Forum Previews: New York City and Naperville, Illinois

The American Booksellers Association will be hosting Booksellers Forums in New York City and Naperville, Illinois, on April 17 and 20, respectively. Each program will feature an open forum discussion, where ABA senior staff members will provide updates on various association projects and booksellers are encouraged to share their ideas and concerns about industry issues.

The ABA education component at both will be “The Best of Winter Institute 7’s Best Practices Sessions.” This is a roundup of booksellers’ top tips on finances, relationship building, children’s bookselling, technology, and more from the 2012 Winter Institute [1] in New Orleans.

Tuesday, April 17: New York City

Senior Program Officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger, Content Officer Dan Cullen, and Member Relationship Manager Kaitlin Pitcher will be on hand for ABA’s Spring Forum in conjunction with the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association [2].

The program will be held from 10:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. at The Old School [3] (233 Mott Street, between Prince and Spring streets) in New York City. It will be followed by a visit to McNally Jackson [4] at 52 Prince Street (between Lafayette and Mulberry streets).

Here’s the schedule:

• 10:30 a.m. - Noon:  The Best of Winter Institute 7’s Best Practices Sessions
• Noon - 2:00 p.m.:   ABA Booksellers Forum and Lunch
• 2:00 p.m.: Visit to McNally Jackson

To provide ABA with a headcount for the forum lunch, booksellers who are planning to attend are asked to RSVP by April 12 to Kaitlin Pitcher [5], ABA’s member relationship manager for the NAIBA region.

Friday, April 20: Naperville, Illinois

ABA CEO Oren Teicher and Program Officer Dan Cullen will host ABA’s Booksellers Forum in conjunction with the Midwest [6] and Great Lakes [7] independent booksellers associations in Naperville, Illinois.

The forum will be held at the Downtown Naperville Alliance [8] (55 South Main Street, Conference Room A) and will include an update from MIBA and GLIBA on plans for the Heartland Fall Forum. The program will be followed by a reception at Anderson's Bookshop [9] (123 West Jefferson Avenue).

Here’s the schedule:

• 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.:  The Best of Winter Institute 7’s Best Practices Sessions
• 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.:   ABA Booksellers Forum and Lunch
• 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.: MIBA/GLIBA Heartland Fall Forum Update, followed by a reception at Anderson’s

To provide ABA with a headcount for the forum lunch, booksellers who are planning to attend are asked to RSVP by April 17 to Nathan Halter [10], ABA’s member relationship manager for the GLIBA and MIBA regions.

The complete list of ABA’s spring Booksellers Forums is available here [11]. ABA education is sponsored by the Ingram Content Group.