In a move that establishes a global network of professional publishing events under its direction, BolognaFiere, organizer of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, has reached an agreement to co-organize the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair beginning in 2018.
On November 19, representatives of BolognaFiere (among them BCBF exhibition director Elena Pasoli), signed an agreement with a group of organizations (including the Shanghai XinHua Distribution Group) that oversee the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair. The Shanghai show will be held November 9-11, 2018 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center.
All of the major Chinese publishers attend the CSICBF. BolognaFiere plans to focus its involvement in the Shanghai show on the further development of rights sales and on opportunities for cultural exchange, professional training, and mounting International conferences and exhibitions.
The agreement establishes an international calendar of events under the direction of BolognaFiere that will also include the launch of The New York Rights Fair, a new rights marketplace, organized in partnership with Publishers Weekly. The New York Rights Fair will make its debut in New York City from May 30 to June 1, 2018.
According to BolognaFiere president Gianpiero Calzolari, the exhibition organizer has now established a calendar of international book publishing events in areas that includes the U.S., China and Europe.
Calzolari said, “Children’s publishing will now have, alongside the key annual event in Bologna, two new initiatives, one in the USA and another in China: two appointments that will provide a boost to the publishing trade with the US and Chinese markets.”
