ATLANTA, Ga. – It’s no easy job to select a winner from hundreds of good suggestions for naming a trade show, but the job has been done for a new show that makes its debut at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta on Aug. 10-12
The name selected for the show, which will allow book store inventory buyers, gift shop owners and other book and specialty item shops to stock up for the holiday selling season, is “The Great American Bargain Book Show,” or “GABBS” for short. According to show owner Larry May of Knoxville, Tenn., the show’s slogan will by “GABBS – talk it up!”
The winning name for the show was submitted by Shayne Hix of Bluegrass Books in Bowling Green, Ky. He won an all-expenses-
Runners up in the contest were Doug Robinson of the Eagle Eye Bookshop in Decatur, Ga., who won a skid of remainder books for suggesting “Fall Book Show,” Jonathan Nirkravesh of Tribeca Books, Plainview, N.Y., whose entry was “Summer Book Show” and Peter Glassman of Books of Wonder, New York, N.Y., for "Atlanta Remainder Book Expo” (ARBE).
Although it was not an official competition category in the contest, the show judges gave a prize for the funniest suggestion for a show name to Thomas Gard of the Mast Community Charter School in Philadelphia, Pa. Gard suggested that since the show primarily features remaindered books being sold at deep discounts, it be named the "We Totally Over-Estimated the Demand for These Books" Show.
Larry and Val May, who own the Great American Bargain Book Show, also own the Spring Book Show, which has been held annually at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta in March for a number of years. The new GABBS show, which will be held annually at the GWCC in August, is the result of the Mays buying the former Onboard Show held in Nashville and moving it to Atlanta. The Spring Book Show and GABBS, which attract an international clientele, are among the three largest bargain book shows in the nation.
