people who believe they know a subject well often learn the least about it when presented with new information pertaining to that subject. Stamp then applied this concept to redressing common misconceptions about marketing tactics.

On Saturday morning UMBA held its 12th Annual UMBA Book & Author Breakfast, this year celebrating Midwest authors. Appearing were Roger A. MacDonald (A Country Doctor's Casebook: Tales From the North Woods, Minnesota Historical Society Press), Shannon Olson (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).

At the general UMBA membership meeting, members discussed the new winter catalog, and ABA President Ann Christophersen of Women & Children First in Chicago introduced her fellow Board members and ABA staff, who were in the Twin Cities for an ABA Board meeting. Christophersen presented an update on ABA programs, including the new electronic gift card program.

Later Saturday night, the UMBA Book & Author Dinner was held at the Radisson Riverfront Hotel. The event began with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. The evening's theme was "a world of things imagined, myth and mystery." Guest authors were Thomas Cahill (Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday), Diana Gabaldon (Lord John and the Private Matter, Delacorte), Malachy McCourt (The Claddagh Ring: Ireland's Cherished Symbol of Friendship, Loyalty, and Love, Running Press), Anne Perry (No Graves As Yet, Ballantine), and Walter Wangerin, Jr. (The Crying for a Vision, Paraclete). Attendance for the dinner was very high, with about 170 - 180 attendees. Anita Zager told BTW that "each author had something important to say in some way regarding current world events -- everything from the Patriot Act, to how we're all going to get along, to understanding world religions, and access to accurate information."

The 17th Annual Children's Book and Author Breakfast was also well attended, and Walker reported that there was an audience of about 300. Esmé Raji Codell (How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, Algonquin, and Sahara Special, Hyperion) joined 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). Zager said all the speakers were humorous and poignant and that the event on the whole was "wonderful."

Jacquelyn Mitchard (Christmas, Present, HarperCollins) was the keynote speaker at the noon Second Annual Authors Lunch: A Moveable Feast. Twenty-four authors moved in pairs from table to table, sitting with booksellers for conversation and lunch. Participating authors included Kathleen Duey, (X-Men Ultmate Picture Book, Big Guy Books), Joyce Sidman (The World According to Dog: Poems and Teen Voices, Houghton Mifflin), and Sharon Kay Penman (Dragon's Lair, Putnam/Penguin).

In summing up the show, Walker reported that "people were pleased. Walking around the trade show floor there were lots of compliments from booksellers and publishers. A number of people said it was the best UMBA trade show they'd been to in years." --Karen Schechner