Regional Trade Shows 2010

Here's our recent regional trade show coverage:

A combination of four events seems to have contributed to this year’s Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association's trade show in Denver being simultaneously an exuberant celebration of the ties binding together this diverse, but close-knit, community of booksellers and a sober time for serious reflection upon the mission of the 35-year organization.

One of the central images of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance 35th annual trade show, held from Sept. 23-25 at the Plaza Resort & Spa and Plaza Ocean Club Hotel in Daytona Beach, was a double bed with turned-down sheets, which had been placed near the registration booth.

That the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association fall conference, held just off the smoke-filled casino at the Trump Marina in Atlantic City from September 20 to 22, went on despite the recent deaths of NAIBA president, Joe Drabyak, bookseller at Chester County Book & Music Company in West Chester, Pa., and Workman sales rep Sam Herman spoke reams about the organization’s ability to overcome hardship and loss.

If this year’s Midwest Booksellers Association annual trade show, held Oct. 1-2 at St. Paul, Minn.’s RiverCentre, seemed to swarm with local paparazzi, it was for good reason: MBA kicked off with a breakfast featuring both former Vice President Walter Mondale making his first public appearance touting his hot-off-the-presses autobiography, The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics (Scribner), and Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star-Tribune book editor, talking up her newly-released memoir, News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist.

The New England Booksellers Independent Booksellers Association regional show, held in Providence, R.I., from Sept. 30-Oct. 2, was like a carefully abridged book. All the important elements were there: educational sessions, meals with authors, and exhibits. It’s just that the show’s footprint was a lot smaller and fit on a single floor of the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Suzy Takacs, owner of the Book Cellar in Chicago, spoke for most booksellers who attended the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association trade show held at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Mich., from October 8-10, when she said, “I thought it was a great show. There was a lot of positive energy, and bookseller attendance was up.”

An atmosphere of excitement and optimism missing in recent years permeated the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association fall trade show held in Portland, Oreg. on October 7-9 at the Portland Airport Holiday Inn and conference center. “We’re up 10% this year,” an enthusiastic Maggie Freitag, owner of Parnassus Books in Ketchikan, Alaska said on Friday. “Even though there were 250,000 fewer cruise ship travelers this summer, we made up the difference because people are just buying more books.”