IPG Attends the 2019 Beijing International Book Fair

At what many are calling the the biggest and best yet, this year’s Beijing International Book Fair hosted more than 2,600 exhibitors and 320,000 visitors. IPG’s very own Joe Matthews, CEO, and Scott Hatfill, Director of International Sales, were able to attend and experience the excitement firsthand. Scott shares below an inside look into his time in Beijing.

Scott Hatfill, Director of International Sales at IPG, in attendance at the 2019 Beijing International Book Fair

SH: Our stand was in the American Collective area of the hall. It was well attended and we were able to meet with all the key companies. Our local representative, Benjamin Pan, was also there and had his own stand. Our academic partner Eurospan, Marc Bedwell was also in attendance.

To import books into China we have to use a licensed importer and they have to approve, one by one, each book that is being imported. Many of the importers have offices in both Beijing and Shanghai and they have various buyers for our varied range.

We discussed key books for all categories we sell. Of interest, almost all of the buyers were interested in our Spanish language range. We’ll be discussing getting rights from those publishers to sell their books into China as we currently have contracts for North America only with many of them.

We were able to meet with many accounts as well as met with many Chinese and international publishers to continue our efforts to expand our list of publisher clients.

Post-show, a traditional Peking Duck dinner is prepared table-side for Joe, Scott and guests.

IPG can’t wait to attend next year’s show which will take place in Beijing August 26 – Aug 30, 2020.