Editor’s Note: As part of the Society for Scholarly Publishing’s partnership with the Franfurter Buchmesse, today we present a preview of the event.
Once again, The Scholarly Kitchen (TSK) is taking a road trip to the Frankfurter Buchmesse. On October 17, look for several of the TSK Chefs on Stage 4.0 in Hall 4 at 9:15 a.m. In the first of two sessions, several Chefs will offer their perspectives on what you need to know about key issues currently simmering in scholarly publishing. Topics will include journal trends, the impacts of AI in information discovery, progress on the sustainable development goals (SDGs), ensuring trustworthy content, and communicating retractions.
Following the first session, TSK Chefs will answer provocative questions about future theoretical challenges. Scholarly publishing is continually changing, and we must prepare for possible scenarios beyond our control. From shifts in government and higher education policies to transformational technological innovations, this session will explore a range of provocations.
As the Chef’s prepare for their time on the stage, we thought it would be a good time to catch up with Ann-Kristin Oestreicher, Senior Marketing Manager, Frankfurter Buchmesse, to find out what’s new at the Buchmesse for 2024. The team at the Buchmesse have also put together a selection of academic publishing events and highlights at #fbm24 to help you make the most of your time in Frankfurt.
Frankfurter Buchmesse is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair and an important international marketplace for content—from novels and children’s books to academic databases and stories for films, games and virtual reality experiences. Publishing professionals from around the world meet here with partners from the technology sector and from related creative and cultural industries, sparking new partnerships and business models. This year, the trade event takes place from 16-20 October 2024.
Hello Ann-Kristin, what are you most excited about for Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2024?
A place for international encounters, a trading center, a literary showcase — Frankfurter Buchmesse has been offering all of this for 75 years. Now the time has come to extend these strengths beyond October into a 365-day digital fair. To this end, Frankfurter Buchmesse is investing in the new Frankfurt Connect platform. Here you will not only find details of upcoming #fbm24 events, the list of exhibitors and matchmaking functions, along with much more.
What are Frankfurter Buchmesse`s plans for its new Frankfurt Connect platform?
With Frankfurt Connect — as the name suggests — we want to create connections for the publishing industry. That’s nothing new, it’s always been in our DNA. It’s the core of our business model. But we are now developing this extensively: we will be bringing what makes our trade fair unique right up to date and transferring it as well into the digital space. During the days of the fair and beyond October to the rest of the year. With Frankfurt Connect, we will enable chance encounters that our customers are familiar with from their everyday trade fair experience and we will be taking those encounters to the next digital level. With Badge Scan, we will create a link between the physical and digital worlds: simply by scanning a new contact’s book fair pass, using the Frankfurt Connect app, exhibitors will be able to receive further information about that person and can then developed personalized partnership going forwards. Frankfurt Connect also enables the uploading of extra marketing materials about a new contact’s company and allows appointments to be made on site or via a video call.
“We will be bringing what makes our fair unique right up to date and transferring it as well into the digital space.”
The many different functions offer advantages beyond the days of the fair—and will be beneficial for connecting with our international target groups: the events calendar can be filled all year round beyond the 3,000 events in October. This also applies to Frankfurter Buchmesse itself, for example with our international trade events from Jakarta to Mexico City.
By the way: In just a few weeks, almost 3,000 exhibitors from all over the world have already registered!
Frankfurt Connect will not be finished after the launch but will continue to be expanded. Why is that?
That is correct. We already have a good platform in place for our customers for the trade fair days in October—but that will not be the final version. We are already working on other services in parallel and will release them after the trade fair. We will be taking feedback from our users directly after the launch. Our team will then use this feedback to further develop the functionalities. This “learning” form of development corresponds to our internal way of working: We will be working on Frankfurt Connect using the agile working method and in interdisciplinary teams.
If you could freely implement everything for Frankfurt Connect: What would the platform look like in three years?
Frankfurt Connect connects! In this sense, once the technical features have been rolled out, it should definitely be “human”. People from the industry will come together there to work on joint projects. And we will see a publishing community that revitalises our industry well beyond the trade fair. As our customers reveal themselves to be really communicative and creative every year in October, I am very optimistic!
How can our readers access the Frankfurt Connect platform?
They can learn more about the new platform and create their own profile at: connect.buchmesse.de
Return of stage in Hall 4.0 for academic, education and publishing partners
While fairgoers are usually quite busy with meetings and visiting vendors, there plenty of opportunity for education and discourse as well. We’re excited to see the return of the stage in Hall 4.0.
In Frankfurt, Hall 4.0 is the home base for international academic publishers, EdTech players and publishing partners such as distributors. The new Stage 4.0 will offer these participants their own event area. The UK-based creative agency BookMachine will kick things off on Wednesday, 16 October 2024, at 10:00 am with a keynote presentation on marketing for science and educational publishers. On Thursday morning, publishing partners take over the stage; Friday will be dedicated to the library sector.
Selected events:
Wednesday, 16 October 2024, 12:30 pm: Beyond the Book – Setting the Course for the Future of Scholarly Communication
Thursday, 17 October 2024, 9:15 am: SSP & The Scholarly Kitchen Micro-Conference
Thursday, 17 October 2024, 11:00 am: The New Wave of Open Access
Friday, 18 October 2024, 10:00 am: Charleston Micro-Conference in cooperation with Publishing Perspectives
On Saturday and Sunday, the stage will be the venue for Campus Weekend, with happenings for students and young professionals and events on topics related to popular science.
Academic publishing program highlights in the Frankfurt Studio
As in 2023, an academic publishing program will be offered in the Frankfurt Studio (Hall 4.0, Room Europa) on Thursday afternoon from 14:00 to 16:30 pm CEST.
| 14:00: | Capitalizing on AI for Smarter Publishing – Boosting integrity, tackling risks, and setting the bar |
| 15:00: | Let Licensing Bloom: The Root of Responsible AI |
| 16:00: | Can Open Science Publishing help to safeguard and build trust in research? |
Professional events that take place in the Frankfurt Studio will be recorded and will be freely accessible in Frankfurter Buchmesse’s media library at the end of the event.
You can find all academic publishing events online at buchmesse.de/en/academic and learn more about #fbm24 ‘s professional program highlights in this recent press release.
Discussion
1 Thought on "What to Expect and How to Connect at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024"
Great respect for the programs being presented – but this does make the FBF look like just another seminar with talks and forums. It is so so so much more than that. My first Fair was 1979 (still West Germany with US tanks on the autobahn) and I guess I have been to thirty over the years. By far the most important aspect is to breathe in the glory of international publishing – visit every Hall if you possibly can, just walk around and absorb. Track down the parties, especially if they are out of the fairgrounds. Meet and talk to people, most of all. I made friends who I would see very year at the Fair from around the world. It is a wonderful and unique gathering and do not stay chained to your booth or to meeting halls. Just my opinion of course.
