California Here We Come
A week from today, BookExpo America will be underway, and hundreds of American Booksellers Association members will be participating in the ABA Day of Education, sponsored by Ingram Book Company/Ingram Publisher Services, at the Renaissance Hollywood, this year's Hotel ABA. Programming on Thursday exclusively for ABA member booksellers includes 15 education sessions covering everything from green retailing and leveraging localism to creating killer events and RFID. A morning Plenary Session (where coffee will be served) will feature actor, author, and environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr., and, at lunch, radio and TV show host and author Amy Goodman will be the speaker. (Read this week's BTW interviews with Begley and Goodman.)
Thursday programming will culminate in a grand Celebration of Bookselling at the Renaissance Hollywood, which is free and open to all book industry professionals registered for BEA, thanks to the generous support of Ingram. This year's celebration will feature the announcement of an exciting, new ABA initiative, as well as the presentation of the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards, the Publishers Weekly Bookseller and Rep of the Year Awards, the Pannell Awards, and more.
On Friday, the focus will move to the Los Angeles Convention Center, where the trade show floor opens at 9:00 a.m. So, too, does the ABA Lounge (Room 515A in the West Hall of the convention center), where member booksellers will find light refreshments and a place to relax, check e-mail at the Booklog Internet Cafe, meet colleagues, and learn about ABA products and services, including the new initiative announced on Thursday. The lounge will also feature autographing by 25 of booksellers' favorite authors. Across the hall from the lounge, in Room 510, members will be able to take advantage of a bag check courtesy of Harper Mass Market and ABA's Discount Shipping Program, via a dedicated FedEx shipping center. (Read more.)
Programming on Friday at the convention center includes ABA E-commerce Solution and Gift Card Users Group meetings and, in the afternoon, the ABA Town Hall and Annual Membership meetings. On Saturday, all BEA registrants are invited to the premiere of Paperback Dreams, a new PBS documentary about Cody's and Kepler's and the challenges faced by independent booksellers.
| B.Y.O.B. & More This year, in an effort to be more environmentally friendly, rather than produce a Day of Education session handouts binder, ABA has created all session handouts in digital form. All ABA member booksellers can now view and download handouts for each of this year's sessions via the program schedule at www.bookweb.org/ events/bea/program. In addition to reducing the carbon footprint of ABA's participation in BEA, the electronic handouts can help booksellers make more informed decisions about what sessions to attend on site. ABA is also asking booksellers to B.Y.O.B.: Bring Your Own Bag. There will be information and promotional handouts available at the Hotel ABA Welcome Desk (located on the 2nd Floor/Mezzanine Level of the Renaissance Hollywood), but this year the association is leaving it to members to take only the materials they want and to recycle a bag from home in which to carry them. |
For complete details on ABA programs and special events at BEA, including "Welcome to Hollywood" Tours and Author Reception, sponsored by ABA and the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association, visit BookWeb.org.
Watch for Bookselling This Week's daily reports from the show, beginning Wednesday, May 28.
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