Searsha Sadek is the Founder and Chief Product Officer of Shimmr, a company that
‘brings books to life’ through automated advertising campaigns. An expert in using AI
for marketing and at the cutting edge of developments, Searsha gives tips on how
every publisher and author can use technology to get their titles ahead. At Shimmr,
she uses this capability to match books to new audiences to maximise
discoverability, while generate advertising faithful to each book's DNA – bringing its
human genius to wider attention. Searsha trained as a psychologist, spent many
years in leading advertising agencies, and was Chief Revenue Officer of an AI-brand
management company. Outside work, you can find her swimming, drinking
tea, kickboxing – and of course, reading.

Gvantsa Jobava (1986) is the Vice President of the International Publishers Association (IPA) and the past president of Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association (currently the GPBA board member). She holds the position of the Head of International Affairs and the head of translated Fiction/Nonfiction department at Intelekti Publishing, one of the leading publishing houses in Georgia. In addition, she is a member of Women Publishers’ International Network – PublisHer. In 2020 she joined PEN Georgia.

In 2021-2022 in the frames of UNESCO’s “Tbilisi World Book Capital 2021” project, Gvantsa has founded the first Tbilisi Children Books Festival; Children Books Literary Award NAKADULI; The first Caucasus and Black Sea Basin Countries’ Regional Publishing Conference, etc.

Since 2013, Gvantsa Jobava has been lobbying for the Georgian publishing industry, advocating Georgian publishers’ interests and rights, standing for copyright and freedom to Publish and Freedom of Expression in Georgia. She has managed a number of projects to promote Georgian publishing and literary industry at international level, including Georgia’s “Guest of Honour” publishing program at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair. In 2017 and 2018, she organized Georgian writers’ and publishers’ peaceful performances – ‘STOP RUSSIA’ against Russian occupation, at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

In 2016 she founded World Read Aloud Day in Georgia, as well as the special award “Book Supporter of the Year”.

In 2017 she organized Nobel Prize Winner, Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich’s visit to Georgia. In 2013-2022 she was the organizer of Tbilisi International Book Festival.

Gvantsa Jobava is a poet and the translator of works of John Steinbeck, Chinua Achebe, Saul Bellow, John Lennon and others. She has also translated Anna Politkovskaya’s book “Putin’s Russia” and “A Message from Ukraine” by Volodymyr Zelensky into Georgian. She is the author and editor of the publishing project “Banned Books Shelf” and the founder of Banned Books Week celebrations in Georgia.

Richard Charkin is a former president of the International Publishers Association and the United Kingdom’s Publishers Association. For 11 years, he was executive director of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. He has held many senior posts at Macmillan, Oxford University Press, Current Science Group, and Reed Elsevier. He is a member of the international advisory board of Frankfurter Buchmesse, and is a senior adviser to nkoda.com and Shimmr AI, a non-executive director of Liverpool University Press, and Cricket Properties Ltd., and has founded his own business, Mensch Publishing. He is the author, with Tom Campbell, of ‘My Back Pages; An Undeniably Personal History of Publishing 1972-2022, that will be published in Spanish later this year.

Nick Coveney is Senior Key Account Manager for Digital Services at Ingram Content Group, with over fourteen years’ publishing industry experience, working previously in a variety of roles as an Editor and digital product specialist. Nick led digital product development at a range of major publishers including; Hachette UK, Bonnier Books, HarperCollins UK and Verso Books as well as working for many years as publisher relations and content lead at Rakuten Kobo.

As a blind Mathematics graduate, I have both the lived experience and professional vantage point from which to understand the challenges faced by learners with a print-disability and I am forever committed to breaking down barriers and improving the availability of accessible education – and enhancing independent study – for all.

I have been professionally involved in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) education sector, forming the basis for my career – beginning as a University advisor; and following a trajectory through a diverse and rewarding career.

In prior roles, I worked in Bangladesh, India and across several countries in Africa, on making education more inclusive, which saw my involvement in a vast array of diverse, illuminating and extremely meaningful and challenging projects.

I then headed the RNIB Bookshare Service in the UK; working with over 1,100 publishing partners, to bring their content onto the RNIB Bookshare platform, to be used by students with any print-disability, for free. The platform grew rapidly and currently provides over 760,000 free eBooks in a variety of accessible formats.

Moving closer to accessibility challenges in academia, I have just taken on the role as Accessibility Manager for Taylor & Francis, where I will aim to provide a clearer, more cohesive strategy on accessibility across the company, building on the wonderful, award-winning work T&F has already achieved.

I can often be found in the ‘accessibility community’ speaking at events or hosting/attending panels. I also chair the Accessibility Action Group for the Publishers Association. A group which brings publishers, vendors, stakeholders and end users together, to break down barriers to accessing any, and all, published materials. Something that still remains my raison d’etre!