#fbm20: Taking stock after the trade visitor days
Until today 148,000 users from 183 countries used the fair’s digital offerings
Juergen Boos, Director of Frankfurter Buchmesse, gave a positive assessment on Friday of this year’s book fair, as the traditional trade visitor days come to a close. A total of 4,422 digital exhibitors from 103 countries registered to use the buchmesse.de platform. The digital event calendar lists 3,627 events in the week of the fair. During the week of the fair, 2,362 trade visitors used the Matchmaking Tool, which continues to remain available for searching for and making contact with potential business partners.
Since 1 October 2020 4,165 seller and buyer accounts have been activated at the fair's Frankfurt Rights platform. Over 31,100 titles have been uploaded in this period. All in all, 400,000 titles are listed on Frankfurt Rights.
Juergen Boos said: “In a year in which trade fairs all over the world have been taking place either in a hybrid format or only digitally, we managed to bring the international book industry together for a few days. Until today, 148,000 users from 183 countries used the fair’s digital offerings. We wanted to use our offerings to support the digital rights business, serve as a showcase for new titles from numerous countries, and offer networking possibilities for a range of industry experts and publishing professionals. With our livestreamed events taking place at the digital Weltempfang, on the ARD Book Fair stage and the African Perspectives Symposium organised by Litprom and KfW Stiftung we reached literature lovers from all over the world."
The Frankfurter Buchmesse website has become the showcase for the digital book industry, with digital exhibitors submitting 6,800 advertising tiles for the 13 topic-specific webpages on buchmesse.de.
Thanks to Frankfurt Conference and other curated trade events, Frankfurter Buchmesse’s digital B2B programme reached industry players worldwide. All content will soon be available in the media archive.
BOOKFEST digital starting on 17 October 2020
The online event for literature lovers - BOOKFEST digital - will take place for the first time, tomorrow, 17 October 2020, from 9.30 am CEST to midnight: www.buchmesse.de/bookfest-digital. For 28 hours on two channels, the programme will celebrate some of the most acclaimed figures from the international cultural and literary scene.
Edward Snowden risked everything to uncover the system of mass surveillance put in place by the US government. He will join BOOKFEST digital at 7.00 pm on Channel 1 to tell his story and answer questions from the audience submitted during live chats on YouTube and Facebook. Margaret Atwood, one of the most renowned storytellers of our time, will discuss her literary works at 8.00 pm on Channel 1. Earlier in the day, at 1.26 pm (Channel 1), Jamie Oliver will reveal to viewers how his new cookbook is taking shape. Bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert will talk at 10.00 am on Channel 2 about her current book City of Girls. Ayad Akhtar, the most performed playwright in the US today, will discuss his Homeland Elegies (7.31 pm, Channel 1). Essayist Eliot Weinberger will provide incisive commentary on the current situation in the US shortly before the elections there (7.51 pm, Channel 1). The event #MeToo. Von der ersten Enthüllung zur globalen Bewegung (#MeToo. From First Revelation to Global Movement) will tell the unique and inspiring story of the New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who broke the story of sexual harassment involving Harvey Weinstein and others (11.00 am, Channel 2).
Further guests include Matt Haig, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, John Strelecky, Håkan Nesser, Axel Scheffler, Kirsten Boie, Paul Maar, Ibram X. Kendi, and many more.