Winter Institute 2025 officially kicked off last night with an opening reception at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, Colo. A thousand booksellers and other attendees celebrated the 20th Winter Institute, the 125th anniversary of the American Booksellers Association, and the fifth anniversary of Bookshop.org.
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| Allison Hill | |
ABA CEO Allison Hill welcomed the crowd, and thanked lead sponsor Ingram, which is committed "not only to this event, but to the entire indie channel." She also thanked Bookshop.org, which "saved many independent bookstores during the pandemic" and has "removed many obstacles that were barriers to entry for many people who wanted to open bookstores. Bookshop.org has championed independent bookstores, contributed to your bottom line, and launched an international conversation about the value of shopping in indies."
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| Andy Hunter | |
Bookshop CEO Andy Hunter noted that Bookshop has added 300 stores in the last year, for a total of 2,200. The platform launched e-book sales three weeks ago, and it has sent more than $36 million directly to indie bookstores over the past five years. And despite having 300 more stores, Bookshop was able to give the stores even more money than in previous years "because we are growing the size of the pie." That's because "there are a lot of book lovers who are not crazy about supporting winner-take-all companies like Amazon anymore. The people in power right now are people who think that in order to be a winner, somebody else has to lose, but it's not true. We can all win together. That's what Bookshop.org is all about."
Winter Institute events began on Saturday and included the inaugural IGNITE conference for BIPOC booksellers, bookstore tours, the Indie Press Summit, panels, and more. Today's programming starts with a Breakfast Keynote featuring author and educator Ocean Vuong, on "Alternative Truths: the bookstore and library as sites of counter knowledge, play, inquiry, and freedom."