Midwest Connections: MBA's 28th Annual Trade Show Returns to St. Paul

The Midwest Booksellers Association (MBA) will hold its 28th Annual Trade Show from Thursday, September 25, through Saturday, September 27, at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium at RiverCentre, and at nearby venues in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. The show offers a full day of education on Thursday and lots of author events throughout the weekend, including the MBA Choice Awards. American Booksellers Association education programming at this year's event includes "Connecting to Your Customers and Community With IndieBound," "Booksellers at the Tipping Point: Leveraging Localism and Independence to Promote Your Store," "Local First Initiatives," and "ABA's E-Commerce Solution Users' Group."

"The MBA Trade Show returns to our usual home in St. Paul this year, and we have outstanding programming to offer our booksellers," said MBA Executive Director Susan Walker. "Our schedule provides a day of education sessions, rep picks and bookseller picks, author events, Midwest Connections updates, and more -- all leading up to our Trade Show Exhibit and giving booksellers and exhibitors many reasons to do business together.

"Nine of our Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award winners will join us, including bestelling authors Nancy Horan, Mildred Kalish, Leif Enger, and Lesley Kagen. Other highlights of the show include six hours of publisher Pick of the Lists presentations, an Above the Treeline user group, displays featuring our MBA Catalog and Midwest Connections Picks books, and close to 100 terrific authors. In this year when all of us are looking for the best value for our dollars, the 28th Annual MBA Trade Show is going to deliver!"

ABA's programming, sponsored by Ingram Book Group/Ingram Publisher Services, will be presented by ABA COO Oren Teicher, Director of Member Services Jill Perlstein, and Project Manager Patti Neske. All education sessions take place on Thursday, September 25, from 11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. at RiverCentre meeting rooms 10 - 12. ABA education sessions include:

• Booksellers at the Tipping Point: Leveraging Localism and Independence to Promote Your Store, noon - 1:15 p.m.
  The concepts of localism, independence, and sustainability are gaining traction with consumers. In this session you'll hear how the retail market has evolved to allow these phenomena to take root and grow, and you'll learn how to leverage and exploit these powerful tools to more effectively market and promote your store.
  
  
• Connecting to Your Customers and Community With IndieBound, 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
  There is a clear sentiment in favor of localism that is revolutionizing consumer behavior. People are renewing their ties to friends, neighbors, and institutions in their cities and towns, choosing Main Street over malls, and embracing localism and sustainability movements of all types. This presents an extraordinary opportunity for independent booksellers and other independent retailers. IndieBound taps into this growing movement, creating new and interesting ways for independent booksellers and other independent businesses to better communicate their core strengths -- independence, passion, community -- to their customers. Share what you have done in your store with IndieBound promotional material, ways that you have connected with other independent businesses in your community, and hear about creative ways your colleagues have used IndieBound.
  
  
• Local First Initiatives, 3:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
  Booksellers who have been actively involved in a local business alliance in their communities will report on current trends in the Shop Local movement. Hear how you can grow your store's visibility and sales by leveraging your most precious commodity: Your independence!
  
  
• ABA's E-Commerce Solution Users Group, 4:45 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
  ABA's E-commerce Solution is undergoing a major overhaul, planned for a fall 2008 release. The site is migrating to the open-source platform Drupal, which will provide users with new and improved administrative tools, better performance and reliability, and a shorter path to new features and functionality. Participants in the users group will have an opportunity to meet with and provide feedback to ABA's e-commerce staff. Booksellers who are not currently E-Commerce participants are also invited to attend.

Thursday's day of education closes with the 4th Annual Midwest Booksellers' Choice Awards Reception (at 317 on Rice Park, next door to RiverCentre).

Friday begins with the Booksellers Roundtables & Bookseller Pick of the Lists (breakfast is available if a meal ticket is preordered). Following the bookseller roundtables, reps offer their picks for the fall. At noon is the "Authors Lunch: Moveable Feast" with more than 30 adult books and children's books authors, including Tony Bender (If Every Month Were June, Fulcrum); Julie Kramer (Stalking Susan, Doubleday/Random House); and Anne Ylvisaker (Little Klein, Candlewick Press). The day continues with MBA's General Membership Meeting, the Cocktail Reception and Formal Autographing Sessions, and the Book & Author Dinner.

On Saturday, the trade show floor will be open from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. The Children's Book & Author Breakfast kicks off the last day of the show with guest authors John Green (Paper Towns, Dutton/Penguin Young Readers Group); Polly Horvath (My One Hundred Adventures, Schwartz & Wade Books/Random House); and more. Saturday evening, a cocktail hour from 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. is the last planned event of the day, but booksellers and vendors are encouraged to continue the conversation following the show.

ABA will have a booth on the MBA trade show floor, where booksellers can meet with staff and learn about IndieBound and the association's many other services and products. Information will also be available about the Winter Institute 4 (Wi4), to be held in 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah, from Thursday, January 29, through Sunday, February 1.

Booksellers can enter a raffle for a free trip to Wi4 (airfare and up to a two-night hotel stay for one person) by dropping a business card off at the ABA booth on the show floor. They can also enter the raffle a second time by updating their store profile via BookWeb.org. One winner will be chosen at random at the end of October from all entries received at the nine regional shows and via profile updates.

Registration materials, including ticket information and a full schedule of events with times and locations, is available on the MBA website, www.midwestbooksellers.org. Questions about MBA programming should be addressed to info@midwestbooksellers.org.

Questions and requests for information about ABA's participation at MBA's trade show may be directed to Lisa Winn at lisa@bookweb.org. --Karen Schechner