The mood was relaxed but intense, and many remarked on how easy it was to talk shop and socialize. Several industry veterans went so far as to call it the best bookseller-oriented event they had ever attended. --from a Shelf Awareness report on the inaugural ABA Winter Institute, held January 26-27, 2006, in Long Beach, Calif.
As I was preparing for Wi15 in Baltimore next week, I found myself keeping an eye on another conference, the National Retail Federation's 2020 Vision: Retail's Big Show, which was held January 12-14 at a venue familiar to the book trade--New York City's Javits Center, site of BookExpo.
At Wi15, booksellers will be the well-deserved stars. This is as it was meant to be from the start. In 2006, Shelf Awareness noted: "Unlike the experience at BEA, there were few other distractions, and many booksellers enjoyed being the focus. One minor but telling example: at the Thursday lunch, publishers and media people were asked to wait a few minutes until booksellers found seats in the banquet hall. A bookseller commented on how nice it was to go to tables in the front of the room and not find all of them reserved for publishers."
Booksellers would not have been the stars at NRF's conference, but I was intrigued, reading the organization's blog, by the number of issues, goals and strategies up for discussion that seem to already be an essential element of indie bookstore DNA.
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| A familiar venue: NRF at the Javits Center. | |
While indie booksellers have been in a gradual renaissance for the past decade, NRF CEO Matthew Shay considered a briefer time span: "If you think back about five years ago, there was almost this question of whether the retail industry would survive. And that's no longer really a question. There are still a few pockets of folks who are naysayers that question the health of the industry, but overall, I think there's a recognition that you've got some real opportunities to perform and excel and multiple examples of companies that are doing that. And they're doing it not in the face of or in spite of this dramatic change but they are embracing it."
In a pre-show post titled "Coming soon: Taking stock of where we've been, where we're headed and how long it might take to get there," Susan Reda, NRF's v-p, education strategy and STORES magazine editor, wrote: "Success in 2020 is grounded in offering an incredible retail experience: How retailers tell a story, how shoppers experience it and the emotional connection that's left behind will allow vigilant businesses to raise the bar.... Customers can buy just about anything online; snag their attention with storytelling and hands-on interaction and your 'audience' will remember the experience.... The key to success when it comes to creating a store experience that shoppers want to return to again and again is grounded in engaged associates; investing in human capital is vital."
Nordstrom's co-president Erik Nordstrom spoke about the New York flagship store that opened last year, noting that Manhattan was the company's biggest online market. He observed that the reason for having a physical store has changed and the new location is the most experiential store Nordstrom has. As an example, he cited the inclusion of a bar in the main shoe department. "People are smiling," he said. "Strangers are talking to each other. We think a lot about shoes. I don't know why it took us so long to put drinking and shoes together, but it's a great combination."
Well, I can think of several booksellers who could have told him about that strategy a while back.
Looking forward, looking back.
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| Kelly Estep | |
As 2020 began, Bookselling This Week asked ABA board members for their New Year's resolutions. Kelly Estep, co-owner of Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville, Ky., said: "My resolution this year is to more clearly connect with our community in a way that will ultimately support our business and keep it growing. We are opening a dedicated event space and that will mean an expanded events schedule with some of those possibly being non-book related. Continuing the conversation with customers, community members, and our local and state government that local businesses need and deserve their support is a big part of that goal. For the board, this year is also about connection and direction with an exciting new leadership team at ABA. It's an exciting time to be a bookseller and a privilege to be part of this transition at ABA."
In 2007, around the time of Wi2 in Portland, Ore., I wrote: "Publishing industry headlines are still rife with closing indie bookstores and evolving technology that may threaten the very existence of 'fiber-based' texts. Should we be afraid, like medieval peasants terrified by the prospect of what army or disease might be coming over the hill to annihilate their village next? I don't think that way. It is, as it always has been, the end of some worlds and the beginning of other worlds. The peasants adapt to survive. So do the artists."
Oh, one last item from the NRF conference: Forbes reported that "this year, at the retail show, the country's largest retailers are talking about their plans to use robots, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine learning as a way to let their human staff do what humans do best, and connect with other humans--their customers."
My prediction: Wi15 will have great discussions about business and books, but the robots... will be fictional.