Christian Schumacher-Gebler

After training as a publishing bookseller at Piper Verlag in Munich, Christian Schumacher-Gebler got a degree in business administration at the University of Regensburg in 2001.

After his studies, he started his professional life as assistant to the managing director of the German Bonnier Group.

From 2004 to 2012, Christian Schumacher-Gebler was Managing Director at Ullstein Buchverlage in Berlin.

Since 2013, Christian Schumacher-Gebler has been working for the German Bonnier Group as CEO in Munich to champion the interests and growth potential of the group.

In an honorary capacity, he is involved with the FEP and is active on the board of the Committee for Publishers in the German Publishers & Booksellers Association.

Michiel Kolman

It’d better be sustainable and inclusive!

Dr. Michiel Kolman is Senior VP and Academic Ambassador at Elsevier and former President of the International Publishers Association (IPA) where he now chairs Inclusive Publishing and Literacy. Michiel also serves on the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) board.

During his tenure as president the IPA launched the SDG Book Club together with the UN and supported by key players across the book industry. More recently he was instrumental in launching the SDG Publishers Compact, another IPA – UN collaboration.

Since joining Elsevier in 1995, he has held various core publishing roles in Amsterdam and Tokyo. He launched one of the first online journals in the industry in 1996: New Astronomy. Michiel was Managing Director in Frankfurt, Germany. For 10 years, he spearheaded academic relations for Elsevier, building up a global network of ambassadors engaged in strategic discussions with research leaders. Today he continues to engage with research and government leaders in his role as Academic Ambassador for Elsevier.

Prior to Elsevier, he worked for Wolters Kluwer in a division that is now part of Springer Nature. He holds a degree from Leiden University in the Netherlands and a PhD in astrophysics from Columbia University in New York, where he studied with a Fulbright scholarship.

Michiel is co-chair of Workplace Pride supporting LGBTIQ+ workplace inclusion internationally. He is the executive sponsor of Elsevier Pride and was listed two years in a row in the Financial Times’ Top 100 ranking of most influential LGBT senior executives. He supports inclusive publishing, e.g. through the Accessible Books Consortium at WIPO where he served several years as vice-chair.

 

Tom Morris

Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.

Tom Morris is a Senior Trends Analyst at GWI, a market research company running the world’s largest ongoing survey on the digital consumer. He analyses this rich dataset, alongside other material, to uncover the latest trends and insights in media and beyond.

Specialising in gaming, he regularly speaks to journalists and publications around the world about how the landscape is ever-changing – particularly after the pandemic.

Prior to joining GWI, Tom was an MA student studying English language and literature. During this time he wrote his thesis on the representation of fatherhood in US animated television, working alongside a team of PHD students to further investigate the portrayal of gender and masculinity in media.

Alicia Sellés

Datos, datos, datos… y relatos

Alicia is Librarian. She developed her professional career in the private sector as an independent consultant with more than 20 years of experience in the information and library sector, more focused on the research, design, strategy but also on the implementation of technology.

She combines these tasks with teaching specialized courses, degrees and masters related to information management and libraries, tutoring projects and academic work (UOC) and activity in University research groups (UMU). He participated in the IFLA IAP program and worked in the advocacy initiatives for libraries as agents of development. From that experience she coordinates the «Libraries and 2030 Agenda» at the Library Cooperation Committee (Ministry of Culture) and is member of the Council for Sustainable Development of Spain. She is a member of the Royal Board of the National Library of Spain.

In the field of professional associations, she is president of FESABID (Spanish Federation of Archival, Library, Documentation and Museum Societies), has been president of the Official College of Librarians of Valencia region and a member of the executive committee of EBLIDA (European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations). She is currently a member of the European Division of IFLA

Arantxa Mellado

Digitalisation of the book supply chain and sustainable growth are key elements for the publishing industry. We have to tackle them in the present in order to have a future

Arantxa Mellado has more than 20 years of experience in the book world, first as a publisher and then as a publishing consultant. As such, she has advised publishers on issues related to the multi-format book commercial chain, metadata management and POD production.

She is currently director of LiberExpress, a digital platform for the distribution of print-on-demand (PTO) books, which she co-founded.

She also founded DataLibri, a company specialising in metadata marketing training and consultancy.

Arantxa Mellado has a degree in Law and a Master’s degree in History of Medieval Law (UB). She is also the author of the blog Actualidad Editorial, lecturer in the Master’s Degree in Publishing at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and author of numerous studies and reports on the book industry.

Roberta Franceschetti

Technology and languages are ever changing. But the need to tell stories, which is deeply rooted in human nature, stays the same.

Roberta Franceschetti has been working in publishing and children’s media for the past 20 years. She co-founded Mamamò, a website that promotes media education for children, and ContentMakers, a creative studio that produces content for kids and families across different media.

A journalist and content creator, she graduated in literature and earned a Master of Arts in Design History at the Royal College of Art, London and a postgraduate specialization in digital publishing at the Politecnico di Milano. She’s been a member of the jury of the BolognaRagazzi Digital Award (Bologna Children’s Book Fair).

Roberta is co-author of «Youtuber. Manuale per aspiranti creator» (Editoriale Scienza), a children’s guide to Youtube and videomaking, and «Educare ai nuovi media. Percorsi di cittadinanza digitale per l’educazione civica» (Pearson Academy) a media education guide for teachers. She’s also co-author of the story of the animated series «MeteoHeroes».

Nana Lohrengel

Nana Lohrengel is born in Munich. She starts working as a bookseller in Berlin at the bookstore Bücherbogen am Savigny Platz and studies at the Buchhändlerschule Frankfurt am Main (known today as Mediacampus). She starts her career working for Könemann Publishing (Köln) in 1998, being in charge as Sales Manager of major German clients, such as Hugendubel and Thalia. In 1999 she moves for Könemann to Milan, becoming Sales Director for Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel and Middle East. From 2003 to 2005, with Mauro Loce, she works in printing and binding producing mainly visual books for international publishers. Mother of two girls, she decides to take care of her family for a few years. In 2009 she starts working again as a bookseller at the Hoepli bookstore. Since 2013 she is in charge of all didactic activities of the Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri School for Booksellers in Italy. Since 2014 she is General Secretary of the Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri Foundation.

Laura Di Giuseppe

Community, community, community. It’s all about building a community

Laura Di Giuseppe is a Publishing and Marketing Consultant, working at digital marketing agency Tandem Collective. She has been in charge of developing integrated consumer and retail marketing strategies for some of the world’s most successful publishing brands including Dr Seuss, Paddington, J.R.R. Tolkien, Agatha Christie, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Fantastic Beasts and Pokémon. After her experience at Penguin and HarperCollins, she is now working with authors and publishers to establish their online presence, develop brand partnerships and maximise media opportunities.

 

As part of the round table ‘Digital market tools for the book industry’, Laura Di Giuseppe will cover the importance of micro-influencers on Instagram and TikTok to develop word of mouth for debut authors as well as established brands. She will draw from recent case studies, namely the international campaign she project managed at Tandem Collective to promote the latest Don Winslow’s book City on Fire in partnership with HarperCollins.

Anna-Maria Soininvaara

Everyone is welcome to Oodi. We are constantly developing the library and do that together with library users.

Is director of Helsinki Central Library Oodi since 2018. Her former position for 14 years was deputy library director and in this position she was in charge of the planning process of the building of a new central library. Other tasks were related to library administration, developing library services and library’s collections.

Fabian Paagman

Director-owner of family business Paagman bookshops: 4 stores in The Hague and surroundings (Netherlands). A fifth store will be added in April 2022. Together with his sister, he is the third generation to manage this completely independent family business with approximately 130 employees.
In addition, since 2012 Fabian is executive-commmittee member of the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) and since 2014 involved in the position of co-president. Through its member associations, EIBF speaks on behalf of more than 25,000 individual booksellers. In this capacity, EIBF is the legitimate voice of booksellers in Europe and worldwide.