Our Trip to the MPIBA Trade Show in Denver, Colorado

Cally and I just returned from a (lightning-quick, whirlwindy) trip to Denver, Colorado where I gave several presentations to room-fulls of booksellers and book publishers at the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association annual trade show. The good folks at MPIBA are currently working on two very exciting web site projects with us, and have worked with us in the past on a consulting basis. We were delighted when they asked us if we’d come out to Denver to present our web marketing strategies at their trade show—not only because we love to spread the word, but because I (semi-randomly) have a lot of family out in the area. And any excuse to see them is good enough for me!

So, in addition to our presentations at the conference—which I’ll get to below—we also got to see the Colorado wing of my family—my two sisters, my oldest brother, my favorite niece, and my brand-spanking-new nephew—most of whom live just up the road in Boulder. We packed a year’s worth of work into three busy days and one very beige rental car.

We returned home tired to a good old-fashioned rainy and cold New England day—which we were both oddly happy to see. Some quick lessons from our trip: 1. Southwest’s Early-Bird Check-In is totally worth it; 2. as is spending the extra dough for a direct flight; 3. as is spending the extra dough for parking in the airport garage; 4. hotel shuttles are a great and cheap way to travel to and from the airport—and apparently they don’t care if you even stayed at their hotel….

Now, on to the real matter at hand!

Content Marketing: The First Presentation

The first presentation I delivered was an hour-long workshop on the virtues, strategies, and pitfalls of content marketing. I walked the folks in the room through the stages of my descent into this world of digital strategy and marketing. I felt it was important—if I wanted the audience to take me seriously—to explain that I started out as much of a skeptic about social media as anyone else. Why should I care that my friends are brushing their teeth or cleaning up after their dogs?!

Friend: I’ve got the plastic bag on my hand, and I’m picking up Fido’s hot freshie!
Me: DAMNIT! I hate social media!

But one day my skepticism was blown away by the success of some campaigns and strategies I was testing out for the book publishing company for which I was working. Using some neat Twitter tactics—and not too much time, we were able to reach 24,000 targeted folks and sell a decent number of books. The details of this story warrant their own blog post, so for now, I’ll leave you salivating.

The whole workshop went very well. Every seat was full and people were sitting on the floor and standing at the back of the room. People were nodding, laughing (at AND with me), and taking notes. The only woman to walk out came up to me later and apologized—she was overloaded from a long day of speakers—which I can appreciate! I’ve been the walker-outer before.

I did have slides on the big screen behind me, which I’ve included in a slideshow below. But, as anyone who has seen me speak already knows, I go very lightly on the visuals. I try—due to my Edward Tuftean sensibilities—to only show visuals when they can add to, or clarify something in, the presentation. I. WILL. NOT. READ. BULLET POINTS. It drives me insane when presenters do it. I can read.

So here are my slides. Without the accompanying presentation, I question their value, but some of you have requested that I put them online.

Here are some photos from the show—taken by Cally.

(Note the one where I’m smiling and facing the camera: Cally’s artistic direction, “Suck it in.”) Also, yes. Apparently I’m now a long-haired fat hippie from Vermont. And believe me, I didn’t see it coming either!

Buzz About Books: The Second Presentation

The second presentation I was happy to give was the unveiling of our Buzz About Books project! This is a new web site we’re building for MPIBA with the goal of helping independent booksellers shed some light into the dark areas of their inventories. This site is a book-selling platform dedicated to selling rare books and books that have been signed by their authors.

This site will become the centralized location online to showcase and organize the signed copy inventory of bookstores across the mountains & plains regions. We are hoping to create a stream of targeted customers (seeking signed copies of books) into which all these separate bookstores can place their offerings. Buzz About Books is a free service and will redirect all customers back to the original bookseller to complete the sale.

We are currently inviting interested booksellers to sign up as beta-testers so that we can load the site full of books and begin poking and prodding the process. If you’re interested, please sign up at http://www.buzzaboutbooks.org!

The Rest of the Trip

Now here are some great shots Cally took from the rest of the trip, including some of our hike in Chautauqua Park in Boulder. YES I WENT HIKING! (sheesh.)