An Energizing GLBA Trade Show

"The Little Trade Show With Heart" is the way Jim Dana, executive director of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, described the regional's show, which was held in Dearborn, Michigan, from October 8 - 10. "A number of people commented to me on how 'close-knit' our group is, the 'family feel,' the 'intimacy,'" said Dana.

Among the new and successful events at this year's show was the Quiz Bowl, sponsored by Simon & Schuster and inspired by A.J. Jacobs' book Know-It-All. Teams made up of booksellers, and an author or two, competed by answering questions with bookselling/publishing themes. "It was hugely entertaining," said Dana.

Another well-received GLBA event was a "Picks" track featuring three sessions: Reps' Adult Picks, Reps' Children's Picks, and Booksellers' Picks.

The show featured lively and well-attended educational sessions, including Sunday's plenary session, "Forming Local Business Alliances," led by ABA COO Oren Teicher, which underscored civic involvement to help independent businesses "make it on Main Street." (For a related story, click here.)

In addtion, Teicher and ABA's Dan Cullen, editor-in-chief of Book Sense Picks, spoke with a number of booksellers at the ABA Booth about the Book Sense electronic gift card, and Teicher facilitated a gift card users' group meeting. As part of implementing ABA's number-one goal of its strategic plan, to meet the educational and information needs of members, booksellers were asked to fill out an "ABA Education 2005 Survey," which will assist the association in constructing its future educational offerings.

Although attendance at the show was down overall this year by about 10 percent, Dana noted that GLBA's food events were well attended and the trade show floor was active. At the ABA booth, staff provided Book Sense Gift Card demonstrations, signing up a number of new stores, as well as collecting education surveys to help formulate ABA's future educational offerings.

Jennifer Malinowski, promotions coordinator at Schuler Books & Music in Okemos, Michigan, who was attending her first GLBA trade show, took advantage of much the show had to offer, and gave a resounding endorsement of the intimacy of regional trade shows. Below Malinowski shares her experiences as a regional trade show "newbie."

By Jennifer Malinowski of Schuler Books & Music, Okemos, Michigan

This year's Great Lakes Booksellers Association Trade Show was my first. Having begun my position as Promotions Coordinator at Schuler Books & Music in Okemos, Michigan, in April, I began my trade show experience in June at the massive BookExpo America (BEA). What a treat! But what I found at this year's GLBA was that, while BEA had more authors, more books, more booths, more of everything -- GLBA was more valuable in the sense that it provided a great opportunity to spend time with my sales representatives and regional colleagues while refocusing and reinvigorating my efforts during the busy fall season.

For me, GLBA was an intimate experience -- it encompassed all that I had learned and experienced this first year at BEA and provided me an amazing opportunity to interact with reps and other booksellers on a one-on-one basis. It was great seeing someone I knew at almost every turn and having that opportunity to get to know them better. Between the dinners, the trade show floor, and the cocktail times, the relaxed atmosphere provided the perfect opportunity to work more closely with our reps and fellow booksellers.

I sampled a little bit of everything at the show. Penguin Group USA's Business-to-Business Advantage seminar, presented by Debra Lewis, provided a great brief on their program to help booksellers effectively market to businesses in their communities. Later in the day on Friday, I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation on how to "Entice and Entertain Your Customers with Authorless Events," presented by Joe Drabyak of the Chester County Book & Music Company in Pennsylvania. The program was presented with enthusiasm and humor throughout and offered innovative ideas for authorless events that I hope to be able to implement in our store. Drabyak also encouraged booksellers to respond to the proliferation of the massive Oprah Book Club -- which he claims keeps stealing his recommendations -- with the unique "Okra Book Club," highlighting Southern authors of great books, such as Fannie Flagg!

The Children's Book and Author Breakfast on Sunday morning was delightful as well. With entertaining stories and readings from Cornelia Funke, Tomie dePaola, Marc Brown, and Peter Sis, it made for a breakfast unlike any other! The opportunity to hear and speak with authors of such a high caliber was a wonderful experience. The morning began with birthday cake and singing to celebrate dePaola, who recently turned 70. I thought this was a particularly nice touch by Jim Dana and the GLBA planning committee, and it was great seeing everyone don their party hats!!!

Marc Brown began the author presentations with a talk about Arthur and his latest children's book, Wild About Books, which details the creative and beautiful chaos that occurs when the bookmobile visits the local zoo! Cornelia Funke followed Mr. Brown with a list of questions that she is commonly asked by children at her events. She emphasized that she only plans on writing books for children because those are the ones enjoyed by people of all ages. Peter Sis regaled us all with a brief history of his life that had the entire room in stitches. We were fortunate that he shared slides of his sketches for his new and beautiful book, The Train of States, which was inspired by train cars he viewed at a Circus Museum in Wisconsin. The morning breakfast closed with a riveting tale of a book signing gone horribly wrong for dePaola. Between the wild children, loss of power, 3,000 books pre-sold, and an earthquake, it's a wonder that he still does book signings after this event!

My time spent on the trade show floor was valuable and the networking opportunities for booksellers were limitless. I was able to meet, in person, many publishers and publicists who I had only traded e-mails with before. And, of course, there were the books -- piles and piles of books! My shoulder still hurts. My colleague, Amanda Snook, and I were very excited to get autographed copies of The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs -- a book which we both loved -- from Rick Dahm at the Simon & Schuster booth. Unfortunately, although Jacobs was present throughout the trade show, we were like three ships passing in the night ... Amanda and I never got to meet him!

A few titles that I am particularly eager to read include Articles of War: A Novel by Nick Arvin, put into my hands by Paul Kozlowski of Random House, and The Mermaid Chair, the new novel from Sue Monk Kidd, which is scheduled to be published by Penguin in the spring. I'm sure many will be clamoring for that galley when it is released! Diane Mott Davidson's latest novel, Double Shot (Morrow) looks like a sweet treat for culinary and mystery lovers alike! And the HarperCollins table had a great idea of marketing Jon Stewart's 1999 release, Naked Pictures of Famous People, next to his bestselling new title America: The Book.

In all, I would call my experience at GLBA a resounding success! Between the ideas, the books, and the people, I could not have asked for a better opportunity to refocus my efforts and my purpose during the busy fall season. GLBA inspired me to get excited again during a time when it all starts to be a little overwhelming!