The Midwest Booksellers Association and the Great Lakes Booksellers Association have officially announced what PW initially reported upon this past fall: the two regional bookseller organizations are co-hosting one regional trade show this year and in 2013. The joint show, which is being called the Heartland Fall Forum, will be held October 3-5, 2012 at the Renaissance Hotel in the historic Milwaukee Road train depot in Minneapolis. The site of the 2011 MIBA trade show, this venue drew raves from attendees and exhibitors alike.The details of the 2013 Heartland Fall Forum have yet to be decided, but GLiBA’s executive director, Deb Leonard, and board will select the venue; it will most likely be held in Chicagoland.
“We have come to a financial arrangement which is pleasing to both sides,” Leonard told PW. “We both are invested; we both have skin in the game.” Both Leonard and Carrie Obry, MIBA’s executive director, declined to provide details about how the two organizations will split expenses associated with the joint show, as well as revenues. Both executive directors did disclose, though, that each intends to both dip into association funds and solicit publishers in building up a scholarship fund to defray travel costs for booksellers living in the more outlying areas in each region. Booksellers will be invited to apply to their organization for scholarships, with distance from the trade show venue being a major factor in awarding scholarships, both directors said.
An extra day was added to MIBA’s previously announced dates of October 4-5 for its fall show, so that the Heartland Fall Forum will kick off on October 3 with an evening reception held at the Depot for show attendees. A day of education on October 4 will be followed by the trade show itself in the Depot’s exhibit hall October 5. Leonard assured PW that the Heartland Fall Forum “will not be your grandmother’s show,” with the two organizations soliciting input throughout the planning process “from everyone who has a stake in this show, to make it a show for the 21st century.” Task forces on each board are charged with planning the day of education’s sequence of events.
Obry disclosed that the Heartland Fall Forum will have its own Web site, separate from the newly-vamped MIBA website. The Heartland Fall Forum's tagline is "hundreds of booksellers, thousands of books, one great community;" a new logo promoting the event is still being designed. Both the Heartland Fall Forum Web site and logo will be unveiled in February. “We’re creating something that has its own life and identity,” Obry noted, adding that MIBA’s new site is designed to be more visually appealing, as well as address in more depth the specific needs of the organization’s two primary constituencies: publishers and booksellers. Buttons on MIBA’s Web site link to separate sections for each group.
Both organizations are putting most of their financial resources into co-hosting the 2012 Heartland Fall Forum. While GLiBA will hold one “Indy Night” meeting in mid-April with member booksellers instead of two as it usually does, MIBA is canceling its spring meeting. In 2013, instead of one big spring meeting, MIBA intends to hold six or eight less formal meetings around the region, which it hopes will better serve member booksellers.
