5 Exceptional Events for Books, Paper and Printing

Paper – we’re surrounded by it. It’s right there when you need to write down an important date in your planner. In neat stacks when you need to make a photocopy in the office. It feels reassuring when we hold a book in our hands. So this made us think about the overall supply chain that goes from paper and stationary to printing to literature.

It’s all been in our lives for a long, long time, but it’s also worth exploring the professional events that best represent each link in the chain. What’s new? How are the technologies changing? What are consumer concerns? To that end, we begin with an event that starts at the beginning – the raw material. Paper.

Paperworld delivers exactly what it says in its name. This international trade fair bridges the gap between the stationery sector and the office sector. The product portfolio goes from school supplies and end consumer stationery products to commercial office materials and supplies. This wealth of products and information can be accessed in Frankfurt, Germany every single year.

Fresh designs, innovative paper, new products all find their way to Paperworld, which makes it a natural trendsetter within the industry. At the moment, the major trends focus on decorative paper products and deep, earthy, natural colors. Access to Paperworld means opening a door to market opportunities and press coverage.

Next we’re moving into the territory of the print and media industry. Held in Dusseldorf, Germany, drupa serves as a major gathering point for supply and demand. The international trade show is a powerful platform for generating sales as well as announcing significant advancements in printing technology. The scope of the show is certainly one of the biggest – printing machines, digital printing, folding equipment, graphic design, graphics software, laminating, large format printers.

What really makes drupa stand out is the fact that it takes place once every four years, so it’s a rare investment and every edition creates a completely different environment for exhibitors. We can’t ignore the presence of special areas. A particularly popular addition is dna – drupa next age that which is dedicated to the next generation of technologies and business models.

FESPA is another major trade show for the printing industry. However, this one runs every year and is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The FESPA Global Print Expo is a powerful engine for networking and generating sales numbers across a variety of regions. Top brands, top buyers, top technological advancements. Technology is always the backbone of this trade show and the three main pillars are digital printing, textile printing and screen printing.

Trade visitors have a vast space and dynamic program to explore. A very successful item during the trade show is Printeriors, which sits at the intersection of printing and interior decoration. At the heart of this area are the bespoke, one-of-a-kind creations. For a more hands-on excitement, you have a choice between the training workshops, demonstrations and competition at the World Wrap Masters Europe.

Now we’re going to leave the technological and production aspects and head on over to the finished printed products – books.

The first event in our lineup is Bologna Children's Book Fair – one of the world’s biggest book fairs dedicated to children’s literature in the world. You might imagine it as a place to buy books, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a place for literary agents, translators, licensors and licensees, illustrators, mobile developers, graphic designers, and the list goes on. If you have property you want to develop and sell across different countries and media formats, this is where you come to sell rights and licenses.

The book fair is exciting for a number of reasons. For starters, there are 32 awards going around, which carry considerable weight internationally like the competitive Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year. Add art installations, translator workshops and more.

We end with Frankfurt Book Fair, a global institution that gathers the entire publishing world in one place. You might think about novels and magazines, but it goes beyond that. Publishers come from all parts of the value chain – non-fiction, religion, youth and children's books, science and technology, art books, tourism, visual art and international literature. Unparalleled opportunities to sell rights, attract agents and communicate with translators