ABA Invites Booksellers to Forums in Seattle and Denver

Booksellers in the Pacific Northwest and Mountains & Plains regions were recently invited to attend ABA Booksellers Forums to be held in Seattle and Denver, respectively. The Seattle forum will be held on Thursday, March 18, in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) Spring Show, which runs from March 18 - 20, at the Hilton Hotel/Seattle Airport. The Denver forum is being held in conjunction with the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association (MPBA) Spring Meeting at the Denver Marriott Tech Center on Friday, March 19, and Saturday, March 20.

ABA Booksellers Forums provide booksellers with an opportunity to share in discussions of matters of concern to all booksellers and to get an update on ABA programs and services. Among the topics open for discussion are sales tax initiatives, efforts to amend the USA Patriot Act, net-pricing proposals, programming for BookExpo America, Book Sense and plans for its fifth birthday celebration, the 2004 ABACUS study, and more.

ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher will attend both forums, and, in Seattle, they will be joined by ABA Board member Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Montana.

In addition to the open forums, at each show ABA will be presenting Book Sense gift card demonstrations, explaining how the gift card works and how easy it is to get started. Presentations will include specific case studies of bookstores' experiences this past holiday season.

Domnitz will also be available for one-on-one meetings with booksellers to demonstrate how easy it is to submit financial information to the ABACUS study, an invaluable tool for those seeking to improve store operations. To make an appointment for a 15 - 20 minute meeting with Domnitz, send an e-mail to avin@bookweb.org. (For more information about ABACUS, click here.)

Booksellers planning to attend either forum are asked to RSVP to ABA's Kristen Gilligan at (800) 637-0037, ext. 1286 or at kristen@bookweb.org.

Booksellers attending a forum will be entered into a drawing to win hotel accommodations and admission to BookExpo America for the next five years.

For more information, about the PNBA Spring Show, visit: www.pnba.org; for more about the MPBA Spring Meeting, go to www.mountainsplains.org.

For the complete Winter/Spring 2004 ABA Booksellers Forum schedule, click here.

Here's a re-cap of what we have planned:

Seattle Forum
Hilton Hotel, Seattle Airport
17620 Pacific Highway South
(206) 244-4800

Thursday, March 18 -- 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

• 9:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. -- One-on-One ABACUS Tutorials (Harbor Room)
  
• 1:15 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. -- Book Sense Gift Card Demonstration (Room: Mercer B)
  
• 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. -- ABA/PNBA Open Forum (Room: Mercer B)

Denver Forum
Denver Marriott Tech Center
4900 S. Syracuse
(303) 779-1100
Web: http://marriott.com/property/propertyPage/dentc

Friday, March 19

• 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. -- ABA/MPBA Open Forum
  
• 6:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. -- ABA/MPBA Cocktail Party
  

Saturday, March 20

• Morning: One-on-One ABACUS Tutorials
  
• 1:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. -- Book Sense Gift Card Demonstration and Presentation on how to get the new Mountains & Plains Independent Bestseller List into local newspapers