Sheikha Bodour urges collaborations to propel publishing

Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, President of the International Publishers Association (IPA), has urged publishers, technology suppliers and other stakeholders in the book publishing supply chain to forge deeper ties to drive innovation and address the emerging challenges as content moves across different platforms and new business models evolve.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Thessaloniki Book Fair in Greece, Sheikha Bodour said that increased collaboration and more purposeful diverse dialogue would create a robust industry enabling publishers to actively embrace disruptions. The newly launched International Sustainable Publishing and Industry Resilience (InSPIRe) Charter will enhance greater cohesion amongst publishers and play a pivotal role in identifying the existing gaps and opportunities, Sheikha Bodour confirmed.

The IPA is committed to building a publishing industry fit for the future which envisages forging deep connections with readers and understanding how they consume content and will extend support to all publishers and markets struggling to adapt to the fast pace of change, she added.

The publishing industry which plants the seeds of ideas affects everyone and everything, everywhere, stated the IPA President, adding that the success of a single publisher equals the success of all publishers. To support all members of the publishing fraternity and to bridge the digitisation gap, she announced that the upcoming IPA Academy — a centralised global training resource, would upskill and drive digital transformations across the sector through multilingual masterclasses.

In her keynote address at the fair’s Professional Publishers Programme, the IPA President commended its focus on translations which, she said, can play a key role in boosting global collaboration between publishers and within the arger publishing ecosystem.

The translation is a dynamic door opener, not just for business as professional publishers, but also for readers who are continuously seeking greater original content, said Sheikha Bodour, reinforcing IPA’s commitment to supporting translation endeavours as publishers look for new pathways to build up their resilience and continue to deliver books to readers.

On the sidelines of the Thessaloniki Book Fair, Sheikha Bodour also met members of the Association of Greek Publishers and Booksellers, to share views and ideas about current publishing industry trends and discuss opportunities to work together to shape the future of book publishing.

The IPA president’s meeting with the Association of Greek Publishers and Booksellers follows a series of meetings she has held this year with publishers’ associations in UAE, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Georgia.

WAM