Sheikha Bodour during the Trailblazing women in publishing session. WAM

Speaking at a discussion session titled, Taking stock: Where does global publishing go from here? organised by IPA for the Bologna BookPlus programme, Sheikha Bodour went straight to the point, identifying copyright, freedom to publish, sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and technology and innovation as the ecosystem’s key priorities going forward as they would lead to opportunities to strengthen global collaboration and solidarity between publishers.

These priorities, she said, were set during the InSPIRE initiative’s workshops and symposium attended by publishers, authors, book fairs representatives, literacy and free expression advocates from around the world earlier in January and February.

Sheikha Bodour speaks during an event. WAM

Reflecting on the inclusive spirit at the heart of IPA’s InSPIRE initiative, which undertook an unprecedented goal of engaging with publishing executives from over 30 countries to understand their vision of the way forward for the industry, the IPA president asserted that this new initiative is making a major contribution towards supporting and mobilising especially those markets that have lagged behind in their recovery since being hit by the global health crisis.

She also congratulated the global publishing industry in attendance on truly understanding the role of ecosystem solidarity, especially in the past couple of years, and making a conscious effort to unite in its shared vision for the sector’s future.

An ardent supporter of the African publishing community, Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, joined a discussion titled Spotlight on Africa: Innovators of African publishing, where she reiterated IPA’s continued support for the African markets, highlighting the importance of applying innovation to business models, strategies and skills in order to create an industry fit for the future.

She also assured that African publishers will have IPA’s full support to promote local talent and publishing in native languages, underlining that doing so will not only invigorate and strengthen the industry’s value chain but also make the African publishing sector a global contender in the industry.

The IPA President concluded her engagements with an inspiring speech at a talk, Trailblazing women in publishing, organised by PublisHer, an Industry-led movement founded by Sheikha Bodour to bring gender equality to the world of publishing. She emphasised that diversity and inclusion were no longer a nice thing to have, but rather at the core of the publishing business’ growth and sustainability.

Adding that more voices will create a bigger impact, the IPA President asserted that PublisHer would continue to empower female industry stakeholders with through as much training, mentoring, research, networking, and change tool kits as much as possible.

The recently-concluded book fair which ran its 59th edition from March 21-24 hosted Sharjah as Guest of Honour.

WAM