‘The Power of Reading’ is the message to Taiwan’s consumer base at this year’s sprawling Taipei International Book Exhibition, while Frankfurter Buchmesse’s professional program there examines changes in business, markets, and sales.
The Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) is an important event for Taiwan and a measuring stick for the country’s publishing industry over the coming year, according to director James Chao. The TIBE “predicts the performance in sales for the year and reflects the confidence of the publishers,” Chao told Publishing Perspectives in an interview.
Opening Tuesday (February 6), the TIBE is a six-day book fair which this year features Israel as its guest of honor, an international rights center, and a Frankfurt Publishers Training Program opening on Monday, the eve of the exhibition’s public launch.
Directed by the Frankfurter Buchmesse’s Katharina Ewald, this year’s Publishers Training Program (February 5 and 6) highlights publishing markets in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Thailand. Speakers include:
- Richard Nash, US-based entrepreneur and consultant in publishing
- Jackie Huang, Andrew Nurnberg Associates China director (read our interview here)
- Jerome Su, chairman with Bookman Books and BK Norton, Taiwan
- Amy Ho, founcing CEO of CW Education Media & Publishing Company, Taiwan
- Sarah Sohlemann, online marketing lead with Verlagsgruppe Random House, Germany
- Gerald Cai of MXRi and SnapLearn, Singapore
As well as working as the director of TIBE, Chao is also the chairman and president of China Times, said to be the only publicly traded publishing company in Taiwan. We’ve opened our interview with Chao by asking whether the TIBE is more a trade show or a consumer-facing book fair.
