2002 NCIBA Fall Trade Show Preview

The 2002 Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) Fall Trade Show will be held from October 4 - 6 at the Oakland Convention Center in Oakland, California. NCIBA's goal for the upcoming show is to provide booksellers with a show experience that is "energizing, informative, and enjoyable," said Hut Landon, executive director for NCIBA. "We've sought to do that this year with stimulating educational programming, the recruitment of new exhibitors, and what, we think, is a stellar lineup of authors appearing throughout the three days."

Highlighting this year's show will be NCIBA's first annual "Moveable Feast." Landon noted that they've kept the trade show purposefully small: 12 authors and 120 attendees, and are limiting the ticket sales to booksellers.

Attending the trade show from ABA will be CEO Avin Mark Domnitz; Kristen Gilligan, manager of communications, industry relations, and trade policy; and ABA Director of Technical Services, Jeff Wexler.

NCIBA's fall show begins Friday, October 4, with a full day of educational programming. From 9:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m., ABA's Domnitz will lead the "Budgeting and Monitoring Workshop." This financial seminar, which has garnered rave reviews from the many booksellers who have attended previous sessions, explores a system of financial controls meant to allow the bookstore owner/manager to predict performance and then to measure outcomes against those predictions. Seminar attendees receive a computer disk with a series of Excel worksheets, which allow booksellers to integrate what they learned into their own operations.

From 10:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m., the "How to Interview and Evaluate Employees" session will discuss how to identify, hire, and retain good employees. Michael Rosenthal of Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco and Jules Davis of Pendragon Books in Oakland will moderate the roundtable. This session is sponsored by Random House, Inc.

Following the morning programming, the Author Luncheon, from noon - 1:30 p.m., will offer attendees a break from the workshop programs to enjoy a box lunch, a great view at the top of the Marriott, and best of all, two great author speakers: H.W. Brands (The Age of Gold, Doubleday) and James Conaway (The Far Side of Eden, Houghton Mifflin). Tickets are $17, and it is recommended that attendees sign up in advance to guarantee seating. The luncheon is sponsored by Baker & Taylor.

The educational sessions resume at 1:45 p.m., with the 90-minute panel discussion, "The Future of Independents: A New York Perspective." In this session, four representatives from four New York publishers will talk about the perception of independents in the publishing world, give their opinions regarding the future of independent bookselling, and offer advice on how bookstores can make themselves an active and "listened-to" part of that future. The scheduled panel members are: Ruth Liebmann, director of independent bookselling, Random House, Inc.; Katya Olmsted, director of field sales, Penguin Putnam; Roger Williams, director of field and online sales at Simon & Schuster; and Jeanette Zwart, director of field sales at HarperCollins.

Also from 1:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. is the panel discussion, "Beyond Author Events -- Bookstores as Community Centers." Here, a panel of booksellers will discuss their experience with "non-traditional" events in the store and how they've expanded their stores' appeal in their communities. Carolina Clare of NorthLight Books in Cotati, California, will moderate the discussion. This session is sponsored by Random House, Inc.

At 3:30 p.m., ABA's educational programming continues with the 90-minute session, "Succession Planning." The discussion will address a number of key issues regarding valuing and selling businesses, including insights from booksellers and industry professionals who have been involved in the process of exiting various-sized businesses. Ivan Barkhorn, formerly a partner at McKinsey and Company and a strategic consultant to ABA, will moderate the session. It will feature panelists Kevin Ryan of Green Apple Books, San Francisco, and Dave Simpson of Lafayette Bookstore, in Lafayette, California.

Concurrent with "Succession Planning," is the panel, "Out of the Sideline Box -- New Income Streams." Here, bookselling experts from Northern California and, possibly, other regions will share their experiences with non-traditional sidelines that have increased store revenues.

After a long day of educational workshops, attendees will get a chance to relax and talk with colleagues at the Welcome Reception, from 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m., at AJ Toppers in the Oakland Marriott Hotel. The reception is sponsored by the Ingram Book Company.

The Author Breakfast will kick things off on Saturday, October 5. Running from 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m., the breakfast will feature Daniel Ellsberg (Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and The Pentagon Papers, Viking), Frances Mayes (Swan, Broadway), and Jim Lehrer (No Certain Rest, Random House). Tickets will be available at the door only if the event is not sold out and are $21 for NCIBA members and $25 for nonmembers.

At 10:00 a.m. the Exhibit Hall opens, and remains open until 4:00 p.m. Additionally, there will be author autographings from 10:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

From 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., NCIBA is bringing back its "Rep Picks For Store Staff," where selected reps make 10-minute presentations showcasing a few of their favorite fall titles. This session is intended for bookstore employees and is a great opportunity for employees to get more informed and excited about the fall season.

From 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., NCIBA will hold its General Membership Meeting. All members and interested guests are invited to meet with the NCIBA Board of Directors. Also, ABA's Domnitz will provide a brief ABA report, and NCIBA will present its annual "Friends of Independent Bookselling" awards.

From 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., NCIBA's first annual "Moveable Feast" promises to be the hottest ticket of the trade show. Twelve top-name authors will be featured at the event: Scott Turow (Reversible Errors, FSG), Maxine Hong Kingston (To Be the Poet, Harvard University Press), Dave Barry (Tricky Business, Putnam), Sebastian Junger (Fire, ReganBooks), Joanne Harris (Coastliners, William Morrow), Thomas Steinbeck (Down to a Soundless Sea, Ballantine), Martin Cruz Smith (December 6, S&S), Aimee Liu (Flash House, Warner), Daniel Mason (The Piano Tuner, Knopf), Ian Stewart (Ambushed, Algonquin), Wendelin Van Draanen (Sammy Keyes and the Search For Snake Eyes, Knopf), and D.L. Smith (The Miracles of Santo Fico, Warner). The dinner will give booksellers a chance to eat and converse with four authors, who will visit their table during the course of the meal, and then collect signed books from all 12 of the participating writers at a reception/signing after the Feast. Tickets are $60 per person. If interested in attending, prompt registration is recommended. The event is being sponsored by the AOL Time Warner Book Group and Jimtown Store in Healdsburg is donating the wine.

On Sunday, October 6, the Children's Author Breakfast, from 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m., will feature Mark Teague (Dear Mrs. LaRue, Scholastic); Rosemary Wells (Ruby's Beauty Shop, Viking, and Getting To Know You, HarperCollins); and Judy Blume (Double Fudge, Dutton Children's Books). Tickets are $21 for members and $25 for nonmembers and will be available at the door only if event is not sold out.

On Sunday, the Exhibit Hall will be open from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., and, once again, author autographings will be held until 3:30pm.
From Noon - 2:00 p.m., at AJ Toppers, Houghton Mifflin will be celebrating the five-year anniversary of its Mariner paperback imprint with a lunch for booksellers featuring 10 Mariner authors. As of press time, Nicholas Clapp (The Road to Ubar), Carolyn Cooke (The Bostons), Adrianne Harun (The King of Limbo: Stories, September 2002), Allen Morris Jones (Last Year's River), Anchee Min (Becoming Madame Mao), and Julia Whitty (A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga: Stories) had been confirmed.

The "Cookbook Celebration" has been a huge hit for the past five years, and this year's should be no exception. Held on the trade show floor, from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., booksellers can celebrate great publications by sampling recipes from some of this fall’s finest selection of cookbooks. Confirmed cookbooks at press time include: Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Café by Mollie Katzen (Hyperion), A Sweet Quartet by Fran Gage (North Point Press), The Zuni Café Cookbook by Judy Rodgers (W.W. Norton), and The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle (John Wiley & Sons).

Following the "Cookbook Celebration," there will be a raffle drawing at the NCIBA Booth at 3:45 p.m. NCIBA's annual place-an-order-at-the-show raffle culminates in the announcement of the winning bookstores. Five $100 prizes and one $500 grand prize will again be awarded this year. Booksellers do not have to be present to win.

For more information, consult the NCIBA Web site at www.nciba.com, call 415-561-7686, or e-mail office@nciba.com.