Al Qasimi participated in the Book Fair opening, and inaugurated the meeting of the IPA member the Grupo Iberoamericano de Editores (GIE) which was chaired by former IPA President Ana María Cabanellas. Al Qasimi also held a meeting with IPA’s Mexican member, CANIEM, that included, among others, its President, Hugo Setzer, its Director General, Antonio Alonso González, and IPA’s Executive Committee Mexican member, Roberto Banchik. Al Qasimi opened the Publishers’ Forum and also spoke on another panel, entitled ‘East and West: Women in the World’, about the importance of women in publishing and the ongoing, flourishing PublisHer initiative. 

Pansa spoke at the panel which dealt with accessibility in publishing. In a video address during this panel, WIPO’s Deputy Director General, Sylvie Forbin, announced the winners of this year’s ABC International Excellence Award for Accessible Publishing. The panel was chaired by former IPA President and current member of WIPO’s ABC Advisory Board, Hugo Setzer. Pansa also participated in the GIE and CANIEM meetings, and was part of a site visit to scout possible venues for the next IPA Congress which will be held in Guadalajara on 4-6 December 2024.

Brazilian publisher, Eduardo Rodrigues, the Chair of the IPA’s Latin American Educational Publishers Forum, convened a meeting of the Forum during the Fair, as well as another meeting of its three Working Groups (on Digital Transition, Anti-Piracy, and Government Policy). These meetings gathered 30 educational publishers from ten countries including Vice-President Pansa. Borghino attended all of the above meetings, panels and site visits.

There was also a session on the importance of statistics about publishing, which included for the first time ever at the Fair a representative of WIPO: Kevin Fitzgerald, the Director of the agency’s Information and Digital Outreach Division. Fitzgerald was able to release the interim report on global publishing statistics that WIPO has worked on with IPA, for the past four years. 

In related news, Guatemalan publisher, Raúl Figueroa Sarti, was awarded the Guadalajara International Book Fair’s Editorial Merit prize. Figueroa Sarti has been shortlisted for the IPA’s Prix Voltaire in the past two years and was the recipient of the AAP’s 2021 Jeri Laber Award. He continues to be harassed by government officials in his home country.