SCBA Fall Program Expands to Include Trade Show

The Southern California Booksellers Association (SCBA) will be holding its Fall Authors Feast and Trade Show on Saturday, October 15, 2005, at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel in Long Beach.

"I'm very excited about this year's show," said SCBA Executive Director Jennifer Bigelow. "We're expecting about 200 booksellers and over 50 authors. We're expanding to have an afternoon trade show, something we haven't done in 25 years. When we surveyed our members ... they asked to have opportunities to meet and network with other booksellers and sales reps, so this should be perfect. I'm also excited about our Author's Feast. That's our crme de la crme. Everyone looks forward to it."

ABA is sponsoring the sessions "The Bookstore as a Third Place: Making Your Store a Community Center Through Innovative Events," and "Understanding Co-op 201." Both panel sessions will be moderated by ABA COO Oren Teicher.

The trade show exhibit will take place on Saturday from noon to 5:00 p.m. ABA will have a booth on the trade show floor, where the focus will be on education and information. Booksellers are encouraged to stop by the booth to meet with Teicher. Visitors to the booth can also drop off their business cards for a chance to win airfare and hotel accommodations for ABA's Winter Institute to be held on Thursday, January 26, and Friday, January 27, 2006, in Long Beach, or an inkjet printer.

Show programming begins with SCBA's "Sales Rep Pick of the List: Session I" from 10:00 a.m. to noon. From 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. is "The Bookstore as a Third Place," where a panel of experts will discuss creating events to position the bookstore as a center for community and political action. Following "The Bookstore as a Third Place" is "Understanding Co-op 201" from 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., where a panel will cover the best practices for claiming, using, and managing co-op. "Sales Rep Picks of the List: Session II" will run from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Saturday night, at 6:00 p.m., SCBA will host a reception with appetizers and cocktails on the Trade Show floor. Following the reception, at 7:00 p.m., is the Authors Feast & Book Awards. Over 50 authors are expected to attend this year's event, including Mary Roach (Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, Norton); Adam Langer (The Washington Story, Riverhead); Ernest Marquez (Santa Monica Beach, Angel City Press); and Azadeh Moaveni (Lipstick Jihad, PublicAffairs).

For further information about the SCBA Fall Authors Feast and Trade Show and a list of the finalists for the 2005 SCBA Book Awards, go to www.scbabooks.org/home.html.

Questions and requests for information about ABA's participation at SCBA may be directed to ABA's associate director of programming and constituent groups liaison, Kristen Gilligan, at kristen@bookweb.org.