Bologna Children's Book Fair

I think because with that one, I had to finish.

I think it was like eight of the artists, like almost completely, like from sketch to color study to final, because they were taking it all to the Bologna Children's Book Fair.

And they wanted to have like basically like a mini version of the book so that they could hopefully get more people interested as well as see if other countries might be interested in purchasing the rights so that they could publish it in their own language.

Wow.

I actually, I was incredibly lucky because I had a holiday job.

I don't even know how I got it at the Bologna Book Fair, which is the big trade book fair for children's book publishing.

And I had a holiday job with a tiny publisher who literally just needed somebody to stop people stealing books off the stand when they had to go off.

So I was

Good morning.

I'm Veronica Orciari, and welcome to "The Deep Media Pulse." And as a reflection and on the occasion of the Bologna Children's Book Fair, I'm very, very, um, pleased to welcome a guest for a new episode of "The Deep Media Pulse," Verena Urbschat, director, visitor, and exhibitor marketing at Spielwarenmesse.

Thank you so much, Verena, for being with us this morning.

And I would ask you to quickly introduce yourself and what you do, and also if you could, um, you know, uh, discuss a little bit what role you think, um, Spielwarenmesse, like yourselves have in influencing the trends around, uh, toys and, um, you know, the, the, the, the connection between toys and books, which is the main topic of today's discussion with you.

Um, and yeah, if you could maybe summarize, um- What, uh, what you see as maybe, well, could be the next, uh, future, um, in the first next few years.

Uh, maybe what could be needed or is sort of a- would be a good, good road in the sense that like, yeah, if someone approaches this world this, you know, this month, in July 2020, uh, six, uh, what do you think could be a, a good sort of way, uh, to, um, to approach it?

I think, as I already said, it's really important to be open-minded, to be out there, to be in the industry, to, to visit various events and visit fairs like the Bologna Children's Book Fair or Spielwarenmesse or all the others that are out there, and, and walk around, see what's, what's happening there, collaborate with, with partners, find some, uh, uh, toy manufacturers, talk to them, or talk to, to licensing experts, and to see what your inspiration, your story can then really translate into, uh, into the world, uh, of toys and of play.

And it also depends a lot on what age group you're targeting your, your story to.

I think it can, has very useful purposes, and certainly for people within my profession and stuff, but it's just, it's very disheartening.

And, you know, I was at the Bologna Book Fair last year, and they were talking, um, about the impact it will have, and, like, if we have the, for instance, if we have the option of taking the stairs or the elevator, we'll always take the elevator.

We'll take the, the easiest option all the time.

But what they framed it as, it was a complete cultural dismantling of creativity and humanity.