Press release from the CTBF regarding the Fair in 2011 and 2012:
The Cape Town Book Fair organisers announce that the Cape Town Book Fair will not be staged in 2011, but in a new and remodeled format in 2012, along with the IPA Publishers Congress which is going to be held in Cape Town 12 – 14 June 2012.
The reason for this new move is that publishers in South Africa have voiced their support for a bi-annual Fair, starting in 2012. We thank all exhibitors and interested parties for their support and very much hope to be able to accommodate their needs and wishes again in 2012.
A planning committee will start working and planning a revamped Cape Town Book Fair for 2012 very soon and will be announcing new details for the fair as soon as they become available.
A long wait is over: We are happy to announce that the Cape Town Book Fair will go back to its old dates in June 2011. It will once again be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. While the programme is in the making, we are working on making the CTBF an even stronger African fair with more publishers from all over Africa. As the networking opportunities of the trade day were very well received, this element will be kept and further developed as well.
We much look forward to welcoming you in Cape Town in June 2011
The Cape Town Book Fair is pleased to announce that all visitors to the fair who have valid book shop loyalty cards will receive a 50% discount on the entrance fee. (The daily fee is R60; loyalty card holders will pay R30.) This applies to public visitors to the fair from 31 July to 2 August. We look forward to welcoming you.
The Cape Town Book Fair wants to fill a gap and provide foreign as well as South African CTBF participants with the option to work with the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. For many years the Harare Book Fair had provided this opportunity, but after its disappearance no other fair has been able to deliver such a platform and atmosphere.
We are aware that it is difficult for publishers from other African countries to participate in the Fair, especially as an exhibitor.
Therefore we are very proud to have found a wonderful partner in the Goethe-Institut in South Africa, which will be inviting approximately 15 publishing houses from sub-Saharan African countries to participate in the 2010 CTBF. Publishers have to apply for this grant, and the terms and conditions for this programme can be found here:
Publishers participating in this scheme will enjoy a one-day workshop on Thursday, 29 July 2010, as well as different matchmaking meetings, etc., during the fair. The Cape Town Book Fair is reaching out to all of Africa, and these are the first steps. Come and join – there is so much more to do on the African continent!
Note: Interested publishers complying with the requirements may apply until 19 April 2010. Applications received after the stipulated date will not be considered.
A friendly hello from the Cape Town Book Fair blog to remind publishers that there are only five business days left to take advantage of the CTBF’s “early bird” booking discount of 2.5% on all stands. The deadline is 31 Jan – and the last working day before then is next Friday, 29 Jan. Hurry to get your registration and booking in!
In other CTBF news, the Fair has announced that Friday, 30 July 2010, its first day, will be a dedicated trade day, exclusively reserved for publishers and trade visitors as well as institutional buyers. It will further arrange “matchmakings” to introduce interested parties to each other and stage seminars addressing hot topics of the trade.
Finally, together with the Goethe-Institute and other partners, the CTBF has committed to renewed efforts to ensure that more publishers from other African countries will exhibit in 2010. The popular public programme will remain in place, and, last but not but least, a much-improved shelving system for exhibitors is in the works.
Maureen Isaacson of the Sunday Independent reports that the 2010 Cape Town Book Fair has been moved from June to July/August, in consideration of the FIFA World Cup, and that all CTBF staff are being retrenched bar one:
June 2010 will bring beery football fans and assorted pleasure-seekers to our shores, but no blue stockings, as the date of the annual Cape Town Book Fair has been changed from mid-June to run from July 30 to August 2.
This is all we know following the resignation of Vanessa Badroedien, the book fair director since its inception four years ago. Her contract ends next month. She will be missed. Retrenchment notices have been given to the book fair staff, with the exception of a sales administrator.
Press release from the Publishers’ Association of South Africa
With her current contract with the Cape Town Book Fair (CTBF) drawing to an end in September 2009, CTBF Managing Director, Vanessa Badroodien, this week gave the book fair board of directors notice of her intention to resign in order to pursue new career opportunities.
During Badroodien’s tenure as Cape Town Book Fair Director, the fair drew the most ever visitors to any exhibition at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Claudia Kaiser, the Vice President of business development of the Frankfurt Book Fair, is in Cape Town to work closely with Badroodien and thus ensure a seamless transition in preparation for 2010. The preliminary dates set for next year’s CTBF are 30th July to 2nd August 2010. Mid-June, when previous book fairs were staged, will not be possible in 2010 due to FIFA world cup activity.
Badroodien said: “I am proud to have been involved, as director, in developing, launching and staging for the past four years, the most successful book fair ever held in Southern Africa. The time has now come for me to step aside and let someone else build on the successes achieved by the book fair.”
Dudley Schroeder, Chairman of the Board of the CTBF said: “Vanessa’s staging of the inaugural Cape Town Book Fair in 2006 and the manner in which she steered this strategically crucial event through four highly successful years has left the book industry in South Africa with a great legacy and a fine foundation that we plan to build on for many years to come.”
Juergen Boos, President of the Frankfurt Book Fair’s holding company, said: “Vanessa pioneered and created something truly special for Cape Town and South Africa as a whole. The CTBF, under her leadership, achieved pioneering successes that are, in many respects, lauded internationally.”
According to newspaper reports, this year’s Cape Town Book Fair attracted an estimated 57 000 visitors, exceeding last year’s total by a margin of several thousand – despite straitened circumstances across the board, from publishers’ (whose stands shrunk noticeably this year) to booksellers’ (some of whom didn’t confirm their presence at the Fair until the last minute) to consumers’ (who bravely emptied the CTICC‘s ATMs of cash each day, and reached into their horsewhipped handbags and wallets to scrounge up any vestiges of credit once the cash ran out, to buy books, books and more books).
Amandeep Parmar, writing in today’s Cape Times, cites the figure above as an estimate – and an informal poll by BOOK SA among stand holders and patrons alike confirms that CTBF 2009 exceeded expectations across the board.
The bottom line is that publishers and booksellers did a roaring trade and the glut of authors barely satiated the word-hungry masses. BOOK SA’s own numbers were up, up, up on last year’s, thanks to the stellar efforts of our crack Team #ctbf, plus the crowdsourced contributions from the likes of @mandyjwatson. Roses and garlands to all who participated.
The Cape Town Book Fair has emerged from a period of doubt leaner and meaner; its success in 2009, coupled with the impetus that next year’s London Book Fair is sure to give the local market – SA is the focus country in London next April – has guaranteed that book lovers haven’t seen the last of the region’s pre-eminent book event.
Congratulations to Fair director Vanessa Badroodien and her team. We’ll see you all next year!
