The Guadalajara Congress: IPA Champion and Innovation Awards

The 34th International Publishers Congress in Mexico featured major awards in publishing excellence and accessibility.

The IPA Innovation Award was given to the Publishing 2030 Accelerator program for sustainability in publishing. From left at the awards dinner during the Guadalajara International Publishers Congress are, from left, IPA president Karine Pansa; Publishing 2030 Accelerator program lead Rachel Martin; IPA past president Michiel Kolman of Elsevier; and longtime publisher, Publishing Perspectives columnist, and IPA past president Richard Charkin. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Multiple Awards from IPA

In the just-concluded biennial International Publishers Congress at Guadalajara, the highest-visibility award—the unique Prix Voltaire, honoring exceptional courage in upholding the freedom to publish—was presented to Gaza bookseller Samir Mansour, as we’ve reported.

Mansour’s eponymous bookstore has been destroyed twice since 2o21 in military action in the territory, and you can read our report on his win of the Prix Voltaire here.

During the course of the International Publishers Association‘s (IPA), congress, several additional awards were presented, and we have a chance to report on them now.

IPA Innovation Award: Publishing 2030 Accelerator

As Publishing Perspectives readers will recall, the Publishing 2030 Accelerator was initiated around COP26 by IPA and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) on behalf of 17 initial signatories, with IPA and FEP providing a steering group to create a program for accelerating publishing’s execution on sustainability, relative to the climate crisis and of course tied to the 2030 time line of the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals, the SDGs.

The accelerator concept is based in a manifesto announcing the signatories’ ambition “to drive systematic change within the publishing sector to support and test early-stage ideas that will positively contribute to the wider publishing sector’s sustainability.”

The IPA Innovation in Publishing Award is an effort to encourage such initiatives in the industry “to move forward together and seize new opportunities for publishing practices and environments, adapting to changing circumstances and challenges. Specifically, the award recognizes groups or individuals whose work implements innovative publishing practices that can be replicated by others and benefit the industry.”

The Publishing 2030 Accelerator program is associated with IPA’s several efforts in climate-crisis response, and these can be found for the most coherent linkage on a kind of dashboard that brings together the accelerator, the SDG Publishers Compact, the SDG Book Club, and, most recently, the “Turning the Page: 1,000 Actions.”

Related article: ‘Gaza Bookseller Samir Mansour Wins the 2024 IPA Prix Voltaire.’ Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson

Onstage at Guadalajara to receive the 2024 Innovation Award for their work on the Publishing 2030 Accelerator were Rachel Martin, who directs Elsevier’s wide-reaching efforts in sustainability in publishing, along with two past presidents of IPA who have been involved in the accelerator’s development, Michiel Kolman and Publishing Perspectives columnist Richard Charkin, both of them past presidents of the IPA.

Speaking for the group, Martin said, “The Publishing 2030 Accelerator was born from a desire to embrace innovation to shape the future of publishing and provide concrete actions that address climate change.

“The concept to test three early-stage ideas has resulted in three white papers, developed over 18 months, that have helped to establish the foundations for climate action in our sector.

“This recognition is a testament to the power of collaboration, vision, and our shared commitment toward climate action from everyone who was involved. We’re very thankful to the IPA for their support and for the wider sector, which is committed to carrying on this important work.”

IPA Champion: Ibrahim El Moallem, Dar El Shorouk (Egypt)

At the 34th International Publishers Congress in Guadalajara, Egypt’s Ibrahim El Moallem accepts the 2024 IPA Champion award, with past IPA president and now CANIEM president Hugo Setzer and current IPA president Karine Pansa looking on. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson

The IPA Innovation in Publishing Award is intended “to strengthen and unite the publishing industry to move forward together and seize new opportunities for publishing practices and environments, adapting to new circumstances and challenges. Specifically, the award recognizes groups or individuals whose work implements innovative publishing practices that can be replicated by others and benefit the industry.”

In receiving the honor in the 34th biennial edition of the congress, Egypt’s Ibrahim El Moallem of Dar El Shorouk clearly was delighted at the program’s awards dinner, saying, in part, “It is with immense gratitude, joy, and humility that I accept this prestigious award.

“This recognition holds a precious place in my heart because it comes from my colleagues in the profession which I love deeply, and to which I have devoted more than 50 years of my life—a long journey that has been eventful, challenging, sometimes risky but mostly rewarding,” he said. “For 30 of those years , I have worked with and within the IPA.”

In 1968, along with his father, a long-time publisher and political activist, El Moallem co-founded Dar El Shorouk in Cairo. This marked the Moallem family commitment to liberal, private-sector publishing, as it came in the wake of the nationalization of Shorouk’s predecessor and the detention of its owner, El Moallem senior. It was not long before Shorouk managed to acquire its reputation and set its cultural imprint on the publishing scene. Successive developments and the creation of various companies, including entities for digital publishing, media production, and magazines, all of which led to Shorouk becoming Egypt’s leading bookstore chain.

Among the most active of IPA leadership figures over the years, El Moallem has served as the president of the Egyptian Publishers Association (1996-2008); president of the Arab Publishers Association (1995-2007); an elected member of the executive committee of the International Publishers Association (IPA), the Freedom to Publish committee, and vice-president of IPA (2009- 2014).

Five IPA presidents, past and present, together onstage during the Guadalajara congress awards program. From left are Ana Maria Cabanellas; Hugo Setzer; the current president Karine Pansa; Michiel Kolman; and Richard Charkin. In January, Gvantsa Jobava will succeed Pansa as president. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson

More from Publishing Perspectives on international book and publishing awards is here, the International Publishers Association is here, more on the IPA’s biennial International Publishers Congress series is here, and more on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and related programs and initiatives in book publishing is here. More from Publishing Perspectives on the Mexican publishing market is here, more on publishing issues in Latin America is here, more on world publishing’s trade shows and book fairs is here.

Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.

About the Author

Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (Fellow, National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.