Weather has not been a friend to this year’s Winter Institute 8, sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, or CAMEX, the trade show of the National Association of College Stores. In advance of a major snowstorm, which began earlier today in Kansas City, Mo., a number of airlines have canceled flights. Still, organizers of both shows are hopeful.
“Right now, we are working as hard as we can to put on a good show. No authors or presenters have canceled,” says ABA content officer Dan Cullen. “We are reaching out to booksellers who signed up to attend. But the situation is fluid.” Because the show doesn’t hold its opening ceremonies until Friday evening, there’s a good chance that booksellers who were forced to reschedule their flights will still be able to attend. ABA has not made any changes to the WI8 schedule yet, and any changes will be posted on bookweb.org.
CAMEX has already canceled one campus bookstore tour and may well have to cancel other tours closer to Kansas City. “If all of the preconference tours are canceled,” says spokesperson Charles Schmidt, “we will refund the money within ten days.” So far, Schmidt hasn’t heard about any interruption to travel plans except for its own staff. All of the presenters for its mega sessions are still planning to come. “We’re lucky,” says Schmidt. “because tomorrow is a bigger travel day.” Preconference meetings are expected to go on today as planned.
However, should the bad weather continue, it could make it difficult for both shows and impact this year’s test to have the two major bookseller shows overlap so that Winter Institute attendees can experience the CAMEX trade show.
