Trade Show Preview: GLBA

by Jill Tardiff, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 9/8/2004

As the fall trade-show season approaches, PW Daily will be previewing a different show each day. Today, a look at what to expect at the gathering of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, scheduled to meet Oct. 8-10 at the Hyatt Regency, Dearborn, Mich.

The event starts at 8:30 a.m. Friday, as first-timers gather for a breakfast and tips from board members and veteran booksellers on working the trade show. The theme of this year's educational programming is "Making It on Main Street." As in the past, four tracks of 40-minute seminars run concurrently: operations, buying, authors and, new this year, "Picks of the Lists." These workshops take place all day Friday, beginning with the all-show "Ideas That Work" session at 9:30 a.m. From 10:30 a.m. to 11:20 a.m., the first of concurrent workshops take place. In "Picks of the Lists," reps present the best of their adult lists; the author track focuses on children's books; the operations track features Ruth Haag offering tips on "How to Slash Staffing Costs While Stimulating Productivity"; and the buying track starts with a session on business-to-business sales. These are followed by a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. during which the annual Great Lakes Book Awards winners will be celebrated.

The Team Spelling Bee will commence at 1:10 p.m., with workshops resuming at 2:30 p.m. and running until 4:20 p.m. In the first track, children's reps point out their "picks of the lists", followed by a session called "What's the Buzz": several seasoned buyers talk about building books through word of mouth. The second track features Pennsylvania bookseller Joe Drabyak giving advice on authorless events, followed by a Web marketing workshop led by HarperCollins rep Kate McCune and Joseph-Beth marketing director Michele Sulka. The buying track's afternoon sessions include a conversation between reps and buyers on "10 Things I'd Like My Sales Rep to Do and 10 Things I'd Like the Buyer to Do" and a workshop on managing backlist in an era of tight cash flow. The author track continues with sessions on political books, then regional books.

Friday evening's reception, open to all show attendees, begins at 6:15 p.m. and is followed by the "moveable feast" author dinner. Keynote speakers are Sarah Stewart and David Small, the prize-winning author/illustrator team of The Friend.

Saturday kicks off at 8 a.m. with breakfast and the annual membership meeting. The show floor opens at 9:30 a.m. and stays open till 5 p.m. The Booksellers Banquet starts at 7:30 p.m. This year's featured speakers are T. Jefferson Parker (California Girl) and Mary Doria Russell (A Thread of Grace).

Sunday morning's children's breakfast commences at 7:45 a.m. and features Marc Brown (Wild About Books), Tomie dePaola (Guess Who's Coming to Santa's for Dinner), Cornelia Funke (Dragon Rider), and Peter Sís (The Train of States). The final 50-minute workshops start at 10 a.m. They include sessions on publicity, marketing "in the Age of the Patriot Act," finding the balance between just-in-time and direct-to-publisher purchasing and the mystery genre. From 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., educational programming culminates in the plenary session, "Making It on Main Street: Forming Local Business Alliances."

Contact: Jim Dana, 208 Franklin St., P.O. Box 901, Grand Haven, Mich. 49417; (800) 745-2460 or (616) 847-2460; glba@books-glba.org; www.books-glba.org.