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California Here We Come
May 22, 2008
 A
week from today, BookExpo America
will be underway, and hundreds of American Booksellers Association members will
be participating in the ABA
Day of Education, sponsored by Ingram Book Company/Ingram Publisher Services,
at the Renaissance Hollywood, this year's Hotel ABA. Programming on Thursday
exclusively for ABA member booksellers includes 15 education sessions covering everything
from green retailing and leveraging localism to creating killer events and RFID.
A morning Plenary Session (where coffee will be served) will feature actor,
author, and environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr., and, at lunch, radio and TV show host
and author Amy Goodman will be the speaker. (Read this week's BTW interviews
with Begley and Goodman.)
Thursday programming will culminate in a grand Celebration of Bookselling at
the Renaissance Hollywood, which is free and open to all book industry professionals
registered for BEA, thanks to the generous support of Ingram. This year's celebration
will feature the announcement of an exciting, new ABA initiative, as well as
the presentation of the Book Sense
Book of the Year Awards, the Publishers Weekly Bookseller and Rep
of the Year Awards, the Pannell Awards, and more.
On Friday, the focus will move to the Los Angeles Convention Center, where
the trade show floor opens at 9:00 a.m. So, too, does the ABA Lounge (Room 515A
in the West Hall of the convention center), where member booksellers will find
light refreshments and a place to relax, check e-mail at the Booklog Internet
Cafe, meet colleagues, and learn about ABA products and services, including
the new initiative announced on Thursday. The lounge will also feature autographing
by 25 of booksellers' favorite authors.
Across the hall from the lounge, in Room 510, members will be able to take advantage
of a bag check courtesy of Harper Mass Market and ABA's Discount Shipping Program,
via a dedicated FedEx shipping center. (Read
more.)
Programming on Friday at the convention center includes ABA E-commerce Solution
and Gift Card Users Group meetings
and, in the afternoon, the ABA Town
Hall and Annual Membership meetings. On Saturday, all BEA registrants are
invited to the premiere of Paperback
Dreams, a new PBS documentary about Cody's and Kepler's and the challenges
faced by independent booksellers.
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B.Y.O.B. & More
This year, in an effort to be more environmentally friendly, rather than
produce a Day of Education session handouts binder, ABA has created all
session handouts in digital form. All ABA member booksellers can now view
and download handouts for each of this year's sessions via the program
schedule at www.bookweb.org/ events/bea/program.
In addition to reducing the carbon footprint of ABA's participation in
BEA, the electronic handouts can help booksellers make more informed decisions
about what sessions to attend on site.
ABA is also asking booksellers to B.Y.O.B.: Bring Your Own Bag. There
will be information and promotional handouts available at the Hotel ABA
Welcome Desk (located on the 2nd Floor/Mezzanine Level of the Renaissance
Hollywood), but this year the association is leaving it to members to
take only the materials they want and to recycle a bag from home in which
to carry them.
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For complete details on ABA programs and special events at BEA, including "Welcome
to Hollywood" Tours and Author Reception, sponsored
by ABA and the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association, visit
BookWeb.org.
Watch for Bookselling This Week's daily reports from the show, beginning
Wednesday, May 28.
Topics: News - Bookselling, BookExpo,
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