Friday, October 12, 2012

PANZ News from Frankfurt #3

Frankfurt Book Fair, trade day 2 in action 

 Day 2 of the Frankfurt Buchmesse was again action-packed, both on the publishers’ stand in Halle 8 and with events across the fair grounds. While business continued, PANZ News sought an overview of the publisher event highlights.

8am: Heart of New Zealand Publishing Business Breakfast Peter Dowling, Alison Brook and Sam Elworthy (chaired by PANZ President Kevin Chapman) impressed their audience with good-old Kiwi flair at the Thursday morning publishing business breakfast. Over croissants and coffee the publishing trio – representing independent, multinational and academic aspects of the publishing market – led a ‘very informative and very informal’ discussion on the publishing industry and book market to foreign publishers and agents at the Book Fair. A lively question and answer session followed, and the general feeling in the room was that the speakers presented information in a relaxed and convivial environment while remaining professional and knowledgeable, and producing plenty of laughs.

11am: NZ Editors Buzz Panel Featuring editors Tracey Borgfeldt, Debra Millar, Jenny Hellen and Sarah Bennett, this half-hour session saw editors getting passionate about a book of their choice. The crowd filled up and more people drifted in to hear about the two novels and two works of non-fiction, from an editor’s perspective. Thanks to Riky Stock, Kevin Chapman and Julia Marshall for facilitating such a unique discussion.

 2pm: Innovative Education Hot Spot In the buzzing atmosphere of the educational Halle 4, 11 NZ educational publishers were given a 15-minute slot by moderator Karen Sewell to present the very best of their own educational resources. 8interactive got the ball rolling with their presentation of junior readers in digital format, while Mark Sayes of ESA Publications and Neale Pitches of South Pacific Press gave an impressive background to their long-established learning programmes. Kiwa Media and Hana Ltd were two more that stood out on the digital front, proving that the NZ educational publishing community is one of innovation and expertise. Indigenous educational publisher Hana Pomare summed up the ‘snappy’ event as one that added punch to the industry. ‘It was great to have publishers supporting each other.
We all agreed that coming together as a group of publishers at the fair was a really strong initiative. And because of that relations have strengthened… None of us are rushing off home, and the communication and relationships are already building.’
 To celebrate, the event concluded with the cracking open of bottles of New Zealand wine, and the day was almost done. Back at the NZ Stand, the remaining publishers made their way over to visit the Aussies across the Halle at their own stand party.





 Tomorrow PANZ will put on the ‘do’ of the week, and guests will be flocking to the NZ Stand at 5pm to celebrate the mid-point of the fair, the end of trade meetings for most, and an all-round spectacular week.

Listen to Catriona Ferguson in conversation with Jenny Bornholdt, Brian Falkner and Beatnik Books. For more news and updates on the Pavilion programme check out NZ Book Council Catriona Ferguson's blog: www.catrionanzbookcouncil.wordpress.com

 And for all the latest updates on New Zealand Guest of Honour: www.nzatfrankfurt.govt.nz www.facebook.com/NZatFrankfurt www.twitter.com/NZatFrankfurt

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