IPA President Gvantsa Jobava, will be speaking at the Opening Ceremony as well as the BOP Awards Ceremony as well as a number of panel sessions and readings.

On Monday 31 March, Jobava will be joining Susanne Stemmer (Ilvie Little) in conversation with Emma House in the PublisHer Loung to talk about Mentorship and the Next Generation. Developing Women Publishing Leaders with a Focus on SDG 5.

Jobava will then speak at the BBplus Sustainability Summit (15:40 to 16:50, Illustrators Café (Main Stage)). In a session entitled Taking Stock and Reviewing the Roadmap to a Sustainable Future in the Book Industry (16:00 to 17:15) Jobava will be joined by an all star panel including:
·      Rachel Martin, Global Director of Sustainability at Elsevier
·      Helena Mansell Stopher, CEO and Founder of Products of Change
·      Anne Bergman Federation of European Publishers
·      Iroo Joo, Korean Publishers Association
·      Leonardo Aldegheri, Grafiche AZ

Monday will also see the signing of an MoU between the book fair and MABOPA, the Malaysian Book Publishers Association – host organisers of the 35th International Publishers Congress.

On Tuesday 1 April Jobava will join a special public reading of The Convention on the Rights of the Child: The Children’s Version | UNICEF, taking place from 4:00 PM to 4:40 PM at the Illustrators Café.

Finally Jobava will speak at an IBBY organised session around the European children’s literature project called Seen and Heard: Young People’s Voices and Freedom of Expression.

With the European Accessibility Act implementation date rapidly approaching there are also interesting sessions being organised on 31 March as part of the APACE project: https://www.boersenverein.de/veranstaltungen-termine/veranstaltungen/detailseite/31-03-2025/two-events-on-image-description-during-the-bologna-childrens-book-fair-2025/

Estonia is the Guest of Honour at this year’s edition of Bologna Children’s Book Fair taking place from 31 March to 32 April.