CBA’s inaugural CBA Industry Conference drew both praise and criticism from retailers and publishers. The meeting, held January 30—February 1 at the Indianapolis Marriott, replaced CBA Advance, the meeting and trade show that was canceled last year amid protests from exhibitors about low retailer attendance.

The new event was recast as a forum to identify and address industry concerns and explore solutions. While attendance was limited to 400, actual registration topped out at 188: 84 retailers and 104 suppliers and other “industry professionals.” Said CBA president Bill Anderson, “Would we have loved to have more registrants? Absolutely.”

No press credentials were issued, so PW did not attend any of the five presentations, but conducted interviews both on site and after the event. Steve Potratz, president and CEO of Parable, said, “CBA did a good job considering the location and the short time to plan. But the conference needs to be geared to a much higher level both in speakers and participants. This is not the right replacement yet—but it’s a start.”

Don Smearsoll, owner of the 21-year-old Bread of Life Christian Bookstore in Greenville, Ohio, said he found benefits in some of the presentations, but missed the trade show. “I went mainly to get a feel of the pulse of the industry from retailers and suppliers, as well as to see trends,” he said. Cristel Phelps, manager of the Hope Store in Lansing, Mich., said she found tools for doing a better job of meeting customer expectations. “And I felt more connected,” she said. “We are all experiencing the same problems.”

Anderson said the overriding objective of CBA is finding ways to increase store traffic and sales. “We have got to focus on the consumer and not the competition,” he said. “And not how the consumer used to be or how we think they should be, but who the consumer is now and who they will be in a few years.”

Brian Law, owner of Amazing Grace in Tempe, Ariz., called the event a work in progress. He would have liked more information on using the Internet to market and sell. “I’d also like to see more supplier-retailer interaction. There wasn’t much there for suppliers.”

Products were displayed in the meeting room, and seven publishing houses presented their merchandise in “clubroom suites.” All of the publishers PW spoke to said they were relieved the trade show was scrapped. Dave Lewis, executive v-p of sales and marketing at Baker Publishing Group, said, “Removing the display floor saved money, time and energy.” (Anderson noted that ending the trade show led to lost revenues and layoffs for CBA.)

Several publishers said they came mainly to show support for the industry. “We are deliberately overinvesting in it,” Zondervan executive v-p of sales Verne Kenney said. John Johnson, national sales director for Tyndale House, said the event did not offer a lot for his company or for other publishers and retailers he spoke to. “We didn’t get a lot of value for the money and time away from the business.” Thomas Nelson’s senior v-p of Christian retail sales, Gary Davidson, said that while Nelson had pulled out of Advance earlier this year and redirected its money to an in-house April event for retailers, he came “because we wanted to demonstrate our commitment to the Christian retail industry.” Davidson said that while there were several good suggestions offered during Thursday’s session for retail stores, there are still major issues for independent retailers that were identified but not addressed such as Internet competition, shortage of capital, the impact of consolidation, driving traffic into stores and increasing sales per customer.

Anderson said CBA will offer a retooled version of the conference in 2009. Lewis at Baker said the company would support the event. “We care about this channel, and we would like to be a part of any discussion on how the retailers and suppliers can work better together,” said Lewis. “The actual sessions were less helpful than hoped, but the side conversations with retailers were worth the trip.”