The Association of American Publishers was closely involved in the Guadalajara IPA congress, keen on more international collaboration.

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

See also:
Copyright: Publishers in Guadalajara Cheer the End of the Internet Archive Suit

Publishers Associations’ Relationships: ‘So Important’

In last week’s 34th biennial  International Publishers Congress of the International Publishers Association (IPA) at Guadalajara, the event was hosted by the Mexican Publishers Association, the Cámara Nacional de la Industria Editorial Mexicana, called CANIEM.

There were more than 200 delegates engaging in at least 20 hours of programming plus evening events, including a roughly four-hour awards gala. All of this required multiple movements of the conference-goers, several major venues and hotels, access and coordination with Marisol Schulz‘s Guadalajara International Book Fair in the Expo Guadalajara at a considerable remove in another part of the city.

Add to those logistical mainstays, there was the catering of large luncheons, plus credentialing (badges for both the book fair and the congress), and handling the myriad needs and requests of so many professionals, most of them thousands of miles from home and office; airport transfers and other services for at least 50 speakers; a small fleet of large buses; support personnel; the provision of agendas … you can still find colleagues and participants sending thanks and admiration to the organizers both in Geneva (IPA) and Mexico (CANIEM), and for good reason.

And that’s in addition to the contours of the programming itself, the heart of the event, the most timely messages, the shape and texture and rhythms of the content, developed, refined, and staged.

Even a local professional conference is a major undertaking, as many leaders in many businesses know. But a pivotal conference that’s in a different part of the world every two years, organized not by event producers but by publishers’ associations, and guided expertly across huge distances from the IPA offices in Switzerland is a seriously challenging event—and an expensive one.

The IPA-CANIEM team and all their associates on the ground in Mexico did a remarkable job of bringing coherence and value to the experience. And there was a difference this time.

Many delegates noticed credit lines about how the Association of American Publishers (AAP) was a partner with CANIEM, the Mexican association, in the Guadalajara congress. As CANIEM’s president is Hugo Setzer, a past president of IPA and the key face of the Mexican event, Maria A. Pallante is president of the AAP.

Not only did Pallante and her association back this North American event in a collegial gesture of support, but she also led a group of seven people from AAP’s Washington-based team to the congress in Mexico, using it as a chance for many of them to meet international counterparts for the first time.

Several of them spoke onstage, including AAP’s executive vice-president in global policy Lui Simpson, who led a concise session on enforcing copyrights online, an advanced conversation with Dalton Morato, the legal and administrative issues director of the Brazilian Association of Reprographic Rights, and Catriona MacLeod Stevenson, the United Kingdom’s general counsel and deputy CEO to Dan Conway. Here also was Kelly L. Denson, AAP’s senior vice-president of education policy and programs.

Brian Murray, HarperCollins‘ CEO, is on the AAP board and spoke on IPA president Karine Pansa‘s panel on “Copyright Driving Freedom of Expression.” Also on that panel were Brian Wafawarowa of South Africa’s Juta and Company, and Jesus Badenes, CEO of Spain’s Planeta. Christie Henry, the director of Princeton University Press and an AAP board member since 2019, joined Setzer in the congress’ summation. Henry is succeeding former AAP board member YS Chi as the US association’s representative to the IPA executive board. Chi, of course, is also a member of the Sharjah Book Authority board chaired by IPA past president Bodour Al Qasimi.

“What happens internationally, happens domestically, and vice-versa. Especially in the age of AI, it’s critical that we’re constantly talking and meeting and connecting and listening to each other.”Maria A. Pallante, Association of American Publishers

There was nothing formal or showy about the AAP delegation’s presence. They were supporting, networking, engaging. And they were helping with the finances. Publishing Perspectives has learned that the AAP contributed a substantial amount of funding to assist in the expense of the congress. Obviously they also contributed speakers—Pallante herself led a central conversation, “Copyright and AI: What To Know About Law, Policy, and Ethics” with the US Copyright Office’s Maria Strong and former Member of the European Parliament for Spain, Iban Garcia del Blanco.

In terms of their organizational assists to the congress, “We’re a kind of silent partner,” Pallante explained in interview.

“Everybody realizes this is an important event every two years. We were on the programming committee. But it’s a lot to put it together. And, you know, IPA has a very small team and relies on its member associations.

“What we discussed at AAP, at the board level and at the team level, is that maybe there’s a third way. Maybe we could assist the host association, so it’s not all on their shoulders. And maybe this will be a model for future congresses.”

And as our readers know, the AAP also was able to announce on the first day of congress programming that there was a final resolution to the five-year case Hachette Book Group v. Internet Archive—this because the Internet Archive declined to file a “cert petition” with the Supreme Court of the United States by a December 3 deadline, registering a long-fought victory for publishing and the protection of copyright.

Pallante: ‘We Want To Be a Very Participatory Market’

A biennial congress requires roughly a year of planning and requires publishers’ associations to function as event producers. Not easy. And the AAP message, so quietly delivered—a great, smiling team of professionals from Washington meeting peers and engaging in programming—implied that perhaps the IPA’s congresses might be produced by groups of associations, sharing the load and each other’s expertise. That “third way.”

There will be time to talk about what was learned—to confer with Geneva about new potentials. And the ground now has been laid for rich discussions among successful colleagues.

Guadalajara was a success. And now that the AAP has played this role of a sister association in the enabling of the event, there may be a chance to discuss how new congress locations are chosen; paid for; structured; and how the workload can be shared among even regional associations and organizations, all to better support the IPA mission and the needs and interests of the member-associations.

“These relationships between associations,” Pallante says, “are so important. And the people who have been part of IPA from around the world for so long are really the reason that it’s so effective. José Borghino,” IPA’s secretary general, “is such a fine ambassador for the international publishing industry. It’s a tiny team. They have to rely on their members for support and money and expertise.

“What happens internationally happens domestically, and vice-versa,” says Maria Pallante. “Especially in the age of AI, it’s critical that we’re constantly talking and meeting and connecting and listening to each other and figuring out and knowing what’s happening in other countries.”

In short, the United States’ association took the opportunity of the Guadalajara congress to assess and research how the international membership of IPA can work better together to support the central mission and that “tiny team” doing so much at the center in Geneva.

“We want to be a very participatory market for IPA,” she says.

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More from Publishing Perspectives on the International Publishers Association is here, more on the IPA’s biennial International Publishers Congress series is here, and more on the Association of American Publishers is here. More from us on the Mexican publishing market is here, more on publishing issues in Latin America is here, and more on world publishing’s trade shows and book fairs is here. 

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

More on the IPA International Publishers Congress:
Ukraine’s Oleksandra Matviichuk: Words for Publishers
Copyright: Publishers in Guadalajara Cheer the End of Internet Archive Suit
In Guadalajara: Both IPA and the Book Fair Focus on SDGs
 Publishers’ Congress in Political Times: Hugo Setzer
IPA Publishers’ Congress: Clement on Censorship, ‘a Threat to Democracy’
The UN’s Melissa Fleming: ‘Summit of the Future’ and IPA’s Congress
IPA’s Congress Countdown: The 1,000 Actions Campaign for the SDGs
The UN’s Melissa Fleming to Speak in Mexico at IPA’s Publishers Congress
International Publishers Congress: Keynote from Oleksandra Matviichuk
34th International Publishers Congress Sales Open
Remembering India’s Asoke Ghosh: ‘Friend, Mentor, and Guide’
With Its 34th Congress Ahead, IPA’s Reach Expands to 81 Countries