Monday, October 6, 2025

10:15AM - 11:15AM

Conversations with Colleagues  |  Big Thompson

ALTERNATIVE MODEL BOOKSTORES
Owners and managers of pop-up, mobile, and on-line only bookstores are invited to gather to talk about the unique challenges and joys of running an "alternative model" bookstore. Bring your success stories and questions and engage with your peers in a moderated conversation.

2:00PM - 3:00PM

Conversations with Colleagues  |  Big Thompson

BOOKSTORE BARS AND CAFES
If your bookstore operates a coffee shop, bar, or cafe on site, join your colleagues to discuss the specific challenges presented by selling food and beverages. Share your success and ask your questions in a moderated conversation with your peers.

3:15PM - 4:15PM

Conversations with Colleagues  |  Big Thompson

USED BOOKSTORES
Owners and managers of stores selling a MAJORITY of used books are invited to gather to discuss topics specific to used book sales. Bring your questions and your tips and tricks, and engage in this moderated conversation with your peers.

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

10:00AM - 11:00AM

THE EXPERT IS IN: BUYING  |  EXHIBIT HALL FOYER

Our volunteer bookselling "experts" are willing to help! During this hour, visit the Ask and Expert table to ask a specific question, or listen to the valuable Q&A.

11:00AM - 12:00PM

THE EXPERT IS IN: AUTHOR EVENTS  |  EXHIBIT HALL FOYER

Our volunteer bookselling "experts" are willing to help! During this hour, visit the Ask and Expert table to ask a specific question, or listen to the valuable Q&A.

2:00pM - 3:00pM

THE EXPERT IS IN: INVENTORY MANAGEMENT  |  EXHIBIT HALL FOYER

Our volunteer bookselling "experts" are willing to help! During this hour, visit the Ask and Expert table to ask a specific question, or listen to the valuable Q&A.

3:00pM - 4:00pM

THE EXPERT IS IN: SOCIAL MEDIA & MARKETING  |  EXHIBIT HALL FOYER

Our volunteer bookselling "experts" are willing to help! During this hour, visit the Ask and Expert table to ask a specific question, or listen to the valuable Q&A. 

Wednesday October 8, 2025

10:15AM - 11:15AM

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Middle Grade? Redefining middle grade from the buying, merchandising, marketing and events perspectives  |  Cherry Creek

An Introduction to Edelweiss -- What it is, why you need it, and how to get started  |  Platte River

Join us for an Edelweiss 101 session designed for stores who are new to the platform or just want to learn more! We will cover what Edelweiss is and how it supports booksellers, with attention to title discovery and inventory management tools—including an intro to ordering on Edelweiss as well as Analytics and 360 add-ons. 

Dang, That's Good: Clear, Clever and Connected Displays  |  Big Thompson

Let's take your store's Big Idea into every display. Your raison d'etre can clearly and cleverly show up in signage, curation and your labyrinth of discovery, where everything feels connected.  We’ll be active and inspired by lots of bookshop photos. Presented by Lisa Uhrik, CEO of Franklin Fixtures, and Executive Director of Plenty Downtown Bookshop, with thanks to the Professional Booksellers School.

11:30AM - 12:30PM

Bookselling in the Modern Era: How to leverage digital media and SOCIAL MEDIA infulencers in growing your sales  |  Cherry Creek

Edelweiss List View & More  |  Platte River

This session will take booksellers through the key improvements available in Edelweiss’s refreshed List View! We are excited to show off updates made to address feedback from users like you and increase the efficiency of your workflow. The session will cover title discovery, catalog navigation, and basic order creation in the New View. We will also cover community integrations and other options for collaborating and connecting with your peers in the indie market. 

Turns, Returns and Emperors with No Clothes  |  Big Thompson

Let's take a step back and challenge conventional wisdom when it comes to our turns and returns expectations.  Using retail research norms, bookshop norms and case studies from some innovative practices, let's work at stronger and more sustainable models that help us do this work.  What if we sold every book we purchased?  And what else can we do to change the model?  Presented by Lisa Uhrik, CEO of Franklin Fixtures, and Executive Director of Plenty Downtown Bookshop, with thanks to the Professional Booksellers School.

12:45PM - 2:00pm

ABA Education Lunch  |  Telluride

MEASURE WHAT MATTERS
During times of upheaval and uncertainty it’s difficult to determine which priorities to focus attention on. This session is designed to help you do just that. We’ll review KPIs like $ per transaction, $ per linear feet, # of transactions, and inventory turn rate as well as cash flow, cost of goods, and net profit. We’ll talk about how to use this information to make impactful changes in your store. By the end of this session, participants will understand and be able to track and interpret key metrics to improve profitability, manage cash flow, and make data-driven business decisions during economic downturns and inflation. Optional boxed lunch tickets are available for purchase.

2:15PM - 3:15pm

ABFE Education  |  Telluride

NAVIGATING ATTACKS ON YOUR STORE
Learn best practices and strategies for dealing with harassment, threats, vandalism, and other attacks targeting your curation and events. Sometimes these are one-off instances, but in other cases, it has snowballed into extended campaigns targeting stores with hundreds of calls and messages in addition to protests, threats, and vandalism. American Booksellers for Free Expression, ABA’s free expression initiative, has been supporting stores one by one as these issues arise, but there are steps you can take now to make yourself more resilient and less likely to be targeted. This workshop will go over some common themes in these attacks, resources available to guide your response, some common pitfalls, and ways to proactively defend against them..