Registration Opens for First ABA Events Specialty Institute

The American Booksellers Association opened registration [1] today for its first-ever Events Specialty Institute [2]. The one-day educational program offering a range of topics for both seasoned booksellers and those in need of more introductory-level courses will be held on Wednesday, October 3, 2012, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, just prior to the Great Lakes (GLIBA) and Midwest (MIBA) independent booksellers associations’ Heartland Fall Forum [3]. An opening reception on Tuesday evening, October 2, will provide Events Institute registrants with the opportunity to greet fellow booksellers, as well as meet a few notable authors in a casual, informal setting.

“We’re very excited about the upcoming Events Specialty Institute,” said ABA Content Officer Dan Cullen. “We hope that booksellers from all over the country — as well as those who are already planning to attend the Heartland Fall Forum — will join us in Minneapolis for a focused, interactive day of bookseller education.”

THE EDUCATION PROGRAM

The Event Institute’s overall focus and session topics were a direct result of indie bookseller suggestions and feedback, including input from the association’s Educational Task Force and Booksellers Advisory Council. The program, which runs from 10:00 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, includes an opening plenary, four breakout sessions, a special lunch featuring senior publishing executives, and roundtable discussions.

Opening Plenary

Wednesday begins with a Q&A interview of bestselling author Kate DiCamillo, who will talk about the many facets of indie bookstore events from the authors’ perspective.

Lunch

Between breakout sessions, Event Institute attendees will have lunch during a special program featuring three senior publishing publicity executives who will share their perspectives on bookstore events, including best practices for raising a bookstore’s profile with publishers and presenting a persuasive pitch for author events in your store.

Four Breakout Sessions

Events 101: The Checklist
What are the keys to creating a successful event? This session will cover a full range of best practices for a successful event — from conceiving that great idea to contacting the publisher, to using online and traditional media, to publicizing the event, to ensuring you’re fully prepared on the day of the event, right down to knowing how to evaluate and measure success.

Organizing and Running Offsite Events
You have an exciting event idea that has the potential to be held off site. Now what? This session will address the issues related to successfully staging an off-site event: Navigating publisher expectations, creating opportunity for sponsors; reaching out to other businesses and organizations to secure the best space; implementing pre- and post-event logistics; providing staff training; utilizing useful technology; and, of course, making sure it is a profitable event as well as a successful one.

Authorless Events 101
One way of building your store events experience and reputation (among your customers and the publishing community) is by offering authorless events. Authorless events can be a draw for both children (for instance, story times, birthday parties, etc.) and adults (trivia nights, classes, etc.). But how do you create a stellar schedule, provide staffing, and sell books at the same time? This panel will help you to answer some of these questions.

Beyond the Traditional Author Event
It might be time to refresh your approach to author events. This panel will inspire you to creatively examine your traditional author events in order to take advantage of potential event attendees who are not the typical book event audience — as well as to create partnerships with groups beyond those that traditionally have relationships with bookstores.

Roundtables

The Events Institute will conclude with three roundtables, each moderated by a bookseller and one of the senior publishing publicity executives who took part in the day’s lunch. Roundtable participants will discuss topics and issues raised during the day and other bookstore best practices regarding events.

THE HOTEL

The host hotel for the Events Institute is The Depot Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel. Rooms are available at the special rate of $139 per night. To receive the special rate, reservations must be made by September 3, 2012, and booksellers must ask for ABA/Heartland Fall Forum Block.

To make a hotel reservation, call (612) 375-1700 or (866) 211-4611 and ask for the Renaissance at The Depot in Minneapolis, then specify the ABA/Heartland Fall Forum Block; or visit The Deport Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel reservations webpage. [4] The group code for online reservations is MBAMABAA .

The Depot is three blocks from the Metro Transit Hiawatha Line service [5] from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Take the light rail from the airport to the Government Plaza stop.

TO REGISTER

The registration fee for the Events Institute is $59. Enrollment is open exclusively to ABA members and capped at 100 booksellers. Registration will close on Monday, September 3.

For more information and to register, visit the Events Specialty Institute page on BookWeb.org. [2]

Questions about the Events Institute should be addressed to esi@bookweb.org [6].

To learn more about the GLIBA/MIBA fall trade show, visit the Heartland Fall Forum webpage [3].