The Frankfurt Book Fair, a subsidiary of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association, has announced the launch of the Frankfurt SPARKS initiative. From October 6-10, the Frankfurt Book Fair will host exhibition formats, conferences and events on the future of the media and the creative industries.
The digital initiative seeks to unite the worlds of publishing, technology industries, media and the Internet culture in order to develop collective viable business models. Frankfurt SPARKS will begin in 2010 with two projects - the Frankfurt Hot Spots and Frankfurt StoryDrive.
This year, to capitalise on the changes and innovations in digital publishing, the Frankfurt Book Fair will create six 'hot spots' throughout the fairground. Here, publishing professionals will have the opportunity to meet and connect with members of the technology industry and key online players to develop and expand digital opportunities for their business. These hot spots will highlight six areas of focus for the future of publishing - Publishing Services (Hall 4.0), Information Management (Hall 4.2), Mobile (Hall 6.0), Devices (Hall 8.0), Education (Hall 4.2), and Literature & Special Interest (Hall 3.1).
The six new presentation platforms of the Frankfurt Book Fair are organised by theme and were conceived specifically for providers of digital products, services and content. Each hot spot (www.hotspotfrankfurt.com) will feature exhibitor stands and a stage, which exhibitors can use for product presentations and discussion panels.
Additionally, the Frankfurt Book Fair will host a two-day conference in the Film & Media Forum, bringing together members of the print, film, music, gaming and social media industries to discuss the cross-media marketplace. The programme, called 'Frankfurt StoryDrive' (http://storydrivefrankfurt.com), will address, for the first time, the many ways to tell a story and offer industries a chance to meet and work together. As a conference, trading centre for media rights and cross-media marketplace, StoryDrive is projected as the meeting place for the international media and entertainment worlds.
Digitisation is seen to be not only transforming the way we use media, but also the entire supply chain of content, from creation and production to marketing. In a digital world, content is no longer bound to a particular medium. Creative industries that once operated independently of each other are now growing closer together. Content creators are on the search for the proper technological know-how; conversely, content is being sought by device suppliers and online players.
With more than 7,000 exhibitors from over 100 countries, the Frankfurt Book Fair claims to be the biggest book and media fair in the world. It also organises the participation of German publishers at more than 25 international book fairs and is associated with the Cape Town Book Fair in South Africa and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. It is stated to maintain the most visited website worldwide for the publishing industry at www.buchmesse.de and its directory of decision-makers in the book and media industries features around 31,000 contacts.
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