International Conference of Book Fair Directors (CBFD) Seoul, South Korea, 13-17 May 2008
The following cities took part in the conference (their representatives are given in brackets): Beijing (Zhang Jichen), Bologna (Roberta Chinni), Bucharest (Christian Juncu), Buenos Aires (Marta Díaz), Frankfurt am Main (Jürgen Boos), Gothenburg (Anna Falck), Guadalajara (David Unger), Leipzig (Oliver Zille), London (Emma House, Alistair Burtenshaw), Prague (Dana Kalinová), Seoul (Tae-Kyung Choi), Taipei (Linden Lin), Thessaloniki (Catherine Velissaris)
Other members of the conference: Abu Dhabi (Claudia Kaiser), BookExpo America (Lance Fensterman), Budapest (Peter Zentai), Cape Town (Vanessa Broodian), New Delhi, Warsaw (Grzegorz Guzowski)
The host of this year's conference was the Association of Korean Publishers, which was also holding the 28th conference of the IPA (International Publishers' Association) and the international book fair in Seoul. The decision that these events should run concurrently – thus placing great demands on the organizers – proved highly effective as it brought together publishers from many different countries and the general public of Korea.
The conference became an informal association in 2002, on the occasion of the 4th successive meeting of the directors of international book fairs, in Gothenburg, Sweden, an event hosted by the management of the Bok & Bibliothek fair. Peter Weidhaas – who for many years was director of the Frankfurt Book Fair – was elected Chair. The meeting of book fair directors had been the initiative of Mrs Margarita Canales, erstwhile director of the Guadalajara fair, who was convinced of the importance of such a forum for the sharing of common interests and discussion of organizational matters. Early reactions to her proposal were rather sceptical. "Is it possible to discuss practical questions concerning the role of trade fairs as service providers? Are the directors of fairs like Frankfurt am Main and Bologna likely to learn anything from the organizers of fairs in places like Zimbabwe, Bogota, Bucharest and Taipei?"
The very first meetings in Bellagio, Italy in 1994 and 1996 – sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation – proved that every director could acquire something of value from his/her counterparts elsewhere while passing on a wealth of information on matters of business and organization.
A platform had been established for further meetings, which were held in Frankfurt (1998, at which Dana Kalinová of Book World Prague took part as a newcomer), Guadalajara (2000), Gothenburg (2002), Beijing (2004), Leipzig (2006), bringing us to this year's conference in Seoul. The host meets all costs connected with the accommodation of all participants and the programme, while the participants meet the cost of their own air fare.
Topics discussed at individual meetings have included: the function of the book fair within society; the future of the book fair; the influence on the book fair of electronic publishing; the harmonization of the dates on which book fairs are held; the design of exhibition spaces; public relations and the promotion in the media of book fair activities; using the Internet in the organizing of book fairs; a change of exhibition centre; how to support reading. Participants agree to promote one another's events, and to exchange exhibits used for promotional purposes and supporting services in the field of marketing. It follows that the meetings are successful not only in improving the quality of the work of individual organizers but also in the dissemination of business contacts and the support of the international book trade.
At the meeting in Seoul, Oliver Zille (Leipzig Book Fair) and Dana Kalinová (Book World Prague) were elected vice-presidents of the conference. For Book World Prague, the nomination of its director by the London Book Fair and the unanimous agreement with which this was met, is evidence from prestigious sources of the esteem in which the Czech book fair is held internationally.
29 June 2008
Dana Kalinová (with thanks to CBFD secretary David Unger for the use of information contained in his conference address)
www.bookworld.cz
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