A B2B platform integrating networking opportunities, facilitated business meetings, experience zone, expert-led incubators, topical workshops, it is a two-day power-packed affair placed right before the start of New Delhi World Book Fair. Targeted at bringing together national and international players from the publishing and ancillary industry, this event is the once-in-a-year chance to convene and explore new business possibilities while exchanging and updating knowledge of market trends.

In 2014, Globalocal played host to over 200 publishing professionals from India and abroad. “In 2015, Globalocal will be a mix of roundtables, trendsetting trainings, business matchmakings, and keynote presentations with spotlight on networking,” said Prashasti Rastogi, director, GBO, New Delhi.

The new addition will be the Experience Zone which will allow space to companies to provide a touch and feel of their products and services to the trade audience present, while also integrating on-ground branding in it. “With all of this in place, this will be a multi-format event where participants can meet peers and professionals, scope out new business partners, present products/ideas, and interact with national and international industry experts,” Rastogi added.

The international participants this year include Michael Healy, executive director, Copyright Clearance Center, US; Peter Schoppert, managing director, NUS Press, Singapore; Judith Habermas, rights director, DuMont Buchverlag, Germany; Emma House, director of publisher relations, UK Publishers Association, UK; Renate Reichstein, rights director, Verlagsgruppe Oetinger, Germany; Manuel Carcassonne, managing director, Les Editions Stock (subsidiary of Hachette Livre), France; Irina Prokhorova, editor-in-chief, New Literary Observer magazine and publishing house, Russia; Syed Ali Bin Ahmad Semait, publisher, Pustaka Nasional, Singapore; Thamotharan Vijayanand, publisher, Crimson Earth, Singapore; Shu Chiang Yong, director, Bubbly Books, Singapore; Phil Tatham, publisher, Monsoon Books, Singapore; Phoon Kok Hwa, publisher, Candid Creation, Singapore; Christina Lim, executive director, Armour Publishing, Singapore; Sayed Munawar Sayed Mohd Mustar, CEO, Kotabuku, Malaysia; Roberto Berti Riboli, International Sales Executive, ELI Publishing, Italy; and Terig Gerrard Hughes, managing director, Reed Elsevier Health Sciences, South Asia, Singapore, among others.

The forum for content
Globalocal 2014 brought the focus back on increasing one-on-one networking opportunities and this year, the same trend continues. “We present the Exclusive India Trip again with a view to increasing planned interactions between Indian publishers/distributors/retailers/digital service providers and their international publishing counterparts,” said Rastogi. To this effect, the organisers have invited publishers/companies from across the globe, interested in the Indian publishing industry from a business perspective, to visit India from 8-14 February 2015.

Rastogi said Globalocal 2015 remains the forum for content and also becomes a platform for the rights and licensing business. Including a business centre, with space for reserved ‘tables’ to conduct business, matchmakings, etc, there will be dedicated spaces for rights and licence seminars, roundtables, workshops and experts’ table.

On the first day of Globalocal 2015, a visitor can register for the CEOs’ Roundtable and witness a future-forward discussion between strategic decision makers from the publishing fraternity. This panel will comprise of international CEOs, heads of publishing houses in India, and publishing professionals of note, who will engage in trend forecasting for the publishing industry.

On the second day, there will be a STM roundtable directly addressing the needs of this very important segment of the industry. In this forum, major national and international players of the industry will discuss their approaches/practices in relation to markets practices while talking about anticipated next stages.

There will also be an intensive rights and licence trainings on both days of the event. National and international experts will share their knowledge and expertise with publishers/rights managers/editors and those associated with this. Topics dealt with will include identifying and prioritising rights markets, finding and contacting potential licensees, offering and negotiating rights deals successfully among others.

In the afternoon of both days, GBO New Delhi will organise targeted matchmakings involving different segments of the industry from inside and outside of India. Each matchmaking session will be spread over two afternoons and each company will get one-on-one meetings, with all other interested (targeted) companies and each meeting will last approximately 15 minutes. Matchmakings will be targeted towards Indian publishers looking to sell/showcase their titles (for which they have the rights) to large overseas buyers and content platforms, and also will be targeted towards Indian printers looking to sell their print related services to international publishers, which will also include Indian digital players (other than printers) looking to sell their pre-press and digital publishing services to international publishers.

The Experts' Table will comprise of a panel of national and international experts drawn from various walks of the publishing industry who will be made available to participants for a limited-period one-on-one advice/counselling session. These difficult-to-meet personalities will share expert guidance on the specific issues brought to them by the participants.

Globalocal is a suitable forum for networking and business development for the entire value chain. For details, please visit the site www.globalocal-forum.com