Frankfurt: Advanced Training for Publishers from Eastern Europe and Central Asia
The Goethe-Institut’s Publishers Advanced Training Course 2009 - 2011 addresses young executives in the publishing industry, publishers and editors in the countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the southern Caucasus. “Since publishers and publishing houses can play a pivotal role in strengthening arts and educational systems as well as in modernizing societies, this project is of outstanding importance for the Goethe-Institut,” Johannes Ebert, regional director of the Goethe-Institutes in Eastern Europe/Central Asia, explained the objectives of the three-year project.
The programme supports the further training of professionals and promotes networking between the publishing landscapes in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Russia, Tadzhikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan as well as alliances with German partners. The core themes of the advanced training include education, production, editing and revising, rights and licenses, online publishing, marketing, sales and public relations. Following completion of the advanced training programme the participants can pass on their freshly acquired knowledge to colleagues in their own extra-occupational publishers advanced training courses.
The advanced training in Frankfurt from 2 until 8 October 2010 is a fixed element of the programme and consists of a seminar on the mediacampus frankfurt in Seckbach and a visit to the Frankfurt Book Fair. Here, the 19 participants can acquire information about issues such as e-books, online marketing of books for young people and licensing law and gather insights into the German publishing landscape – for instance through a visit to a publishing house.
Last year, Muhabbathon Ahrachodjaeva, head of the Vektor Press in Uzbekistan, took part in the advanced training in Frankfurt. She reports, “The exchange with practitioners from Germany was a great asset” for her, “in particular with women from the publishing sector. We were given the opportunity to establish contacts with colleagues from the other participating countries, contacts that I have never had before.”
Until summer of 2010 approximately 350 professionals from over 150 publishing houses took part in the Goethe-Institut programmes. In 2010, 32 events (seminars, workshops, forums, etc) are being held in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the southern Caucasus, including professional visits to the book fairs in Minsk, Saint Petersburg, Frankfurt and Moscow. Already, over 20 advanced training events are planned for 2011 in countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia and in Germany.
The Advanced Training for Publishers 2009-2011 project is part of the Goethe-Institut’s Culture and Development initiative and is being held in cooperation with the Mediacampus/schools of the German book trade in Frankfurt and the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Advanced Training for Publishers 2009-2011: Programme at the Frankfurt Book Fair
