The Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association has confirmed a date and venue for the 2013 Heartland Fall Forum, the second regional trade show conducted in collaboration with the Midwest Booksellers Association. The 2013 Heartland Fall Forum will be held at the Crowne Plaza O’Hare in Rosemont, Ill., on October 4-6. The hotel is located less than two miles from Chicago’s O’Hare airport (and has triple-paned windows, Deb Leonard, GLiBA executive director, assured PW) . GLiBA last held its annual fall trade show at this hotel in 2005.
“We have negotiated a great room rate and other perks that will make this not only a lovely place for our convention, but a bargain for our attendees,” Leonard said, noting that the newly-renovated hotel has a 24-hour airport shuttle.
The 2012 Heartland Fall Forum will be held in Minneapolis, at the historic Depot, a 19th-century train station that is now a hotel, on October 3-7. The first joint trade show held by MIBA and GLiBA, this year’s gathering will open with St. Paul’s Micawber’s Books co-owner Hans Weyandt interviewing public radio personality Garrison Keillor (Prairie Home Companion) and author Louise Erdrich. Keillor also owns Common Good Books in St. Paul, and Erdrich owns Birchbark Books & Native Gifts in Minneapolis. Justin Cronin, the author of the apocalyptic bestseller, The Passage, and this fall’s follow-up, The Twelve, is also scheduled to speak at the show.
The two Midwestern bookseller associations have joined forces in holding one joint trade show on an experimental basis, during 2012 and 2013. If these two shows are deemed to be successful, the two organizations will consider holding one annual trade show indefinitely, in order to cut down on expenses and to better accommodate publishers.
Carrie Obry, MIBA executive director, informed PW Daily that booth sales have already exceeded last year's show, with 70% of booth space sold, and all premium booths "essentially sold out."
