International Publishers Congress 2018: the countdown begins!

The 32nd edition of International Publishers Congress is just round the corner and the publishing industry across the world is eyeing this event in New Delhi. Here’s a sneak peek. The 32nd International Publishers Congress will be organized in New Delhi, India from 10–14 February 2018, at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi. This conference is organized by International Publishers Association (IPA), in association with Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP).

The organisers…

IPA is the world’s largest federation of national, regional and specialist publishers’ associations. Its membership comprises 70 organisations from 60 countries in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Americas. Through its members, IPA represents thousands of individual publishers around the world who service markets containing more than 5.6 billion people. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, IPA represents the interests of the publishing industry in international fora and wherever publishers’ interests are at stake.

While, the Federation of Indian Publishers is the representative body of publishers in English, Hindi and other regional Languages with its membership from all over India, representing more than 80 percent of the publishing industry. All the leading publishers of the country are its direct members, other publishers being represented through various local associations.

The programme…

The Theme of The Congress is Shaping the Future: Innovation Meets Experience. It will be a platform to present, question, debate, analyze—and finally emerge with a new set of perspectives, ideas and takeaways that will help reimagine the publishing landscape.

The Opening Session will start with the welcome address by Asoke Ghosh; IPA president Michiel Kolman and FIP president NK Mehra. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has also been invited for the event. This will be followed by a conversation with keynote speaker.

The first session: Shaping the future of IP in publishing will feature A conversation with Francis Gurry (director general, WIPO, Switzerland)and Maria Pallante (CEO, Association of American Publishers, USA). This session will be chaired by Michiel Kolman (Elsevier; IPA president, Netherlands). While, the second session on Copyright will be chaired by Paul Doda (Elsevier; chair, IPA Copyright Committee, USA).

Day 2 will open with a session on The threat of self-censorship in publishing, chaired by Kristenn Einarsson (Norwegian Publishers Association; chair, IPA Freedom to Publish Committee).The session Do awards and recognitions help? will see a keynote speech by Jennifer Clement (president, PEN International, Mexico) and chaired by Shekhar Gupta (journalist, India).The session on Creating the Readers of the Future will be chaired by Bodour Al Qasimi (founder & CEO, Kalimat Group, United Arab Emirates).The session on Online literature will be chaired by Mingzhou Zhang (General Manager, China Children´s Press & Publication Group, China). While, the session on Social responsibility of publishers will be chaired by Hugo Setzer, (Manual Moderno; IPA Vice-President, Mexico)

Day 3 will see a session on Book markets in India, chaired by Asoke Ghosh (chairman, Prentice Hall of India, India) while the session on Strengthening Local Edu. Pub. Capacity in Developing Countries will be chaired by Wilmar Diepgrond (Bildungsverlag EINS; chair, IPA Educational Publishers Forum, Germany). While, session on Collective rights management will be chaired by Ana Maria Cabanellas (Grupo Claridad; IPA past President, Argentina).

Two other interesting sessions will include Problems and opportunities of globalization and STM publishing. The latter will be chaired by Michael Mabe, (CEO, STM Association, UK).

All Congress sessions will be interpreted in the official languages: English and Hindi.

Come be a part of this informative and interesting conference!

FIP president NK Mehra shares…

NK Mehra, president, FIP“IPA Congress is coming to India after 25 years and we are holding it at the same place at the Taj Diplomatic Hotel. The FIP is also holding a dinner at the first day on arrival of the delegates. Another important highlight is that we will be taking all the delegates to Agra on a visit to Taj Mahal to make this event truly memorable,” shares NK Mehra, president, FIP.

On asking about how many participants they are expecting, Mehra shared that they are expecting between 100-150 foreign and 300-350 Indian participants. In total, they are expecting around 500 delegates.

So what would be the key takeaways from the conference? “There would be a cross connection between people and they can learn more about technology development, electronic publishing, recent developments in the publishing world and ofcourse copyright will be another hot topic. Then there would be discussions on freedom to publish and self-publishing. So, this is a unique opportunity for all. It’s not a trade fair…people should come with an idea of exchanging information and how we can help each other and look at various possibilities. This opportunity is unique and seldom. And great one to discuss. Infact it is a place to make and develop contact which we cannot do in international book fairs,” concluded Mehra.