For more than 80 years, the Independent College Bookstore Association (ICBA) has provided the necessary resources,

programs and opportunities to enhance every aspect of the professional development of in-stitutional stores and improve the success of their retail operations.

The association’s mission is to provide its member stores with the programs and ser-vices they need to establish themselves as the preferred management solution for their re-spective institution.

One of the most valuable opportunities for member store directors and buyers to improve their operations is to participate in ICBA’s an-nual Retail Conference and PRIMEtime.

The ICBA 2011 Retail Conference and PRIMEtime takes place Feb. 7-11 at the Green Valley Ranch in Las Vegas, Nev., during which store personnel can learn from professional development programs; network and collabo-rate with other institutional stores; strengthen relationships at social and dining events; en-gage in prescheduled meetings with vendors; and take advantage of buying opportunities.

ICBA Executive Director Stacy Waymire said that a total of 200 store directors and buy-ers (apparel, technology, academic resources, and school and office supplies) and 200 ven-dors are expected at the conference.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Smartest Thing.” Waymire explained that there has never been a time in the history of the industry when the future/existence of stores is being challenged.

“Our competition is bigger and smarter and more aggressive than it’s ever been,” he noted. “For example, competition for course material is stronger than ever. According to the National Association of College Stores (NACS), more than 20 percent of all course-material purchases are not done at the college store. As we move toward custom and digi-tal, our competitors will be, and already are, Amazon, Google, Apple, companies like that — some of the most powerful corporations in the world.

“Right now, everything you do has to be the smartest thing. Every decision you make about every product category, every relation-ship you have and certainly the future direc-tion of collegiate retail is all about doing the smartest thing.”

PRIMEtIMEOne of the most effective ways for store di-

rectors/buyers to build business partnerships with vendors and suppliers is through face-to-face meetings in both highly structured busi-ness settings and in relaxed social networking events.

ICBA’s marquee event at the conference, PRIMEtime, maximizes attendee interaction with vendors through pre-scheduled meet-ings that take place Monday, Feb. 7, through Wednesday, Feb. 9.

Last year, PRIMEtime featured 20-minute scheduled meetings, in which one-on-one sessions were held behind closed doors in a private meeting room. This year, PRIMEtime expands to 20-, 30- and 40-minute meetings to allow more time for store buyers to explore new products, promotions and marketing op-portunities, as well as grow relationships with the vendors that supply products and services to their stores.

“Our focus is more on our product cate-gory managers and buyers having dedicated, specific time with the leading companies in their category,” Waymire explained. “We want to have the most important vendors.”

PRIMEtime sessions focus on four different areas: apparel, backpacks and imprinted gifts; technology (consumer electronics and com-

Conference Advises Association Members to do the “Smartest Thing”

Conference Advises Association Members

ICBA Retail Conference Heads to Las Vegas

The Grand Valley Ranch in Las Vegas, Nev., will host the ICBA 2011 Retail Conference and PRIMEtime Feb. 7-11. (PHOTO COURTESY OF STATION CASINOS)

During PRIMEtime Apparel, attendees have a series of individual, one-to-one prescheduled meetings with participating apparel vendors

in the vendor’s private room. (PHOTO BY JILL WENGER, IDESIGN)

JANUARY 2011 • COLLEGE STORE EXECUTIVE6

puter products); academic resources (text-books and course materials); and school and office supplies.

One notable change with PRIMEtime ap-parel this year is that at the request of both buyers and vendors, ICBA has added time on Thursday morning for buyers to sched-ule their own meetings with vendors of their choice for order writing and additional plan-ning. This only applies to PRIMEtime apparel 20-minute, in-room vendors.

In addition to the formal PRIMEtime meet-ings, store directors/buyers and vendors will have plenty of casual networking opportuni-ties during the breakfasts, lunches, receptions and dinners held throughout the conference.

Another interactive event between store directors/buyers and vendors is PowerHall, in which 10-minute prescheduled meetings take place in a four-sided draped room. PowerHall sessions are scheduled on Tuesday, Feb. 8, and Wednesday, Feb. 9.

A third opportunity for store directors/buy-ers and vendors to interact takes place during Business Encounter, which are 25-minute ses-sions held behind closed doors in a private meeting room.

“It’s like PRIMEtime for store directors,” Waymire explained. “Small groups of store directors meet a series of vendors who are providing management resources to the store. It could be point of sale (POS), it could be e-commerce enhancements, it could be prod-uct forecasting tools or services, where the decision would be made by the store director and/or key management team.”

For the second straight year, small groups of store directors and key managers will meet with vendors to allow for more one-on-one in-teraction. Business Encounter is scheduled on Tuesday, Feb. 8.

ICBA will once again provide free offers for qualifying buyers, including free registration, free airfare and free ground transportation for primary buyers in three categories: apparel, backpacks and imprinted gifts; technology, consumer electronics and computer prod-

ucts; and school and office supplies.“We provide free registration, free airfare

and free ground transportation for the pri-mary buyers for apparel, technology and sup-plies,” ICBA Member Services Manager Sadja explained. “We have a limited number of free spaces, and they always go really fast.”

Waymire called the “three-for-free” pro-gram a win-win agreement. “We’ll pay your airfare, we’ll pay your ground transportation and we’ll give you free registration. In ex-change for that, you make sure to keep your schedule. Everybody walks away happy.”

EducatIonal SESSIonSIn addition to the meetings with vendors,

directors/buyers participate in three days of professional development sessions focused on improving and expanding skills in their area of expertise. Professional development sessions begin on Wednesday, Feb. 9, and run through Friday, Feb. 11.

Taught by professionals and colleagues from inside and outside the industry, the cur-riculum not only covers basic foundations for success — such as return on investment, financial analysis, marketing and merchan-dising — but also investigates critical issues

affecting business now and in the future.Waymire noted that the professional de-

velopment sessions focus on delivering the training that directors/buyers need to adapt and remain relevant in the rapidly changing college bookstore industry. Professional de-velopment sessions are divided into tracks, including Academic Resources Course (ARC), iTech, Apparel, Strategic Direction and Supply.

“Our approach is training and professional development,” he said. “On any given day at any given time, we have one thing we’re pro-viding for each of those groups. If you’re an ac-ademic resources manager, we have one thing at that time that we are going to deliver to you, not a choice of sessions, but one at a time.”

Sadja added, “Everybody attends sessions all day long. Everybody goes to everything, and that’s one of the very unique, very inter-esting things about ICBA and its members who attend.”

ARC training features professional devel-opment training for buyers and managers of academic resources, textbooks and course materials.

On Wednesday, Feb. 9, the ARC training will be joint sessions with Strategic Direc-tion attendees (store directors and key man-

agement staff). ARC sessions kick off with “Digital – It’s Not About E-Books: A Digital Con-tent Platform Update,” hosted by Waymire and Chris Tabor, president, Canadian Campus Retail Associates (CCRA), and director, Queen’s University Bookstore, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The session examines the strategic direction for the CCRA-NACS Media Solutions (NMS) Digital Content Plat-form and CampusEBookstore.com.

A panel discussion on textbook rentals takes place Wednesday afternoon. Led by Sherry Pollard, director of Retail Operations, University of Missouri Bookstores; Mike Reed, store director, Boise State

PRIMEtime Supply (PHOTO BY JILL WENGER, IDESIGN)

ICBA will present its annual Best Practices and Top Performers awards

during lunch on Thursday, Feb. 10. (PHOTO BY JILL WENGER, IDESIGN)

JANUARY 2011 • COLLEGE STORE EXECUTIVE8

University; and Frank Henninger, store direc-tor, Villanova University, the session focuses on how textbook rentals are impacting stores’ course material business and go-to-market strategies. The panel will examine how rentals have affected market share, customer reten-tion, used and new book sales, the reaction of students and faculty, and new metrics and methods — statistics, analysis and surveying.

On the apparel track, a session on “Retail Pricing Models” is scheduled on Friday, Feb. 11. Denny Feldman, retail consultant, VF Corp., talks about a variety of retail pricing models that offer department managers flexibility, while maintaining margin and profit goals. Attendees will learn what the advantages and outcomes are of various pricing models.

A session on “Succeeding with the ICBA Commit-Buy-Sell (CBS) Program” takes place Friday afternoon. Through the ICBA CBS pro-gram, basic, best-quality garments from es-tablished vendors are available to stores at low prices. Stores realize cost savings of more than 50 percent from best-buying program prices on T-shirts, fleece, hats and polos, with almost 1.2 million T-shirts sold since the program began in 2005. The session will share some of the variety of ways to use extra margin points for increasing department profitability, stellar promotions, building campus relationships and other successful actions.

On the iTech track, “Building Our Coopera-tive Business Model,” facilitated by the ICBA technology team and ICBA Program Manager Marty Duncan, takes place on Friday after-noon. In the highly competitive technology sector, ICBA stores can benefit from function-ing as a virtual chain. By sharing volume, cre-ativity, and commitment, stores can design new ways to buy, market and merchandise. This session will explore these new ideas.

In addition to the joint sessions with ARC attendees, a session of note on the strategic direction track is “The Power of Know,” on Friday afternoon. Hosted by the ICBA – Re-tail Merchandise Service Automation (RMSA) Peer Group, a group of stores will meet for the third straight year to share operating results at the category and class levels, exchange pro-cess improvements and consider where their retail categories are going.

For the supply track, “Market Trends” will be the focus on Wednesday, Feb. 9. Attendees will learn about new product innovations and trends; best sellers of 2010 and beyond; the newest graphic trends; and the future of the recycled products and sustainability.

Also that morning, a session entitled “Rise to the Challenge” will discuss what store direc-tors/buyers can do to brighten the future of their supply sales. They will learn from stores that have achieved performance awards and success in school and office supplies during the past few years. These member stores will share their secrets to success on the methods, measurements and best practices they em-ploy to control and improve their retail man-agement in this category.

On Thursday, Feb. 10, “Dare to be Demand-

ing: Vendor Relations” will provide directors/buyers with tools and ideas to assert their buying needs and produce the best outcome to meet their strategies. Participants will learn how to initiate, guide and develop partner-ships with their vendors; negotiate their needs and get what they want; and train their sales rep to support goals.

A session on the ICBA CBS Supply Pro-gram, which follows that morning, explores the feasibility of developing a CBS program for school and office supplies, using the success of the ICBA CBS apparel program as a model.

Marketing directors, managers and staff who attend the conference can participate in Marketing Zone, a program that applies to their marketing interests, featuring a blend of dynamic marketing sessions and product category-based sessions. Marketing Zone ses-sions take place on Thursday, Feb. 10, and Fri-day, Feb. 11.

To go along with the conference theme, each track will feature a session entitled “The Smartest Thing I Did Last Year,” a three-part facilitated exchange during which attendees will be asked to share their department’s stra-tegic actions structured along the following questions: What worked? What didn’t work? What are you going to try next?

“With the smartest thing, we don’t talk about just the hottest products,” Sadja said. “We talk about the processes, methods, analy-sis, marketing, things like that.”

GEnERal SESSIonSThe conference will feature three general

sessions for all directors/buyers to attend. “Analysis to Action, Three Real-Life Case Studies” will focus on the process of forecast-ing inventory. Representatives from three bookstores — Auburn University, Iowa State University and University of Arizona — will discuss how they addressed three different product categories, identified opportunities within problems and succeeded in achieved improved performance.

In “Innovation – Customer Acceptance and Return on Investment,” Michael Schrage, a research fellow with the MIT Sloan School of Management’s Center for Digital Business,

and a visiting fellow at the London Imperial College’s “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” program, will talk about his ongoing research and advisory work on “innovation risk man-agement” — exploring the economics and ethology of experimentation and simulation in managing innovation and risk.

The third general session, “Mobile Campus and Mobile Retail,” features representatives from Blackboard Mobile and Digby Mobile Commerce talking about how mobile devices are transforming campuses, how students learn, communicate, play and shop, and what it means for collegiate retailing.

awaRdSICBA will present its annual Best Practices

and Top Performers awards during lunch on Thursday, Feb. 10. Awards are presented to in-stitutional stores in the following categories: Excellence in Course Books Management; Excellence in Student Supplies Management; Excellence in General Books Management; Outstanding Insignia Product Performance; Excellence in Technology Product Manage-ment; and the MVP Award for Overall Out-standing Performance.

Member stores that participated in ICBA’s annual Operating Survey for at least the past five consecutive years; achieved top perfor-mances or best practices demonstrating suc-cessful execution of business strategies from 2005 to 2010; and whose performances are influenced by internal leadership, strategy development and execution, are eligible to re-ceive the awards.

confEREncE GoalSWith the one-on-one meetings, profes-

sional sessions and networking opportunities available through the week, the ICBA 2011 Retail Conference and PRIMEtime helps at-tendees better understand the current needs of their business, and also helps them imple-ment action to satisfy those needs and better serve their customers.

“Our goal is to help institutional stores be-come the best management resource avail-able on campus,” Sadja said.

—CSE

Store directors/buyers participate in three days of professional devel-opment sessions and collaborative learning designed to improve and expand skills in their area of expertise.

(PHOTO BY JILL WENGER, IDESIGN)

JANUARY 2011 • COLLEGE STORE EXECUTIVE10