Booksellers who are registered for the 14th annual Winter Institute [6] in Albuquerque are encouraged to check out ABA’s Advanced Education Sessions, which feature real-life applications and practical tips for booksellers to use back at the store.

In “Developing Leaders in Your Store, with Alden Mills,” owners and managers will learn how to identify and train staff who will take on more, provide leadership for others, grow with the business, and represent the store in the community. Mills, a former Inc. 500 CEO, Navy SEAL, and author of Unstoppable Teams: The Four Essential Actions of High-Performance Leadership (HarperBusiness), will teach booksellers important strategies to develop store leaders who can think strategically, take initiative, and feel empowered to solve problems. Mills will also explain his C.A.R.E.-based model, which focuses on building relationships with customers, co-workers, and community. There will be two sessions of “Developing Leaders”:

• Developing Leaders in Your Store, with Alden Mills [7] (Thursday, January 24, 9:20 a.m. to 10:20 a.m.)
• Developing Leaders in Your Store, with Alden Mills [8] (Thursday, January 24, 3:40 p.m. to 4:40 p.m.)

These Advanced Education Sessions are for owners and managers only; space is limited and registration is first-come, first-served. Each ABA member company is limited to two AES participants. ABA will attempt to accommodate all interested stores with at least one AES placement; assignments will be e-mailed prior to the start of Winter Institute. Booksellers can pre-register for “Developing Leaders” here [9].

ABA’s other Advanced Education Sessions come in the form of three Small Business Management Seminars. The sessions are:

Staff Management and Human Resources [10] (Tuesday, January 22, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.)

Booksellers will learn ways to manage staff from different generations and understand their varying perspectives, which can be critical to fostering a successful and productive work environment. Topics will include the challenges of recruitment and retention as well as the dynamics involved in creating a diverse workforce representing multiple generations of employees. This session will be taught by Dr. Robert G. DelCampo, the inaugural executive director of the University of New Mexico Innovation Academy and current interim dean of University College at the University of New Mexico, whose research focuses on underrepresented members of the workforce and generational issues at work.

Pre-registration is required at a cost of $40 per person, and attendees must already be attending Wi14. Booksellers can register here [11].

Design for Strategic In-Store Merchandising [12] (Tuesday, January 22, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.)

This three-hour seminar is an intensive deep dive into key strategies and real-life applications of traditional and non-traditional visual merchandising (VM) techniques. Paula Taylor, owner of Paula Taylor Productions, an international consulting business in retail management, virtual merchandising, and brand development, will address the growing challenges of booksellers’ retail and online business through a series of hands-on activities, lectures, and discussions. Attendees will learn how to incorporate new digital marketing concepts, technologies, and methodologies into visual merchandising while participating in breakout sessions and group presentations aimed at solving a series of real-life VM problems.

Pre-registration is required at a cost of $45 per person, and attendees must already be attending Wi14. Booksellers can register here. [13]

The Used Bookstore Forum [14] (Tuesday, January 22, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.)

In this session, developed and presented by Shane Gottwals of Gottwals Books [15] and the Walls of Books Franchise in Warner Robins, Georgia, veteran booksellers and newbies will discuss the art of selling used and rare books and cover topics including merchandising policies, inventory acquisition, events, displays, remainders, online sales, and store layout.

Pre-registration is required. While there is no fee, space is limited. Booksellers can e-mail ABA Education Manager Lisa Winn [16] to register.

Other sessions at Winter Institute that require pre-registration to attend are Paz & Associates’ “Opening a Bookstore” Workshop [17] for new and prospective owners and the IndieCommerce Institute [18]. Neither of these require registration to Winter Institute, and the Paz Workshop grants paid admission to the Institute. Register for Paz here [19], and register for IndieCommerce here [20].

Winter Institute 14 will be held January 22–25, 2019, at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Booksellers can check out the full Wi14 program here [21]. The institute is sponsored by Ingram Content Group and publishers large and small. Questions about Wi14 can be sent to [email protected] [22].