Events Institute Session Presenters Announced

The American Booksellers Association’s first-ever Events Specialty Institute (ESI) will feature a full day of educational programming that includes four breakout sessions and three roundtable discussions in addition to special morning and lunchtime plenary sessions. The event, which is open to all ABA member booksellers, will be held on Wednesday, October 3, at The Depot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with an opening Author Reception on Tuesday evening, October 2.

This week, ABA announced the presenters and facilitators for the breakout sessions and roundtable discussions, respectively.

ESI’s four breakout sessions and their presenters are:

• Events 101: The Checklist — Presented by Jessilyn Norcross of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan, and Staci Williams of Boswell Book Company  in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
   
• Organizing and Running Offsite Events — Presented by Cathy Berner of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas, and ABA President Becky Anderson of Anderson’s Bookshops in Naperville, Illinois
   
• Authorless Events 101— Presented by Nancy Simpson of Book Vault in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and David Enyeart of Common Good Books in St. Paul, Minnesota
  
   
• Beyond the Traditional Author Event — Presented by Beth Golay of Watermark Books & Cafe in Wichita, Kansas, and Sarah Baline of Politics and Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse in Washington, D.C.

ESI will end with three simultaneous roundtable discussions featuring one bookseller and one publicist each, who will discuss the event process and take questions from the audience.

The participants in “Events From Two Perspectives” will be:

• Karen Fink, assistant Director of Publicity at Random House, Spiegel & Grau, Dial Press, and Modern Library, and Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona
   
• Jynne Dilling Martin, director of publicity at Riverhead Books, and Sarah Bagby of Watermark Books & Cafe in Wichita, Kansas
   
• Jason M. Wells, executive director, publicity and marketing at Abrams Books for Young Readers, Amulet Books, and Abrams Appleseed, and Sue Boucher of Lake Forest Book Store in Lake Forest, Illinois

Fink, Dilling Martin, and Wells will also be the featured speakers at ESI’s lunchtime event. The three senior publicists will discuss key aspects of bookstore events, including best practices for raising a bookstore’s profile with publishers and presenting a persuasive pitch for author events in your store, with Changing Hands’ Shanks.

A limited number of spaces are still available for ESI. To register, and to learn more, visit Events Specialty Institute page on BookWeb.org.