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By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Dalheimer: ‘To Drive Our Industry Further’
Earlier this month, as you’ll recall, we reported the Top 10 start-ups chosen by Germany’s eighth international ContentShift accelerator program for book-publishing-related companies.
Today (June 28), the Börsenvereinsgruppe has announced the six shortlisted finalists, which will go into competition for the program’s conclusion.
All of this culminates in a winning start-up, which will receive €10,000 (US$10,900). And all participating start-ups have exclusive access to members of the program’s jury, which comprises decision-makers from the book industry. Jurors provide the start-ups with advice, support, and contacts during three intensive workshop days in September.
The jury then will decide who is to become “Start-up of the Year 2023,” after a public pitch round on October 19 of that top five at Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 18 to 22).
ContentShift’s 2023 Finalists
- Bookscreener from LeReTo offers an interactive, multi-disciplinary research and book tool that can make publishers’ specialist book inventory accessible. With interactive elements, it should make research for specialist knowledge more enjoyable.
- GoLexic offers a children’s reading promotional app that can be used at home or at school. The app allows children to work independently through 15-minute training sessions, working on skills that help improve reading and spelling.
- Lit-X makes literature success transparent and predictable based on data. For this purpose, the start-up offers dashboards and applications such as “trend scouting” and “pricing.” For example, publishers can take a look at the success drivers of a genre, compare them, and calculate probabilities of success by modifying factors.
- Summ AI describes itself as “Google Translate for easy language”: The AI-based tool translates complicated text into “easy language” defined in the area of accessibility, for example creating texts with shorter sentences, an “easy” choice of words, and accessible explanations.
- To Teach, Thea’s platform, uses AI to enable educational providers to digitize and enrich analog content easily, to create digital content, and to play it out to a target group. The platform helps with the creation of exercises, as well as with worksheets and other teaching materials consisting of text, audio, and gamification.
- XigXag has developed an app that combines listening and reading concepts along with a social platform. Listeners can switch between listening and reading for a single fee. They also get access to note-taking, quote sharing, word and illustration lookups, and community.
Speaking for the panel, jury spokesperson Per Dalheimer of Hugendubel is quoted today, saying, “This year’s six finalists cover key, forward-looking fields within the book industry.
“Each one of them brings new impulses to the table, including the fostering of reading skills, greater accessibility, and information processing.
“Their use of artificial intelligence as a kind of turbo booster helps to break down barriers and enable easier, lower-threshold access to books. We’re delighted about the incredible range of creative ideas made visible by the accelerator every year. Each one helps to drive our industry further.”
Jurors in the 2023 ContentShift Program
Jurors come from the companies that sponsor this year’s ContentShift. Those jurors and the companies they represent are:
- Martina Fiddrich (Cornelsen Verlag)
- Nina Hugendubel and Per Dalheimer (Hugendubel bookstore)
- Detlef Büttner and Leif Göritz (Lehmanns Media/Thalia bookstore)
- Colin Hauer (Hörbuch Hamburg)
- Wolfgang Pichler (MANZ Verlag and bookstore )
- Jasmin Ahluwalia and Philipp Neie (Schweitzer technical information)
- Stefanie Penck (TeNeues Verlag)
- Ronald Schild (MVB)
- Lennart Schneider (independent strategy consultant) is an external partner of the program
The initial pool of 44 applicants this year come from three continents, with represented countries including the Philippines, Romania, the Netherlands, France, and the United States.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the ContentShift program is here. More from us on the German market is here, and more on international book and publishing competitions and awards is here. Publishing Perspectives is a project of Frankfurter Buchmesse, operated through MVB US, Inc.