A Frankfurter Buchmesse trade visitor tests out gaming options in a 2011 ‘Story Drive’ forerunner of the coming Frankfurt-Bologna games area. Image: FBM, Peter Hirth
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
At Frankfurt in October, Bologna in April
In news released this morning (July 18), Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20) and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 31 to April 3) are working together to stage a “game area” at both trade shows.
The effort is attached to the two shows’ film and licensing areas, and is expected to be based in a “Games Business Center.”
That space on the exhibition floors of the two huge trade shows is envisioned as a place in which world publishing professionals can be in touch with games industry figures, presumably in a similar way to the way film and television development programs allow publishers to network with producers.
Events associated with the games center are expected to focus on cross-media rights issues, among other topics.
In a comment on today’s announcement, Buchmesse’s president and CEO Juergen Boos says, “We have been living the motto ‘A book is a film is a game’ at Frankfurter Buchmesse for years.
“With the new games area, we’re driving forward business with cross-genre adaptations.
Juergen Boos
“Thanks to the cooperation with Bologna, we’ll be offering the book industry a lucrative exchange with the creative industries twice a year from October onward.”
And Elena Pasoli, who directs the Bologna trade show, says, “The Bologna Children’s Book Fair, with Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids and Bologna Book Plus, has a long history of close relations with the world of film and television.
Elena Pasoli
“This new project, that we’re proud to launch with Frankfurter Buchmesse, broadens the horizon to the fascinating world of games, offering a new and unprecedented market place that I’m sure will open the way to exciting business opportunities.”
The Dusseldorf-based company SpielFabrique is the consultant named for the new twin-trade-show effort in the gaming space, its own operations having been founded in 2015 as an outcome of a French-and-German video-game program led by Media Deals at the French embassy during Games Week Berlin.
SpielFabrique offers as one of its services a “global market advisory,” to facilitate such development efforts as this one being mounted by Frankfurt and Bologna.
Potential exhibitors in the new games hub(s) at the two trade shows may want to know that both Frankfurt and Bologna are to offer 20-percent discounts on exhibition fees at both trade shows.
At the 2024 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Image: BCBF
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more from us on Bologna Children’s Book Fair is here, more on book adaptation is here, and more on games in relation to book publishing is here.