IPA president Bodour Al Qasimi and Frankfurter Buchmesse president and CEO Juergen Boos are to discuss on ‘The Hof’ the new ‘Inspire’ report on outlooks for a post-pandemic context in world publishing
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also today:
International Publishers Association Names Prix Voltaire Shortlist
Ahead of Frankfurt: Establishing a ‘World Expression Forum’ for Freedom of Speech
On ‘The Hof’ with Juergen Boos, Bodour Al Qasimi
As the pace quickens here at Frankfurter Buchmesse (Wednesday through Sunday, October 20 to 24), “The Hof” today (October 18) at 4 p.m. CEST will have commentary on a new report developed by the International Publishers Association (IPA)— an outlook for the world publishing industry’s eventual recovery from the still ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic‘s impact on the book business.
While trade visitors are gathering here in Germany for the first in-person iteration of the world’s largest book-publishing trade show in two years, delegates are keenly aware that the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center sees 4,900,105 deaths to date at this hour worldwide, with more than 240 million cases logged and more than 6.6 billion total vaccine doses administered.
Extensive precautionary measures are in place for access to Messe Frankfurt, and anyone needing full information on this should take care to read fully the hygiene concept notes produced by the show.
Free registration for this afternoon’s 4 p.m. CEST “The Hof” session is here. The hour features IPA president Bodour Al Qasimi and Frankfurt president and CEO Juergen Boos is here. This is an entirely digital event, available both to those here in Frankfurt with us and elsewhere in the world.
At issue will be a report in IPA’s “Inspire” series of events and programs, designed to help international publishing players envision, plan for, and enable a post-pandemic for the business.
Publishing Perspectives readers will recall the September inception of the IPA’s “Inspire” concept in which publishing and related entities sign on to the principles of the International Sustainable Publishing and Industry Resilience Charter (PDF).
That effort is behind today’s release of a new guide, How Global Publishing Can Channel Solidarity Into Opportunity (PDF).
As a next step, in the first quarter of 2022, IPA is to host a symposium which will broaden this analysis and “seek industry consensus on a more formal joint action plan with actionable recommendations.”
No Publishing Player Left Behind
Image: IPA Inspire Report
At bottom is an effort to—as one of the world’s most prominent political regimes likes to put it—”build back better” after the extraordinary trials of the pandemic.
In “The Hof” session is today at 4 p.m. CEST / 3 p.m. BST / 14:00 GMT / 10 am. ET, with Al Qasimi going over the intent and details of the Inspire plan, and Boos will go over with her the enormous response so far from organizations.
Some of the signatories to the Inspire charter. Image: IPA
To date, the 86 member-associations of the IPA have been joined by 52 publishing-related entities who want to work on this way forward, as well. They run from the book fairs of Delhi, Tbilisi, Sharjah, Buenos Aires, Amman, Baghdad, Casablanca, Rome, Torino, Seoul, and more to the ASEAN Book Publishers Association in Southeast Asia, PEN International, UNICEF, and more.
The newly released report builds on the initial survey effort, titled From Response to Recovery (PDF).
Al Qasimi will assert that the industry’s future success rests with every stakeholder–not only publishers. It’s her position that the road to recovery must, be able to accommodate the needs of all industry participants, without exception or exclusion.”
Image: IPA Inspire Report
More from Publishing Perspectives on the International Publishers Association is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the world media partner of the International Publishers Association.
More from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here.