The Cape Town Book Fair (CTBF)'s first trade day was a roaring success, and gave a boost to networking with the book industry in Africa, say the fair organisers.

More than 300 publishers, librarians and other working in the publishing industry registered for the special line-up of events organised by CTBF on the first day of the fair, which was reserved for those in the trade. On offer were seminars for librarians, rights, digital publishing, introduction to various African markets amongst others. Publishers and institutions organised sessions as well. A matchmaking session marked the end of trade day.

Digital publishing was of greatest interest to the participants as was the overview of the different African markets.

The aim of the trade day was to give members of the trade the opportunity to find new business partners from Africa and abroad, and to learn about the latest trends in the industry.

"The trade day was a roaring success," said CTBF Director Claudia Kaiser. "The delegates were passionate about their profession and we heard fascinating stories about people finding innovative ways of doing business in the world of content, despite the constraints they face in African countries.

"I am delighted at how things turned out - and the feedback tells us that we should do this again in the future."

Publishers commented that the sessions were "extremely interesting", and gave them "the opportunity to network, which is often difficult considering that travelling to different countries is such a challenge for us."

Issued on behalf of the Cape Town Book Fair by HWB Communications

For queries contact:

Claudia Kaiser

Director Cape Town Book Fair

Email: Claudia@capetownbookfair.co.za

Telephone: +27 21 418 5493

Jo-Anne Smetherham

HWB Communications

Email: jo@hwb.co.za

Telephone: 084 254 1616