Users Groups to Share the Latest Developments, Tips & Tricks

ABA's gift card and e-commerce programs will be the focus of staff-led users group meetings on Friday, May 30, at BookExpo America. Participants, and those who are new to each of the programs, are invited to join in meetings at the L.A. Convention Center, where they'll hear about the latest program developments, as well as have a chance to share tips and tricks with fellow booksellers. On Saturday, Above The Treeline staff will be conducting three sessions: a demo of new enhancements for current publisher subscribers and those who have never seen the product before and separate meetings for current retail users and prospective users.

• ABA's E-commerce Program Users Group (Friday, May 30, 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.; Room 512 in the West Building of the L.A. Convention Center)
  ABA's e-commerce program (BookSense.com) is undergoing a major overhaul, planned for 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 have an opportunity to meet with and provide feedback to ABA's e-commerce staff. (Non-participants are also welcome to attend.)

• ABA's Gift Card Program Users Group (Friday, May 30, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Room 513 in the West Building of the L.A. Convention Center)
  An informal meeting to discuss, and provide feedback to ABA staff about, changes, new card designs, and reports. Information and feedback shared at past users group meetings have been invaluable both to booksellers and ABA staff and have helped guide the program's development. (Non-participants are also welcome to attend.)

• Above The Treeline -- Publisher Demo (Saturday, May 31, 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.; Room 511ABC in the West Building of the L.A. Convention Center)
  If you've never seen Above The Treeline, or if you are using it every day, you'll still learn something new at this session, where Treeline staff will share the latest developments. Above The Treeline is a powerful online solution providing a way to optimize any available retail sales and inventory data for use through a single portal. It consolidates store-level data from hundreds of independent bookstores, and now also accepts and normalizes additional retail data publishers are already receiving from other sources. Then, Treeline presents the data on the site graphically as well as at the most detailed level, so users can start with the big picture, and drill down to details -- from nationwide trends, down to which stores are short on a hot title. The latest version has some dramatic enhancements and opens up some interesting new perspectives on the retail market. Staff will show the new and expanded reporting and communication tools of this version, as well as overhauled versions of many of the time-tested Treeline favorites.

• Above The Treeline -- Prospective Users (Saturday, May 31, 9:00a.m. - 10:00 a.m.; Room 512 in the West Building of the L.A. Convention Center)
  Retailers not currently using Above The Treeline are invited to expand their perspective with this leading provider of collaboration-based business intelligence tools in the book industry. Above The Treeline offers retailers the ability to share and analyze information online and make faster, smarter inventory decisions. Any business not on Above the Treeline yet is invited to come and see how joining the Above the Treeline community of stores can help them see the view from above.

• Above The Treeline -- Users Group (Saturday, May 31, 10:30 a.m. - Noon; Room 512 in the West Building of the L.A. Convention Center)
  Current Treeline subscribers are encouraged to join this users group meeting to share tips and tricks with one another on how to best utilize the new Above the Treeline. Above the Treeline staff will monitor the session and share some TreeTips of their own.