Actions speak larger than words of course, so we must wait a few weeks to find out just what the Chennai International Book Fair will offer, but it will be a refreshing change if an Indian book fair takes digital seriously.
By Indian standards a three-day book fair is hardly an ambitious project, but this will be Chennai’s first International Book Fair, put together at short notice. “We needed to make a start somewhere.”
The event, which will run January 16-18, is not to be confused with the 46 year old public-facing Chennai Book Fair which in 2022 clocked 1.5 million visitors and sold $1.5 million worth of books.
Senthil Nathan, the Chennai IBF’s International Partnership Consultant, gave an interview to the Indian trade journal All About Book Publishing.
Senthil: India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and Tamil Nadu is among the fastest-growing economies in India. This has already made Chennai an international city in the world of global business. Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Thiru M. K Stalin wants to transform Chennai into a truly global hub. Recently, the city successfully hosted the world chess championship. CIBF is yet another attempt by the government to make a special place for Tamil Nadu and Tamil literature in the world.
One of the core areas of the government is education and Tamil Nadu is witnessing a big change in the field of the book business. Today the state conducts around 35 fairs in a year.
The Chennai Book Fair and the Chennai International Book Fair will it seems run simultaneously, which may yet prove a recipe for disaster as the Chennai IBF gains momentum and professional visitors are trying to squeeze between the typical one million plus public visitors. It is usual for B2C events like this to precede the public event with a discrete B2B event.
But Senthil insists the two fairs will have “distinct identities”.
The regular fair will run for more than two weeks but the CIBF will run for three days. They are co-events of the same mega event. The regular book fair is one of the largest B2C events in Asia. However, CIBF is a B2B fair that has e copyright and industry as the core. The three-day event will include an international pavilion (stalls and exhibits), a publishing conference, Rights Hub (Copyrights Trade) and author meetings.
Senthil insists Tamil publishing already has a,
good global presence with strong publishing communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. CIBF will pave way to connect with more Tamil readers and small publishers across various countries.
Perhaos most significantly, Senthil says:
The fair will also showcase the latest technology related to book publishing and digital printing and so on.
Actions speak larger than words of course, so we must wait a few weeks to find out just what the Chennai International Book Fair will offer, but it will be a refreshing change if an Indian book fair takes digital seriously.
All too often it seems like a fight to see who can resist digital the most.
