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| Mosaic Books hosted an evening of great food, drinks and music. | |
In May, I asked Michael Neill, president/head programmer of BookManager and owner of Mosaic Books in Kelowna, B.C., what he hoped to accomplish with the inaugural BookManager Academy, which he was hosting the following month. "Too many of us no longer communicate face-to-face with our peers," he replied, adding that while the conference's education programming would be valuable, BMA "will also be a catalyst for discussion during the social events where ideas for change really happen."
How did it all work out? BMA drew nearly 100 booksellers from about 60 stores in Canada and the U.S., according to Neill. I contacted several of the booksellers recently, and all were enthusiastic ("an amazing event," "extremely positive," "a breath of fresh air").
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| L.-r.: Sandy Cooper of Raincoast Books, Michael Neill, Jim Schmidt of Galiano Island Books & Anna Beddie of Misty River Books. | |
"I think BMA was a brilliant event for the whole Canadian book industry," said Barbara Pope, co-owner/manager of the Mulberry Bush Book Store, Parksville, B.C., and immediate past president of the British Columbia Booksellers Association. "Michael and his BookManager team worked extremely hard to put on a sterling event and I know all indie booksellers who attended were most grateful to them for the opportunity to come together and connect with one another.... All the professional development sessions were valuable.... Hearing from publishers and fellow booksellers at the Town Hall meeting was especially informative. And the social events were the icing on the cake."
"This was our first time organizing something of this scale," Neill said. "Promotion, fund-raising, hotels, materials, swag, badges, structured education, buses, food, drinks, social events, cleanup, store tour--a massive list for a small crew of first-timers. The BookManager and Mosaic Books team pulled out all the stops. And I think they hit it out of the park based on the many, many compliments we received. The common thread was the intangible benefit of everyone being together to talk about the book business."
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| L-r: Heather Parsons of Heritage Group Distribution, Andrea Davies of Hager Books & Nancy Wise of Sandhill Book Marketing. | |
Melissa Bourdon-King, general manager of Mabel's Fables Bookstore in Toronto, agreed: "My general reaction was extremely positive. I felt that the event really invigorated and energized the booksellers who attended. Personally, I found the event to be really stimulating. It was amazing to talk to so many other booksellers, to get to know them and their stores, and to hear positive feedback from other booksellers about the things that my store is doing. It was quite inspiring.
"Everyone who works in independent bookselling works so hard, and we are all so passionate about what we are doing and why. It was pretty infectious to be in a room of like-minded people, all being exposed to knowledge that can really help us make our stores an even stronger part of the Canadian Bookselling economy."
"Kudos to Michael and his gang," said Jim Schmidt, co-owner of Galiano Island Books, Galiano Island, B.C., adding that BMA "was easily the best regional event that I've attended for booksellers in the 18 years we've been in business. It combined a lot of solid, useful information with many opportunities to exchange gossip and ideas with fellow booksellers, book reps, folks from the publisher's headquarters and even a few authors."
For Tiffany Harlan, floor manager and book buyer at Grass Roots Books & Music, Corvallis, Ore., BMA "was a fabulous experience, and I feel so fortunate to have been able to attend. Two intensive days packed full of education allowed attendees to learn the ins and outs of the BookManager inventory program in much greater depth, as well as share general bookselling information.... The Town Hall, featuring guest panelists, was definitely a highlight with its question-and-answer format affording the chance for a lively exchange of bookselling ideas and opinions. The consensus in the room was that we learned so much, but still didn't have enough time to cover everything, and easily could have filled a third day of education to cover some topics in greater detail."
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| Dinner & beach bonfire at Neill's lake home. | |
Describing BMA as "a lot of work, a whole lot of fun and absolutely memorable and heartwarming," Diana O'Neill, who handles sales and technical/data support for BookManager, recalled the pleasure of seeing booksellers "from across the country gathered and sharing ideas, wine and laughs. It's pretty obvious that we are all thirsty for events like this in Canada; we need an excuse to get together and vocalize our woes, but more than that--we need an excuse to get together and come up with new ideas to stay afloat as indies and to bond over our experiences and how we plan on moving forward, always forward."
Neill observed that the challenge now becomes: "What is possible for an encore? We proved that the Canadian industry sorely needs to gather in person from time to time. Financial support from the publishing side was essential, and we are grateful to those who put faith in the idea. Thankfully, the digital world can only go so far."
The booksellers I contacted after BMA had much to say about not only this event, but small conferences and Canadian indies in general. I'll share more of their thoughts here next week. --Robert Gray, contributing editor (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)