[inaudible conversations] ive been told we need to silent our cell phones. So, first of all, thank you all for joining us today. This is the most exciting that we had. I think its a remarkable time in our industry, and i am so excited to have you join us at the future of bricks and Mortar Retailes. This year, at retails big show, the keynote from rick caruso, the founder of caruso affiliated, said, we are part of the rebirth of brick and Mortar Retail. Were living in a moment of great change, surrounded by exciting technology. Its easy to get distracted by the relentless conversation about the internet and bricks and mortar. Now more than ever we need to folk us on what will be essential to the customer, creating an experience that is magical and memorable. For those of white house love books, book stores and book sells have always been magical and memorable. Today, were going to talk to some great booksellers, about creating great custom experiences and the future of brick and Mortar Retailing, whether you are a retailer, an author or publisher there are new ways to come at the business, and we hope to share some of those with you today. So let me introduce the panel. Well start from my immediate left, a person who many of you know. Oregon tiger, the the in the National Trade association for independent book sellers and has been working on behalf of independent book stores for more than 20 years to his left, michael chamblai noh. He was founder and ceo of book net canada. Directly to his left, you will see john ingram. The chairman and ceo of ingram content group, the Worlds Largest distributor of physical and Digital Content. John sevens as the chairman of ingram industrys board of directors. Next to him, joyce meskis, the owner and president of Tattered Cover book stores, one of the national the nations nationally recognized not book stores since 1974. She has long been active in the american book sellers association. And then directly to her left, youll see mike hasslebach, providing transportation and Category Management for thousands grocery club and special doors across the u. S. Mike has been with Home Entertainment for 19 years. And before that was with American Greetings for 15 years, and i have to tell you, the thing that stood out in talking to mike on the phone was his comment he has a passion for retailing. All of these people have a passion for retailing and book retailing specifically and im incredibly excited to talk to them about the fewer. So well start right away. And were going to talk about the instore experience. I think all of us know that ecommerce and mobile devices have made significant strides in the past few years but they can never really replace the instore personal experience. So one question i asked the panelists, among a long list of questions, i asked, what are some really great examples of what youre doing and what youre seeing other people do with respect to enhancing the instore shopping experience. Well start directly to my left with oren. Thank you. Good afternoon. I think the first thing and probably the moe important thing i can say about independent retail and the book business, that not only are we still here, there are more of us here, and the resurgence in indie book selling is real. As some of you may have seen we will announce tomorrow at the aba null town hall meeting, that for the First Time Since 2005, the American Booksellers Association members operate in more than 2,000 locations across the country. And you know, we know that there is a popular narrative out there often that attaches the word, beleaguered, to independent stores. The facts are quite contrary. Were actually experienced a resurgence in indie stores because theyre creating an experience consumers are responding to, are absolutely alive and well and making a real difference in creating experience for consumers that is fun, exciting, and compelling. Ill probably take a much more statistical approach to this in almost all of these. While i also come out of independent book selling and then chain physical book selling as well, spending a lot of my time working with ebooks, being sold through and in the context of bricks and Mortar Stores, and we look at the differences between the two. How are bricks and Mortar Stores selling Different Things than what ebook buyers buy, and to talk about your question and in sort of real pointed detail, whats the difference, where do we see that split taking place . That idea of the true browsing experience. The lateral and random walk through a store that so many of us do, to find the books we love, it still remains almost entirely a physical retail experience. We dont see the same kind of sales that you would see in a store, because there isnt that same casting your eye across tables and shelfs and fining that random and accidental treasure, and while were working like crazy to trial to dream up things that will help replicate that, were nowhere near there. It is fundmentally a physical store experience. John, what are some great examples youre seeing . Thank you. Makes me want to jump to some of the things we talked about, dominique. The to me its really about Engaging Community and its about innovation. Those are the key things. The days of just doing what you used to do and it being good enough, doesnt work anymore. And well probably get into that later. Do you want to get into it now . Well wait. Well do that later. I think those are some of the things you all are probably doing because youre still here. I think are some of the keys. But well let joyce do something specifically on that later. Well, there certainly is a renaissance of spirit in the independent community, and as i look in the audience and see some of my fellow and sister brother and sister colleagues, it is certainly the case that everyone is working as hard as they possibly can to engage the customer. Not only once they come in the store with merchandizing and events, but how do you get them into the store for that matter . And thinking about how we deal with the ebooks phenomenon, which has leveled out, by the way in terms of at least in our experience, with respect to people using the devices and the absolutely increased incremental sales we were seeing of a year or two or three or four ago. We have really seen it level out at this point, and people are back into the stores for the experience that they know and love, and as i think about what we can do for them, to bring them back, as an example, its hard to get a computer screen to pour a glass of wine for you when you come to our book happy hour at the Tattered Cover. Its hard during book and loves day to extend that rose into the hand of the customer who wants to give Something Special to a loved one, for example. Its hard to have your child engaged with others in their jammies on Family Friendly friday nights, to hear stories and authors read and other kinds of those events, that are impossible to create with the digital device. And the customer wants to feel appreciated, loved, and given information that they seek. Theres no question about it. Its also a matter of engaging the community to participate in the world of books, the media certainly, even nonbook events to bring the customer into the store, and then we look to the merchandizing opportunities that we have for the customer to make the purchase. So ill leave it at that for me moment, and continue on here. So, mike, i think your stores are very different. So, i know you have worked really regard to create a very a more engaging book section and a section that actually draws customers, has more of an experience and perhaps you can talk about that. Were a bit jealous because people who come into your stores and the independents theyre coming there to buy books inch our case, most of the people are not coming in to buy books. We sell a lot of books because they stumble upon them, but in essence theyre there to buy something else, groceries, get their prescriptions filled. What we found out is that just like you guys we have to figure out how to engage them as quickly as possible as the enter the store, so weve tried to create some exciting displays. We tried to put the newest releases up by the front door so that we at least have an opportunity to get some state of mind that books are in the stores. Weve worked with random house in readacrossamerica to make it an event. We have looked for other events, princess events, but the truth of the matter is we have to make the Department Look a little different to catch that consumers eye because we dont have the privilege of having anybody in the store handselling anything for us. So we utilize all of these types of things, crosspromotions, with legos in the toy aisle, with the lego toys, trying to get sort of that mindset of what people are in there to shop for already and then try to leverage that into books. Super. You know, im going to go a little deeper into the Community Aspect that joyce and oren started talking about. I think we have all done a tremendous amount of work in our communities and really the best independents foster that. So, joyce, you want to talk a little bit about you and i were on the phone, was staggered at the amount of events and things you talked about. So how do you connect better to your community and how have you seen stores work better to connect with their local communities . Let me go through the list a bit. And many of you here in the audience know some of these things very well, and better than i do. So youll bring that, i hope, to the table as well as we move through this panel. But as i was talking to dominique, i was talking about gathering the media, for instance, into our world, using it to the extent possible. Theyre looking for stories all the time. Thats true whether youre in a Small Town Community or a large town community, and you can be part of that story that they need, and that is very, very important. Public radio. As far as were concerned, one of our top interests in connecting with the community. We also have a series and have actually done this for a number of years, called, the land series, and in colorado, of course, were very concerned about ecological matters and things geographic because of our mountains and our geographical place in the world. And that draws many people over time to the different authors and books we feature, taking that as a niche, for instance in terms of promotion to our community at large. Really regional kinded of events. Yes, regional. We have writers respond to readers, an allday event. One of the few things we charge money for but we sell out the tickets witch i think 125 top that we can accommodate for an allday series of authors for folks that will come in and spend their saturday with us. And we sell out in minutes, as soon as they go on sale. Book club happy hour, i mentioned a little earlier. Once we get the folks in the store, we have a very impressive book selection that is on display, merchandizing, autograph book club, the old favorite of booked for summer kids reading program, and i see steve at the back of the room and talk about an incredible summer kids program, he certainly has developed one, in austin, which is remarkable, where kid goes to summer camp for books, actually, and its wonderful. I think he calls it book camp . Book camp. Yep. That came up a number of you mentioned it. Right. Again, the relationships with local media for free promotional events, book reviews in local papers, the neighborhood beat, Colorado Public Radio in our case, the local book club on one of the radio stations that features a lot of our promotional titles. Podcasts, as far as authors go, certainly some that we have had at our store but also tapping into what is being done out there in the world in terms of being able to pull it into your own web site. Crosspromotioned with other cultural institutions or writers groups. We also have a colorado opera come in and do some educational events as well as page to stage, which has to do with the local denver group that puts on plays. The libraries, of course, local colleges, i see chuck and dein the audience and i know they have done Amazing Things with their key will be operation with collaboration with the local college and groups they work with. Certainly the schools, giving tours to kids, telling them how a book gets published. Other kinds of tours for special interests. So, joyce in total, how many events does tattered run in a year . Between 500 and 600. I wanted you guys to get that number. When she told me that i was just stunned. Right . So, pretty remarkable. John . You want to talk about that, oren . And then john. Dominique, your comment about the localism movement in the connection to communities, its a little unnecessary to remind a group of largely independent booksellers that the localism movement in america has changed everything. Not just for book stores. There are literally millions and i mean millions of consumers every day who are making decisions to spend their dollar in a locally independent business because it is a locally independent business, and there are booksellers in this room who have been at the forefront of creating their local first shop local northwester their local, in their community. Many of you are familiar with the promotion that American Express did in november in conjunction with an event they created, calling Small Business saturday. You know that on that single day, on one day, 5. 7 billion was spent in independent businesses across the United States . Now, i like to joke that book stores got some of it. We didnt get all of it but a bunch of it. Its no longer just the imagination of a few people. The interconnection between local businesses to build community, for those businesses to Work Together, to crossmarket to crossmerchandize to come up with ways in which they can get a better response from their consumer, what we know, all the data, always shows that if you shop in one independent business, youre more likely to shop in another independent business. So, those partnerships, with other local stores, pay off and make an incredible difference and i think is absolutely at the center of why our members are doing better. And, john, i think you had some comments about this as well. Yes. I think what youre really talking about, dill still disstilled to one word, is vessels. What is relevance. How to be relevant to your community. Back to steve, at book people, not only reading camps but tapping into the local technology culture, the keep austin weird campaign, has a new one, keep austin eating, tapping into the restaurant scene. Those are clever, and there are lot of examples across the country of independents tapping in, trying to be relevant in their community. I mean, for instance, were a book store in maplewood, new jersey, all about special needs and really deeply servicing that particular need, not only with a great selection of books but with education opportunities, employment opportunities, i think this is how we have to think, and that its broader than just the mandate of selling books. Vero beach book center made friday morning the in place to be for preschoolers, where every friday morning a new great picturebook is read to a growing audience, and then they do activities afterwards. Building a clientele. You can go on and on with that. But taking it back in my mind, its about how to be relevant and how to be connected. So, im going to move now to a slightly different area, which is the merchandizing mix in stores. So, the data suggests that shifts between digital and physical format have slowed dramatically, and i think joist just talked about joyce just talk about that a little bit. I asked mike to actually lead us on this because what i wanted to know is how has the merchandizing mix changed in the last few years, and how do you see it changing in the future . How are we selling Different Things than we used to sell, and what does that mean for us Going Forward . Yeah. Again, ours is a little bit different because were already competing with thousands of different categories in our stores. So, within our department, we have had to become more curated. We dont have the space that we might have had five, six years ago, especially when around 2009, 2010, the economy wasnt so good, ebooks were starting to get some traction, the retailers, especially at the c level of our retailers, were look at books, trying to figure out if this is a category they want to be in. So we had to be relevant with a smaller front. So we have gone after more hard cover and trade paper, best sellers, going back to the relevance, the things that our consumers recognize when they walk into our stores. Movie too tieins. The young adult wave of movies, we good after those very hard. When we get into those and we get out placement in our retailers we more than double or normal market share of any of those categories, and those are the things that our retailer executives look at and say, this is a really gooding there to be in because we can garner that kind of market share. And one of the obvious ones is mass market. Mass market, we have really cut back in selection. We only carry the hard covers. Its probably been the hardest hit for us, and permanently i depends really personally i didnt see that happening when ebooks started. I thought theyre low price point and should be okay, but for us was the hardest hit, and we per pet waited that because as we look at the space, it was the loser 0, so we probably made that a little bigger than it should be. But it has plateaued at this point. Were starting to see comps coming back in, and we give it the right promotion, we can do fine. But the obvious winner for us in our market was kids. We have much bigger kids departments. We probably do 66 more Business Today than five years ago, with childrens books, because we saw it as one of the things we saw was that it was mom and we have soccer moms shopping our stores as we like to call them, a