BIC’s The Business of Books Track at London Book Fair 2021 

Now in its 22nd year, BIC’s annual event at London Book Fair  has provided both national and international representatives of the book industry, and members of the public, with an opportunity to meet and exchange views and information on all aspects of the supply chain. 

This year saw the event scheduled over 2 webinar sessions on Thursday 1st July 2021, as follows:

Session 1: Mitigating Risk in the Book/Content Supply Chain 

The impact of the pandemic both globally and locally upon consumer demand and the various book industry supply chains has been unprecedented and is still ongoing. These market changes, have given rise to an understandably sharpened focus on the supply chain and the future proofing of our industry. The need for environmentally respectful supply chains that are agile and resilient in order to survive not only this pandemic but future world events, and other crises has become obvious. In this session we will look at lessons learned so far, future proofing against further pandemics, world events, geo-political issues, and how technology, communications, and best practices are three areas that can help improve the resilience of our content/book supply chains – both physical and digital. 

Speakers:

David Hetherington, VP Global Business Development, Books International
Matthew Hogg, Director of Publisher & Customer Services, Macmillan Distribution
Stephen Long, Freelance Consultant for BIC
David Marlin, President, MetaComet Systems
Karina Urquhart, Executive Director, Book Industry Communication (host) 

Speaker information:
Find out more about our speakers, here

Presentation slides:
The presentation slides from the session can be found here.

Recording of the session:
The recording of the session can be found here. 

Session 2 – The Green Book Alliance: Making the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals a Reality

Sustainability and eco-consumers are here to stay and in response the book industry needs to reduce waste, use more green energy, promote the circular economy and maximise green efficiencies. Our industry needs to be able to monitor its position and not only measure its progress and successes but promote and share them. International collaboration and sharing best practices (both established and new) are vital as this needs to be a concerted effort globally. BIC, as the long established dedicated supply chain organisation for the book industry is at the heart of leading the greening required and in June 2020 was instrumental in the creation of the Green Book Alliance (GBA) with BISG in the US and Book Net Canada. In this session, attendees will hear from the United Nations directly about their Sustainability Development goals and how the Green Book Alliance’s international initiative is working towards making them a reality. 

Speakers: 

Sherri Aldis, Chief, United Nations Publications, United Nations, 
Noah Genner, CEO, BookNet Canada (and GBA)
Brian O’Leary, Executive Director, Book Industry Study Group (BISG) (and GBA)
Karina Urquhart, Executive Director, BIC (and GBA)

Speaker information:
Find out more about our speakers, here.

Presentation slides:
The presentation slides from Sherri Alidis’ part of the session can be found, here.
Please note that the slides above are striclty United Nations’ copyright.

The presentation slides from The Green Book Alliance’s part of the session can be found, here. 

Recording of the session:
The recording of the session can be found here.