The Korean trial was hosted by Visang Education and some seven publishers from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar travel to Seoul from 16-20 September. The trial was made possible by the support of the Korean Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism.
The Publishers Circle initiative was launched in 2018 seeking to facilitate the direct transfer of knowledge between participating publishers and now has some 100 participants representing a range of publishing companies, government institutions, international organisations and libraries. You can see The Publishers Circle Charter here. Publishers interested in hosting or participating in a performance coaching programme are encouraged to sign.
The programme was prepared in consultation with VISANG and the participating publishers with the facilitation of WIPO and local Intellectual Property Offices. Each of the participating publishers had prepared development plans highlighting the issues and challenges they face, meaning the 5 days could be targeted at covering their specific challenges in a practical way. The issues covered included reviewing the regulatory framework, the publishing process, relations with customers, efficiency issues, securing licensing agreements with local and foreign authors, digital issues and many others and involved visiting Visang’s facilities, printshops, Visang’s creative/design centre and smart lab.
The next session will see publisher from Cameroon, Madagascar, Burundi and Tanzania all travel to other publishers.