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

TK

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

Understanding and utilizing Edelweiss is a critical part of bookselling in our time. The Edelweiss team will present this 101 session for stores who are not currently using the platform, as well as those that just want to learn more about the basics.

Advanced Display & Marketing: What's Your Big Idea? (And how well do they know it?)  |  Big Thompson

Let's workshop this: getting in touch with your "big idea" as a bookshop is your superpower. The way your raison d'etre shows up in your signage, curation and labyrinth of discovery (shelves and display) matters -- it sparks. Whatever your role in the bookshop, being clear, clever and compelling makes your messages stronger. We'll have lots of bookshop cameos and cases to look at as inspiration.

11:30AM - 12:30PM

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

TK

Edelweiss List View & More  |  Platte River

The Edelweiss team will offer a detailed session on raising everyone’s comfort with the new List View, and offer title discovery tools to build community and amplify diverse books.

Advanced Display & Marketing (2) with Lisa Uhrik  |  Big Thompson

TK

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..