Join us in Bellevue for ICBA 2013

In case you hadn't heard the big news, start planning now to...

Escape to green, clean, sophisticated and stylish Bellevue, Washington, home to the greatest collection of high-tech companies outside of Silicon Valley and the site for our annual ICBA 2013 Retail Conference. Nestled between two mountain ranges on the shores of glittering Lake Washington, Bellevue is just 17 miles from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

ICBA 2013 Retail Conference

Business Encounter & PRIMEtime

February 4 to 8, 2013

Hyatt Regency Bellevue

900 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA  98004

A room rate of $164 + taxes, is offered for January 31 through February 9, 2013, while space is available. Room reservations will open soon.

Conference registration opens soon.

Plan to be part of it all at ICBA 2013

As always, ICBA 2013 promises to bring you brilliant solutions, best practices and connections with the brightest change-leaders in our industry.

Make it your mission

ICBA Professional Development programs are for everyone. Keep yourself updated by visiting our website. Known for addressing the most pressing issues in our industry and initiating solutions, ICBA mixes industry-leading Professional Development, face-to-face vendor meetings and peer-to-peer networking—to ensure everyone returns to their store rejuvenated and empowered to take the lead.

At ICBA Conferences, you experience:

• The highest rated professional education in the industry
• Exclusive institutional store networking and collaboration
• The most dynamic format for buyer and vendor interaction
• Unsurpassed buying opportunities
• Vibrant location and facilities
• All-inclusive format with a reputation for the best social and dining experiences
• Opportunities for free registration/education & airfare

Surrounded by State-of-the-Art Retailing

You’ll find unlimited retail research within four blocks of the Hyatt. With over 300 of the most important retailers in the world, this is a unique opportunity to explore, discover, borrow and steal ideas to improve your own store. Here are a few enticing highlights:

• The Bellevue Collection is “the new rhythm of retail.” Conveniently connected to Hyatt Regency Bellevue by sky bridges, this exciting collection merges 250 shops, 45 restaurants, as well as late-night hot-spots and a 16-screen premiere cinema. The collection includes Bellevue Place, Bellevue Square and Lincoln Square. Among others, explore Nordstrom’s, Apple, Macy's, Williams Sonoma, Microsoft, Pottery Barn, Tiffany’s, Crate & Barrel, Michael Kors, Hugo Boss, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer. www.bellevuecollection.com 

• The Bravern is an extraordinary definition of the ultimate shopping experience. Amid the architecture and lush landscaping reflecting intimate qualities of a European village, you’ll discover a perfect blend of dining, entertainment and shopping. Among others you’ll find the first and only Neiman Marcus in the Pacific Northwest, Salvator Ferragomo, Louis Vuitton, Tory Burch, Jimmy Choo, four signature restaurants including Wild Ginger and John Howie's Steak, as well as the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa. www.thebravern.com

• University BookStore, Bellevue exemplifies how to shop independent and be independent. In 1987 this 22,000 square-foot store was opened in downtown Bellevue, marking the first time the Book Store had conducted business from a site away from the UW campus. Freshly remodeled in 2011, as you browse “one of your own” you’ll be dazzled and inspired by their off-campus success in creating a destination and center of attraction for community events and connections. www.bookstore.washington.edu

More about Bellevue, Washington

“Bellevue is the Pacific Northwest’s premier resort shopping and dining destination, with hundreds of well-known upscale stores and unique boutiques, dozens of sit-down restaurants and take-out treat shops” Read More…

Conference registration opens soon...

List Serves Give You More Ways to Share

ICBA is excited to announce that we are now offering seven different Discussion Lists. Also known as “List Serves,” these seven lists further support exclusive, institutional store-to-store sharing and connects similar groups of buyers and managers quickly and easily. Use this interactive resource to communicate and connect with peers, get advice, find product and vendor information, ask questions, offer suggestions and seek or share support.

As an ICBA Member Store, you are welcome to subscribe to as many lists as you choose, by emailing Office@ICBAinc.com with the name of the list or lists you wish to join. The lists reach members who registered to participate in the list.

1. All (not associated with a specific category)
2. Directors & Managers
3. Course Materials & Academics
4. Apparel, Gifts & Backpacks
5. Technology
6. Supply
7. Marketing

As a service to member stores and to support our promise of store-to-store sharing, ICBA will occasionally subscribe you to one or more of the appropriate lists based on your job responsibilities. If you choose, you always have the ability to unsubscribe by following instructions on the bottom of the list message. For more specifics about the list serves, please login to your Member account.

As an ICBA member store you are easily connected to a vast array of information, and with the best minds and ideas in the industry. We encourage you to use all of ICBA’s interactive resources to connect and learn with your peers.

New Opportunities – Swimming, Not Sinking

"Come gather 'round people wherever you roam and admit that the waters around you have grown and accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone.  If your time to you is worth savin' then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone for the times they are a-changin’..."

It is incredible to me it was nearly FIFTY years ago when Bob Dylan penned the lyrics to The Times They Are a-Changin. I find it hard to believe how true his words remain today.  While change is constant, a noticeable difference today is how the pace of change has increased dramatically.  Two industries where this is most apparent include collegiate retail and consumer technology.

Luckily, I have always been a good swimmer and I have also learned to “swim” even faster over the years.  In fact, as a former lifeguard and water safety instructor, I once taught others to swim and survive. Hidden in this analogy of Bob Dylan’s music to present day, is the ability to stay afloat with a little determination and the power of ICBA - where we learn to swim and keep from "sinking like a stone."

As most stores do, BGSU approached the Annual ICBA Retail Conference, in Ft. Myers this past February, with the goal of identifying new business opportunities to offset some declining categories.  Borrowing a practice learned from University of Missouri’s Jeff Zeilenga, we logged the best ideas gleaned from the ICBA Conference, attaching dollar estimates for new revenue or cost savings where possible.  In addition to providing an ROI for the meeting expense, it also quickly focused our energy on specific initiatives to pursue.

One standout new business opportunity, identified by Wendy Schortgen from the BGSU Bookstore, was partnering with Mobile Generation to become a Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer.  We all agreed this was a critical priority to pursue.  Ideally, we wanted to have this in place (or at least visible) before the new student orientation programs began on June 6th.

Within a week we had secured the support of the BGSU administration and a draft agreement for review with university legal counsel was in hand.  After the typical back-and-forth negotiation over contract language, a final agreement was signed in late April.  Just a few short weeks later, Mobile Generation arrived to review a location and choose fixtures.  On June 6^th – the first day of new student orientation – the fixtures were delivered and installed. 

Although the Verizon kiosk was not yet operational, new BGSU students and their family members visiting the Bookstore can't possibly miss the bright red Verizon brand identity and logo.  With good brand visibility and knowledge of Verizon phones and services coming soon, our goal was accomplished.   Staff training and a “soft” launch is planned for late June and, while BGSU is still busy with orientation, the Verizon Kiosk will be fully operational in time for back to school.

It is highly unlikely we would have been aware of this new opportunity if not for the efforts of the ICBA team who brought Mobile Generation to the Annual Conference just four months ago.  The power of ICBA networking was also a factor in BGSU implementing this program.  University of Minnesota was a pilot location for a Mobile Generation Verizon kiosk.  Bob Crabb and Jim Kyle willingly shared their experience as a pilot along with pictures of the Verizon kiosk they had established.

There are a few lessons learned that connect with the opening theme and words of Bob Dylan.  Technology is rapidly evolving – changing how students learn and how faculty members teach.  No one can predict what the future will hold for college stores and how the convergence of mobile technologies, such as tablets and smart phones, will impact higher education, but it is a given that the significant growth will continue.

More importantly, it is changing consumer expectations.  These are the consumers that campus retailers need to be positioned to serve if we are to survive and even thrive.  Therefore, it is essential for college stores to not only meet consumer demand, but to be perceived as an essential resource – for printed and digital content and the evolving mobile technologies used to communicate in the future.

To be positioned for a successful future, any organization must be able to adapt quickly to change and take advantage of new opportunities.  As the technology evolves, so must college stores.  The alternative is to risk being left out of that future, falling behind, and becoming marginalized with their customers - no longer being viewed as an essential resource.  Carpe diem! Seize the day!  Don't just survive - thrive!

Written by Guest Blogger, Jeff Nelson, Director, BGSU Bookstore

eText Strategy Webinar

On May 9 Campus Technology presented a webinar eText Strategies: Creating a Path to Digital. It was sponsored by McGraw Hill. Basically this webinar is a look at the approach taken at the University of Indiana where the school guarantees 100% of the students enrolled in a class will buy the digital course materials in exchange for the publisher reducing the price of the digital content relative to the price of the same content in hard copy. This model is currently being piloted in various forms by The Big Ten Committee for Institutional Cooperation, EDUCAUSE and Internet 2, University of Minnesota Bookstore, Follett's new IncludED program, Collegiate Retail Alliance, and others. Participating publishers vary from pilot to pilot. The webinar addresses a couple of the current pilots.

At about 34:16 minutes into the webinar, Brad Wheeler, VP of IT at Indiana is asked a question about the bookstore’s role.  He speaks favorably on the role of bookstores, and notes that at IU they outsourced their bookstore.  At about 49:47 minutes Tim Peyton, Senior Director of Marketing at McGraw Hill, explains what is happening with Minnesota and the role the store can play versus charging course fees. 

This webinar is available for viewing to anyone. To access the webinar you simply register with Campus Technology:


http://campustechnology.com/webcasts/list/webinars.aspx?pc=e999tl01&utm_source=webmktg&utm_medium=sn&utm_campaign=e999tl01


eText Strategies: Creating a Path to Digital

Developing an eText strategy that will serve the needs of institutions, faculty, and students requires thoughtful planning. This presentation will use the Indiana University experience as a case study to explore the strategic, business, and policy issues that institutions should consider when exploring an institutional eText strategy or considering an eText initiative.

Posted by Stacy Waymire Executive Director

Dramatic Shift to Digital

Tech Crunch TV has posted a very interesting interview with McGraw Hill Higher Education President Brian Kibby. Kibby shares McGraw's timeline regarding the adoption of digital. Equally important he explains the distinction between ebooks, econtent and the integrated learning experience delivered by "digital". In presentations at ICBA Conferences and at ICBA presentations at various state and regional meetings we have shared what we call monetizing acess to a website (MAW). The financial transaction for a student to engage with the type of econtent Kibby describes is the purchase of an access code. There are a variety of names various organizations use; resource codes, registration codes, PINs, etc. At ICBA we choose to use the term access code. This code allows the student to engage with learning materials online through a digital device. The move to digital means that the most significant "course material" product to be sold in the future will be access codes. At a running time of 8 minutes this video is worth viewing, especially the first three minutes.But to help make it easier here is a rough transcript of Kibby's dramatic opening remarks:

"The adoption of ebooks is accelerating, or econtent as I like to call it because it's more than just ebooks. It's content that is simulations, and it's an integrated learning experience...So that uptick is accelerating. I think over the next 18 months we'll see a sea change across the board...Right now the uptick might be 3% some places, sometimes 5%. You will have schools in the not not too distant future with nothing but ebooks, econtent. And that could be 12 to 18 months away in some cases. I think within a 12 month period we'll see a rapid acceleration of it. And I think within 36 months we'll see a sort of national uptick of digital...Within 36 months we'll see a dramatic shift in the use of digital across the board at the higher education level. It will be dramatic. It could be 18 months, but certainly within 36 months we will see an incredible change there."

An Interview With McGraw-Hill Higher Education President, Brian Kibby, About The Future of Ebooks
http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/09/an-interview-with-mcgraw-hill-higher-education-president-brian-kibby-about-the-future-of-ebooks-tctv/

"Mastering" Customer Service

If you are a golfer, this is one of the greatest weeks of the year—Masters Week. If you are not a golfer,
don’t worry, this is more about customer service than golf.

I was fortunate enough to make the trip to Augusta, GA, home of Augusta National and the Masters, earlier this week for the Monday practice round. Having wanted to attend this
tournament for the past 40+ years, I was excited beyond belief.

The day started at 6:30
a.m. with the drive to the course. We parked our car and headed for the main gate. There we were greeted by one of Augusta’s finest directing traffic (who undoubtedly had been there for several hours). The smile on his face and his
humor in dealing with a crowd that did not want to wait for traffic to clear before crossing got my day started off right.

Once across the street and onto the grounds of Augusta National, everyone we encountered greeted us with a smile and “Welcome to the Master.” I mean everyone—security, ticket takers, marshals, concessionaires…even the guys monitoring the restrooms.

It got me thinking about customer service in our industry. First, let me point out, that each of these folks I encountered is a volunteer. They are not paid to be there. They do it for the love of the game and for the prestige of working the Masters and what it represents. Do your paid employees share this level enthusiasm for your store? Does everyone greet your customers with “Welcome to the Bookstore?”

If you’ve ever watched the Masters tournament on TV, trust me, it does not do the place justice. The grounds of August National are immaculate. Everything in its place and nothing is out of place. I was hard pressed to find a piece of trash on the course or at the concession stands. Again, superior levels of customer service in how the place looks to its patrons.

And in the merchandise shop, as busy as this was throughout the day, the shelves were always neat and organized. We were there at about 3:30pm, during the heat of the day. It was crowded, hectic and hot, but every associate in the shop had a smile on their face and were eager to help find a size, color or item. And again, these are volunteers!

Finally, as we left the course, we were told “Thank you for coming.” What a way to end a fabulous day and experience.

We’ve all been to enough industry sessions to know what good customer service is. But are we making this an integral part of our store and university branding? If volunteers, up before dawn and working in hot 90 degree days or rainy conditions, dealing with rush-like crowds can exude
this “Masters” attitude, I know our industry employees can as well. Have you set Masters-like customer service standards for your store and employees? Do your employees support these standards with their actions? Make sure your employees are “Mastering” customer service on your campus.

Written by Marty Duncan, ICBA Program Manager

Thank you Ken Bankson!

This year, at the ICBA 2012 Retail Conference, we honor our long time colleague and friend, Ken Bankson of RMSA for his continuous dedication and support in helping ICBA stores achieve financial success.

From the creation of the RMSA-ICBA forum to our RMSA-ICBA Peer Group conference calls - growing so popular they are now Peer Group webinars - Ken brings immeasurable value to our members during these dynamic times in our industry. Stemming from his passion for retailing and building strong client relationships, Ken selflessly regards the needs of our members as his first priority. For this, ICBA thanks Ken Bankson for all he has done and will continue to do for ICBA Stores.

With gratitude, Ken Bankson shares the following:

Dear ICBA,

Thank you for your recognition at the ICBA Retail Conference. To say I was stunned and thrilled at the same time would be understating my emotions. Having passion for this industry is easy due to the fine people I have met over the past 15 years. The passion has grown the last few years now that I am directly working with many of your members. The challenges they face due to the change in the industry are significant - creating great opportunity as well as potential risk, Helping them maximize their opportunities while minimizing their risk is very rewarding.

I am lucky that RMSA has been able to build such a strong, beneficial bond with ICBA. I look forward to seeing many of you at CAMEX in Salt Lake City and to many more years of working together with my friends at RMSA.

All the best,
Ken Bankson

About RMSA:
RMSA works with retailers on a personal and individual basis to improve the performance of their business by achieving specific and measurable goals. ICBA has partnered with Retail Merchandise Service Automation (RMSA) for more than ten years. RMSA is the nation’s oldest and largest company offering retail merchandise planning, forecasting and inventory management services. For more information please visit the ICBA Website, Retail Management (RMSA)

Written By Skye Carlson, ICBA Administrative Assistant