Spring Road Trip Columbia
Columbia, Missouri
* Registration open until 4/16/24 at 5:00 PM (CST)
Event Details
MIBA Spring Road Trip April 17-18
A gathering of indie booksellers, industry partners, and authors
Our Spring Road Trip is a partnership with
Unbound Book Festival (see details below)
Sponsors
Thank you to our generous sponsors!
Overview
Skylark Bookshop, Yellow Dog Bookshop, & Black Tea Bookshop would like to invite the booksellers and friends of MIBA to Columbia, MO for the 2024 Spring Road Trip. The area where the bookstores are located is called "The District," an eclectic collection of people and businesses in downtown Columbia bound by three college campuses and encompassing 50 square blocks. The District is known for being rich with indie businesses, incorporating art installations, and maintaining important historical buildings, making it a vibrant and rich cultural hub.
- Booksellers from all areas of the store and of all knowledge levels - Owners, managers, and frontline; new and veteran. There will be something for everyone.
- Industry partners - We will collaborate closely with our industry partners to co-create education, title discovery opportunities, and opportunities to meet authors. A full slate of sponsorship and author placement opportunities will be posted before the end of the year, but please don't hesitate to be in touch with ideas.
Meeting location: We're meeting at Tiger Hotel, our indie bookstores, and various locations in the community, all within walking distance.
Author appearances
Lodging
The Tiger Hotel offers a variety of rooms ranging from $156-$244 USD per night. The hotel is a 1 minute walk from Skylark Bookshop and Yellow Dog Bookshop. Room block dates are April 16 through April 19. Last day to book: Friday, March 29
*If you are interested in staying for Unbound Book Festival, Tiger Hotel currently has rooms available for Friday April 19 and Saturday April 20. However, Friday/Saturday room rates are not available at the discounted room block rate. If the weekend hotel rate does not fit within your budget and you want to stay for Unbound, we recommend finding alternative lodging for the weekend.
Overflow hotel: The Broadway Columbia, a DoubleTree by Hilton by clicking here (This booking link is for April 17 to April 19, 2024. The hotel is completely sold out for April 19 and April 20, 2024. In the event anyone wanted to stay over for the weekend, they would need to move hotels.)
Agenda
| April 17 | |
| 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM | Registration Food and drink offered today: Beverage station (coffee, tea, iced tea, soft drinks and water) and packaged snacks throughout. During the Book Signing Reception, champagne/NA drinks and hors d'oeuvres will be passed. |
| 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM | Event kick-off and keynote author showcase |
| 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM | Rapid round of author reception introductions |
| 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM | Book signing celebration |
| 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM | Visit Skylark Bookshop, Yellow Dog Bookshop, and Black Tea Bookshop for a custom educational experience at each store. |
| 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM | Opening night party at the Columbia Art League Join us at the Columbia Art League (CAL) for an opening celebration! Co-owner of Yellow Dog Bookshop, Kelsey Hammond, is also Executive Director of this fabulous treasure, whose mission is to provide the community with a stimulating environment for experiencing the visual arts. Enjoy the art, the space, some dessert and wine, AND place your guesses and votes on the Shelf-Talker Haiku Wall. |
| April 18 | |
| 9:30 AM - 10:00 AM | Day 2 Opening Remarks Food and drink offered today: Beverage station (coffee, tea, iced tea, soft drinks and water); fruit and pastries in the morning; boxed lunch in the afternoon. |
| 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM | Ideas that Work generative education session |
| 10:45 AM - 11:30 AM | Breakout table conversations |
| 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM | Industry partner lunch |
| 1:15 PM - 2:00 PM | Session 1: Working with Schools Bookstores and school libraries share and promote many of the same values in the midst of a challenging political environment--literacy, access to reliable information, the joy of reading, and more. This session will focus on creating and maintaining relationships between your shop and your community's schools. Hosted by Skylark Bookshop bookseller Beth Hemke Shapiro (Skylark Bookshop), Candace Hulzier (Black Tea Bookshop), and local Columbia educators |
| 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM | Session 2: The Life of an Event Tour the full life of an event from brainstorm to follow-up. A broad overview packed with information designed to prepare you for future in-depth education and the best use of provided and available resources. Hosted by Carrie Koepke (Skylark Bookshop) and Ronnie Kutys (HarperCollins). |
| 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM | Unbound Book Festival Lit Crawl |
MIBA + Unbound Collab
MIBA Spring Road Trip: April 17-18
Unbound Book Festival: April 18-21
Unbound attendees: Book your free ticket to see Emily St. John Mandel
The Spring Road Trip is planned to coincide with Unbound Book Festival on April 18-21. Alex George, the owner of Skylark Bookshop, is also the director of Unbound Book Festival, which allows us to offer a unique pairing of trade and consumer-facing opportunities.
What does this mean?
- Our event will feature a synergy of learning opportunities provided by both MIBA and Unbound. After the Road Trip concludes, attendees will get to enjoy the world-class literary programming Unbound is famous for.
- Industry partners will have a rare opportunity to pitch authors for back-to-back trade AND consumer-facing promotional opportunities and personally attend/enjoy both aspects of this dual event.