Three years after the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance and the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association combined to launch New Voices New Rooms as a virtual trade show, the two organizations are moving their partnership into the physical world. The inaugural in-person New Voices New Rooms conference will take place Monday–Thursday, August 7–10, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Va. It is going to be, the executive directors of the two organizations promise, a reimagined show designed to energize the 300 NAIBA and SIBA booksellers expected to attend. Approximately 60 authors will also participate in the conference,including keynote speaker Julia Fabris McBride, chief civic leadership development officer at the Kansas Leadership Center.

NVNR 2023 “is incredibly interactive,” said SIBA executive director Linda-Marie Barrett, adding that there will be a “quiet room” for anyone who needs a less hectic environment. “It’s going to be very lively, because what do people want? Connections.” Each day will end with a gathering, she noted, since “it’s those casual, unscripted conversations that are so important to everybody.”

To help facilitate spontaneous meetings, NVNR organizers created a focus for each day of the show. Tuesday will have a bookseller-to-bookseller focus, with bookstore tours and bookseller meetups tailored to owners, managers, and children’s booksellers, followed by an indie presses reception. Wednesday is the big exhibit day, aimed at bringing booksellers and publishers together. The evening reception will feature editors who will each have a table to meet and talk to booksellers. Thursday will include the town halls and annual meetings, as well as educational sessions.

NVNR organizers “deconstructed everything,” explained NAIBA executive director Eileen Dengler. “We spent a lot of time imagining why someone would come, what their purpose is, and what can we do to fulfill that for them.”

One key change is the configuration of the exhibit hall. To cut back on publisher expenses while still facilitating substantive interactions with booksellers, each vendor is limited to one table in the exhibit hall. The exhibits will line the perimeter of the hall, and if publishers need more room, there will be empty tables that can accommodate up to 16 people in the center of the ballroom and in the foyer. “We’re calling this ‘untethered’ because publishers aren’t tied to those tables anymore,” Dengler said. “Publishers can sit at those tables and conduct meetings with booksellers.”

There will be 65 in-person exhibitors plus another 10 exhibitors in virtual “studios” at NVNR, and like the three previous NVNR conferences, the in-person conference will feature a virtual galley room. All NAIBA and SIBA members will have access to the virtual studios and galley room.

One of the highlights of this conference, Dengler said, is the “Genre Buzz” session. NVNR has asked publishers to provide the titles of their hottest genre new releases, which will be compiled into 16 lists divided by category. On Wednesday, booksellers will each spend an hour in one of 16 moderated groups at the tables in the center of the exhibit hall talking about one specific category.

The discussion will be “bookseller-driven,” Barrett pointed out, rather than replicating rep picks sessions. “There’s so much that you are seeing at the show and in catalogs. We’re helping people distill it with these genre lists and the booksellers talking about the titles.”

In addition to the “Genre Buzz” session, education roundtables on Wednesday will also be held in the center of the exhibition hall. Dengler explained that the organizers want to “keep everybody together,” adding, “We’re not pulling people out. Everyone’s going to be on the floor throughout the day.”

“This is year one of our in-person joint conference,” Barrett noted. “The SIBA board and booksellers love working with the NAIBA booksellers. So far, the partnership has been really beneficial for both associations, and I hope we continue this. Hopefully this show will be a huge success. We’re working really hard to make it so.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article misnamed the Kansas Leadership Center.