Rights trading meetings at Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2024. Image: BCBF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Business Shaping a Trade Fair’s Structure
Among the key distinctions of Elena Pasoli‘s Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 31 to April 3) is an evolving international rights structure that now features several dedicated trading hubs. While this can be confusing at first glance, the shape of it is simple: a three-tiered set of business interests.
- The “top,” the umbrella, is Bologna Children’s Book Fair, itself.
- Next are two “extensions”—Bologna Books Plus for general publishing and Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids.
- And finally, there are three main specialized areas of trade—film and television; games; and comics.
The 62nd edition of the world’s largest trade show for the industry publishing books for young readers will again feature not only the core book fair but also those two major brand-extensions, Jacks Thomas‘ Bologna Book Plus and Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids—the latter in its 18th year.
Certainly, the core of copyright and rights trading at Bologna remains the show’s Rights Center, which serves literary agents, scouts, rights directors, and other publishing professionals. With more than 200 participants from many parts of the world—along with the many meetings taking place at more than 1,500 publishers’ stands—the rights-center space itself was redesigned in 2024, and it’s open to both children’s and general trade publishing agents, as well as to exhibiting publishers from both Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Bologna Book Plus.
Thomas, the guest director for Bologna Book Plus, says, “Yes, the Rights Center, formerly called the Agents’ Center, is open to all rights professionals, general and children’s, literary agents and rights professionals from exhibiting publishers. What’s more, Bologna also has, of course, our online rights trading platform, the Global Rights Exchange, a year-round place for rights exchanges,” not unlike the Frankfurt Rights program.
But new business sectors in the creative industries have begun to provide some structural logic to the show’s shape and points of emphasis, enabling more focused meeting contexts for professionals.
And that’s where more specified trading facilities are being added.
The Television/Film Rights Center
Business meetings at the 2024 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Image: BCBF
For nearly 20 years, organizers tell us, Bologna Children’s Book Fair has regularly welcomed producers and associated professionals from the audiovisual world, all seeking new stories and characters to transform into television shows, films, and animated productions.
Related article: Bologna’s New TV/Film Rights Center. Image: BCBF
Starting last year, Bologna is dedicating a rights-trading and meeting center to audio-visual industry professionals. The TV/Film Rights Center is designed to facilitate the discovery of new intellectual properties based on books and offering matchmaking opportunities between producers, publishers, and literary agents.
Hosted in the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids space, the television and film program is set to accommodate more than 400 meetings, fostering connections and networking between producers and the publishing world.
Through the TV/Film Rights Centre, the fair has also established a partnership with Cartoon Forum in Toulouse, a leading professional event dedicated to developing animated television projects. As part of this collaboration, the 2024 edition of the festival welcomed a delegation of Italian publishers who participated in business meetings and pitching sessions with industry professionals, including representatives from more than 1,000 broadcasters across 40 countries.
The Games Business Center
The audiovisual sector’s visitor base now increasingly includes game industry professionals. In response, Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19)—as the world industry’s two leading trade shows—partnered in 2024 to launch a new Games Business Center at Bologna.
One of the key innovations of Bologna 2025, this dedicated space is devised to bridge the gap between the publishing industry and the games industry, part of BCBF’s book-to-screen offering new development options, it’s hoped, for publishing people.
In addition, a curated program of events is being planned to explore contemporary themes such as cross-media rights and the role of the gaming sector in content creation for audiences ranging from children and teenagers to young adults and adults.
Comics Corner
Meetings in the Comics Corner division of the 2024 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Image: BCBF
The Comics Corner is BCBF’s business area dedicated to comic book and graphic novel publishers, whether specialized or not. Created last year in response to rapid growth in the comics sector, it hosted more than 700 B2B meetings, solidifying its role as a dynamic hub and a unique meeting point for an overview of the international comic scene. The area is further enriched by a diverse schedule of industry-themed events featuring renowned international experts.
There are two more industry-defined focal areas, a Translation Center and an “Audio HQ” (that one seated in Bologna Book Plus), for those whose business ties into these sectors of the industry’s development. And lastly, a matchmaking service is available for cross-fair connections with nearby industries’ players to help professionals locate each other and arrange meetings.
More from Publishing Perspectives on rights trading in the international marketplace is here, our Rights Roundup series is here, more on licensing is here, more on Bologna Children’s Book Fair is here, more on children’s books is here, more on the Italian market is here, and more on world publishing’s trade shows and book fairs is here.
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