NVNR Adds More Bookseller Retreats to 2026 Program
"The best part? Meeting booksellers in my territory and being able to make personal connections with them." --NVNR 2025 Attendee
Booksellers have all the best ideas!
After every NVNR, attendees are asked, among other things, "What was the best part of the conference?" And every year, one of the most common answers is "meeting people." Meeting authors. Meeting reps and publishers. And most especially, meeting other booksellers. Booksellers frequently say that some of the best ideas they brought back from NVNR came from talking to other booksellers.
"The best part is all the lovely hallway, elevator, and table discussions with new found friends." --NVNR 2025 Attendee
Creating space for bookseller-to-bookseller conversations and connections is a major goal of NVNR, which dedicates the last day of the program to bookseller retreats—extended sessions where booksellers share ideas and help each other solve problems. The retreats are arranged according to bookstore staff roles: Owners, General Managers, Event Managers, and so forth. There are always two retreats dedicated to Store Owners, one specifically for "One-Person Band" owners of very small stores. The other retreats offered have varied in the past, depending on the needs of that year's program.
In 2026, the program is expanding the number of available retreats from four to six, and will include the following:
Owners Retreat
Owners Retreat (One-Person Band)
General Managers Retreat
Children's Booksellers Retreat
Event, Program, and Marketing Staff Retreat
Frontline Booksellers Retreat
The goal is to have a retreat to fit every bookseller attendee. The retreats will all run concurrently on August 5 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Moderators will be present at each retreat, and all the retreats are only open to booksellers. No industry personnel or press are allowed in the room. The Owners' Retreats are also strictly limited to the bookstore owner(s) of record.
"The General Manager retreat was fascinating and helpful, and I found that was a really good way of getting ideas and learning things." --NVNR 2025 Attendee
The retreats are a key part of NVNR, always held on the final day, so booksellers have the opportunity to discuss what they have learned at the conference and to ask any questions they still have. It is also the ideas shared at the retreats that are most fresh in booksellers' minds as they return home and start putting what they have learned into practice. It is not unusual for booksellers to cite the retreats as the most valuable part of the program.
"I met a million other bookstore owners who all had so much great advice. I'm so glad I made the time to come, even though it meant closing the bookstore for those days I was gone. It was so worth it." --NVNR 2025 Attendee