Councillor’s File: David Glover says capitalise on Frankfurt
“Where next after Frankfurt?” I’ve been asked since our collective educational publishing promotion made such an impact at the book fair. As the councillor with the education and educational publishing awards portfolios, I can confirm that there’s a strong interest in continuing with such group approaches in our international markets.The government appears receptive, and by teaming up with Education New Zealand, NZ Trade and Enterprise and other NZ Inc collective export initiatives we can add “go faster” stripes to our individual export efforts.
Ideas are flowing and a number of discussions taking place. One event on the horizon is the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE), which has invited New Zealand to be Guest of Honour in 2015.
In the meantime, the Education Sub-committee will regroup and look at ways to build collective marketing capability and information sharing between export-focused publishers.
Earlier this month we celebrated our third CLNZ Educational Publishing Awards. This has grown from three categories to six over the period, with 46 entries vying for this year’s awards. Judges Rebecca Jesson, Hone Apanui and Angela Fitchett were critical of the entries for Best Digital Media Solution for not realising the opportunities offered by technology, and also queried the limited range of subjects entered in the awards for texts, and said it was surprising nothing appeared in the literacy category.
On the other hand, they felt the entries in the Te Reo category were colourful and lively. With 38 PANZ members identifying themselves as being in the educational area, we want to see more publishers competing for these awards in future years, and I welcome any feedback on how we might improve the programme.
David Glover, CEO Learning Media