Events Institute Registration Off to a Strong Start

The American Booksellers Association’s first-ever Events Specialty Institute [1]  will bring booksellers from around the country to Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a full-day of education on Wednesday, October 3, 2012. Since registration opened last week, the response from seasoned booksellers and those in need of more introductory-level courses has been strong.

The Events Institute will be held at The Depot in Minneapolis prior to the Great Lakes (GLIBA) and Midwest (MIBA) independent booksellers associations’ Heartland Fall Forum [2]. 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.

Wednesday’s program, which runs from 10:00 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., includes an opening plenary, four breakout sessions, a special lunch featuring senior publishing executives, and roundtable discussions.

The opening plenary will feature a Q&A interview of bestselling author Kate DiCamillo, who will focus on the many facets of indie bookstore events from an authors’ perspective.

The day’s four breakout sessions are Events 101: The Checklist; Organizing and Running Offsite Events; Authorless Events 101; and Beyond the Traditional Author Event.

Between the breakout sessions, attendees will have lunch at 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.

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 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 [1]; questions about the Events Institute should be addressed to esi@bookweb.org [3].