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Bologna at 60
Trade shows took a battering as a result of the restrictions brought about by Covid-19 but how will the Bologna Children’s Book Fair shape up now that everyone is getting used to a ‘new normal’?
This year’s 60th incarnation of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) may have more riding on it than the previous 59 editions. The first and most immediate reason is taking the post-Covid 19 temperature of international publishers and the agenting community: they will undoubtedly come, but in what numbers?
Bologna arguably is in a better position in its second post-pandemic year than its competitors, with its 2022 better-than-expected 21,432 attendees just 25% down on BCBF numbers in 2019. Compare that against London and Frankfurt’s 2022, which were both at least 40% down on 2019. And, all the more encouraging for Bologna, it was the earliest of last year’s fairs and Italy had relatively strict coronavirus restrictions in place at the time.
But the devil is in the detail. Those overall attendance figures include members of the public and BCBF does not split out trade and consumer visitors for public consumption. The numbers showed the international trade was less keen to return, with exhibiting companies almost 30% down on 2019. Meanwhile, 40% of exhibitors came from outside Italy compared to just over 50% in the Before Times. Again, the early 2022 date did not help, not least because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had begun three weeks before the fair kicked off. Even so, the key question for all the trade show organisers in the coming year will undoubtedly be how to lure attendees back when they have discovered other ways of doing business.
Interesting, then, that 2023 could be a transformational year for BCBF as it tinkers with its model, opening up the rights centre to agents outside the children’s arena and giving more welly to its non-kids’ events stream, BolognaBooksPlus (BBP). These experiments were undoubtedly in train pre-pandemic (certainly BBP was) but they have perhaps far more urgency now. BBP seems to be swinging for the fences, at least, with a strong programme that features now-Bedford Square Publishing boss Jamie Hodder Williams, superstar agent Luigi Bonomi and your man off the telly and those jars of pasta sauces, Loyd Grossman.
The rights centre offer remains the intriguing one. Certainly, one can see the cost benefit for agencies with children’s and adult lists who may want to do one spring fair and opt for a week in Bologna rather than west London. But this requires a critical mass of adult agents and that, at least at the moment, seems a long way off.
