21 Must-attend professional events at the Frankfurt Book Fair

The first days of the Frankfurt Book Fair are packed with professional events — discussions and conferences that shape the future of the industry. Chytomo has selected 21 key events you shouldn’t miss this year. These sessions are designed not only for publishing professionals but also for those working in governance, cultural management, distribution, as well as for authors and journalists. Find the ones that inspire you!

Tuesday, 14 October 

1. Frankfurt Rights Meeting – Networking & Keynote 

17:00 – 19:00 

Location: Frankfurt Studio (Saal Europa Halle 4.0)

Those attending the Frankfurt Book Fair for more than the first time know that arriving early is never a bad idea. The day before the official opening offers a great opportunity to join the rights community for drinks and networking. Organizers invite participants to meet new contacts, reconnect with old acquaintances, and discuss current industry developments at an exclusive networking reception — opened by a thought-provoking keynote. 

For over 30 years, the Frankfurt Rights Meeting has been the flagship conference for the rights and licensing community. This year, it was held in a hybrid format, featuring four digital sessions in September 2025 that explored key topics and trends. The program will culminate in an exclusive in-person networking reception with a keynote speech on the exhibition grounds on Tuesday, 14 October 2025, just before the start of the fair.

Wednesday, 15 October 

2. How to Future Proof Your Publishing Career

09:00 – 10:00 

Location: Innovation Stage (Halle 4.0, H106)

For those who have been following our research on the labor market in Ukraine — and for anyone interested in how technology is reshaping the global publishing industry — this is a key event to attend. The panel will discuss how technology (primarily AI, but not only) is transforming jobs in publishing around the world. The organizers promise to look at the day to day changes and the opportunities/new roles that are emerging and how every person can develop their skills to ensure future and continuous employment. This is part of the bookcareers.com ongoing conversation on Publishing Jobs of The Future.

Speakers: 

Suzanne Collier (Career Coach, Publishing Consultant, Author bookcareers.com) 

Suzy Astbury (CEO Inspired Search & Selection) 

Meru Gokhale (Founder and CEO Editrix AI) 

Sara Lloyd (Group Communications Director and Global AI Lead Pan Macmillan)

3. The International Book Market Uncovered: Key trends in 2025 from around the world 

10:00 – 10:30 

Location: Frankfurt Studio (Saal Europa Halle 4.0)

Traditionally, NielsenIQ BookData promises a deep dive into the book market across 16+ key territories, revealing the biggest trends from the first 8 months of 2025. Discover critical insights, uncover emerging patterns, and explore what’s shaping the industry this year! 

Speakers: Andre Breedt (NielsenIQ BookData) 

Hazel Kenyon (BookData Commercial Director NielsenIQ BookData) 

4. European Book Market Statistics 2024-25

10:30 – 11:00

Location: Frankfurt Studio (Saal Europa Halle 4.0) 

The event logically continues the previous one: the Federation of European Publishers presents the results of its annual survey and research on European book market statistics. The presentation will provide detailed data for 2024, along with an overview of the market dynamics for the current year, as well as a summary of the main trends in the book industry over the last 20 years. As we reported earlier, in recent years European publishers have been working to develop a “pan-European” framework for conducting comparable research across all EU countries — it will be interesting to see the results.’

Speakers: 

Sonia Draga (Federation of European Publishers) 

Enrico Turrin (Deputy Director Federation of European Publishers)

5. 7 International publishing distribution forum: “Standars and protocols. Their benefits in the book supply chain. The German and Spanish cases”

11:00 – 11:50 

Location: Frankfurt International Stage (Foyer Halle 5.1/6.1)

In this 7th IPDF (International Publishers and Distributor Forum), the event that connect publishers and distributors, organizers will break down the advantages and benefits of having standards, protocols and best practices in the book supply chain, using two different markets as examples: Germany and Spain. 

Speakers: 

José Manuel Anta (Managing Director Spanish Book Publishers Federation (FGEE)) 

Juan Manuel Martínez Blanco (Managing Director FANDE) 

Alyna Wnukowsky (Libri GmbH CEO) 

6. Bookselling in times of war

12:00 – 12:50 

Location: Centre Stage (Halle 4.1, B68) 

How do booksellers sustain their work when polarization, censorship, or even full-scale war threatens them and the communities they serve? This conversation brings together booksellers from Kyiv, Jerusalem, and San Francisco to explore how they protect stories, nurture readers, and keep cultural spaces alive amid different kinds of pressure. Each participant shares their own experience — from everyday challenges to inventive forms of resilience — offering a rare look at bookshops as anchors of dialogue, memory, and hope. 

Speakers: 

Erin Cox (US Publicist Frankfurter Buchmesse) 

Oleksii Erinchak (entrepreneur, founder of Sens (Сенс) bookstore and Hitica ) 

Vanessa Martini (Green Apple Books) 

Mahmoud Muna

7. Sustainability Summit

13:00 – 14:00 

Location: Congress Center (CMF) – Conclusio (E2)

This year marks the 5th Sustainability Summit — now an annual event dedicated to examining progress toward the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.

Speakers: 

Melissa Fleming (Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications United Nations) 

Gvantsa Jobava (President International Publishers Association (IPA)) 

Rachel Martin (Senior Global Director of Sustainability Elsevier)

8. What the audiobook listeners want 2025: A data deep dive into trending authors, books, and categories across Europe 

13:30 – 13:50 

Location: Frankfurt Studio (Saal Europa Halle 4.0)

BookBeat promises to shares key insights about books, authors and categories that are trending across Europe. The audiobook has become a growth engine for the industry across Europe. Based on 1.2 billion hours of accumulated data and over 150 million listened books, BookBeat shares key insights for publishers about which books, authors and categories the users cannot get enough of in 2025 and that are trending on different local markets. 

Speakers: Niclas Sandin (CEO BookBeat GmbH)

9. International Publishers Association Open Freedom to Publish 

14:30 – 16:00 

Location: Congress Center (CMF) – Conclusio (E2) 

Meeting the International Publishers Association invites its Frankfurt Book Fair attendees to join us to learn about the activities of the Freedom to Publish Committee, the Prix Voltaire, and also to share their own experiences of freedom to publish challenges in their own markets and regions.

10. Digital publishing award | Award ceremony

15:00 – 16:00 

Location: Frankfurt International Stage (Halle 5/6 Ebene Via) 

Hosted by Publishing Perspectives’ Erin Cox, with a keynote by Ama Dadson. 

According to the organizers, in 2025 the Digital Publishing Award goes international for the first time. The event will feature an international jury and submissions from around the world. The awards celebrate outstanding projects and individuals driving digital transformation in publishing — from innovative products and business models to inspiring leadership shaping the media’s digital future. 

Prizes will be awarded in the following categories: Product / Business Model Process / Technology Personality / Digital Leader(ship) Startup 

Speakers: 

Erin Cox (US Publicist Frankfurter Buchmesse) 

Ama Dadson (Founder and CEO AkooBooks)

11. Frankfurt Kids Conference 2025

16:00 – 18:30 

Location: Centre Stage (Halle 4.1, B68)

This year’s theme, “Children’s Books in a Fragile World,” addresses rising illiteracy and growing attacks on children’s literature. With keynote speaker Axel Scheffler, industry experts will discuss how to protect access to diverse books and ensure no child is left behind. Building on last year’s focus on responsibility, the conference continues to highlight the vital role of children’s books in educating and inspiring future generations.

This year’s conference—once again be moderated by Lawrence Schimel—will feature a keynote by renowned illustrator Axel Scheffler and two panel discussions with experts and publishing professionals such as Jon Yaged, Chief Executive Officer of Macmillan Publishers and the Ukrainian writer, translator and editor Kateryna Mikhalitsyna. 

Thursday, 16 October 

12. What can we do to resist the attacks on the Trinity of Freedoms?

10:00 – 11:00 

Location: Centre Stage (Halle 4.1, B68) 

The freedom of expression, the freedom to publish and the freedom to read, are coming under increasing pressure from a range of directions. What practical tools are available to the book sector to resist these attacks and what more can international publishers do to support each other? 

Moderator: Porter Anderson, Publishing Perspectives 

Speakers: Anke Steinecke, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel U.S., Penguin Random House (USA) Jaeho Kang, Korean Publishers Association (Korea) Sherif Bakr, Al Arabi (Egypt) Speakers: Porter Anderson (Editor-in-Chief Publishing Perspectives) Sherif Ismail Bakr (General Manager Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing)

13. Community-Driven Business Models – changing the perspective for the better

13:30 – 14:00 

Location: Frankfurt Studio (Saal Europa Halle 4.0) 

Direct access to and true collaboration with ones target audience is increasingly becoming a competitive advantage. Publishers are serving and creating communities of likeminded reader and users sharing an interest in certain topics, stories and contexts. Community-driven business models foster co-creation, exclusive formats, and make use of platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, or proprietary apps as central touchpoints. In this session, Soheil Dastyari, CEO of Bastei Lübbe AG, will demonstrate how changing the perspective can unlock new publishing strategies, that create pull-effects, initiate new ways of monetisation and spark the power of enthusiasm. 

Speakers: Soheil Dastyari (Bastei Lübbe AG)

14. How Books Travel Today. Exploring Trends and Developments in the European Markets for Translated Books

13:00 – 13:50 

Location: Europe/Berlin On site Centre Stage (Halle 4.1, B68)

Slovenia is one of the leading countries at the Frankfurt Book Fair, raising the question of the future of so-called “low-return” markets. The focus of the event echoes an issue highlighted by one of the Greek publishers in our Greek market review.  

Will the rapid growth in reading English among young people change the translation landscape in continental Europe? Are self-published authors organising their own translations, and what effect will this have on the publishing landscape?

What role does artificial intelligence play in all this? How will an AI-dominated publishing environment alter the concept of text in the original language and in translation? What will happen to rights trading once machine translation and AI voice generators can automatically translate books and convert them into audiobooks?

Speakers: Miha Kovač, Anja Kamenarič, Rüdiger Wischenbart, Yana Genova (moderator).

Organised by the Slovenian Book Agency in cooperation with Thinkpub/Creative Europe and the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport of Austria.

15. Information Integrity: how to make readers care in times of disinformation

14:30 – 15:00 

Location: International Stage (Foyer Halle 5.1/6.1) 

Disinformation travels faster and farther through social media than facts, making it increasingly difficult for anyone to distinguish between what is true and what is not. Algorithms and AI have contributed to the creation of different realities in which people live- shielded from differing points of view in their personalized information bubble. How can publishing help to create a new sense of belonging to the same reality, to discuss together and ensure everyone feels heard and seen?

Only if people continue to put themselves into other people’s shoes, are willing to be uncomfortable with facing different ideas, will they be able feel empathy and care about people different from them. 

Speakers: Sherif Ismail Bakr (General Manager Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing) Melissa Fleming (Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications United Nations) Daniel Lingenhöhl (Editor-in-Chief Springer Nature AG & Co. KGaA) Marina Weisband 

Friday, 17 October

16. Graphic Novels in Germany, Czechia, and Slovenia: Exploring the Evolution of the Genre

11:00 – 12:00 

Location: Frankfurt International Stage (Foyer Halle 5.1/6.1) 

The panel will explore how the genre has evolved in countries with distinct traditions of comics and graphic storytelling — from Slovenia and Czechia’s unique cultural landscapes to the contrasting histories of East and West Germany, their influence from the broader Western comic scene, and how different social, political, and artistic contexts have shaped the graphic novel’s growth in these regions. With Jindřich Janíček, Rita Fürstenau, Tanja Skale and moderated by Jakob Hoffman. 

Organised by the Slovenian Book Agency in cooperation with Czech Literary Centre. 

17. Superheroes of World Literature

13:00 – 14:00 

Location: Ehrengast Philippinen (Forum Ebene 1)

What constitutes world literature are all the big and important novels from different countries translated into English to be more accessible to the international market. They become part of the world literary canon, but what about trans-national translations? Translators are the new superheroes who ferry works across languages, across cultures. Featuring: Annette Hug Luis Castellvi Zoë Beck Alexandra Rak Creative Synopsis/Performance: Love’s Secret (William Blake, translated by Lamberto Antonio, music by Josefino Toledo) by Jonathan Zaens 

18. Censorship in Asia Is free expression really free? 

15:00 – 16:00

Location: Asia Stage (Halle 5.1, A75) 

Despite constitutional protections, censorship, may it be official or self-imposed, still casts a shadow over Asian publishing. This discussion tackles cancel culture, political red lines, and the quiet compromises writers make in order to put their work under the spotlight. Featuring: Patricia Evangelista & Roby Alampay (moderator)

Saturday, 18 October

19. 200 Years of Braille – Exploring Writing by Touch

09:00 – 18:30 

Location: Foyer Halle 4.1 

Braille was developed 200 years ago and has since opened up access to education, culture, and participation for millions of people worldwide. This exhibition wall introduces the tactile writing system, explains its structure, and presents fascinating facts – in both German and English. In cooperation with the Dialogmuseum Frankfurt, which offers immersive experiences that provide new perspectives on life with blindness, we invite you not only to see Braille but also to feel it for yourself. 

20. TikTok Book Awards 📚

19:00 – 20:30 

Location: Congress Center (CMF) – Saal Harmonie (E2) 

Language: German

The TikTok Book Awards return for the third time! ✨📚 This year’s event will honor top authors, bestsellers, creators, bookstores — and, for the first time, libraries, publishers, and #BookTok film adaptations from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. With a jury featuring bestselling author Tahsim Durgun and the hosts of @br_literally, Knut Cordsen and Miriam Fendt. Free entry with a valid Frankfurt Book Fair ticket!

Sunday, 19 October

21. Decolonize yours(h)elf: launching of the digital platform with Ukrainian Literature in translation

15:00 

Location: Hall 4.1, F75/80

For decades, Ukrainian literature abroad remained overshadowed by the Russian imperial discourse. Today the number of translations of Ukrainian works is steadily growing, giving international readers the opportunity to free themselves from narratives imposed by Russia and to “decolonize” their bookshelves.

Chytomo, Ukrainian independent media about publishing and contemporary literature jointly with Craft Magazine, online journal with inspiring conversations about art, creativity, craftsmanship, and life, presents the project “Chapter Ukraine” – digital platform showcasing Ukrainian books in translation, providing full book data and tools to search, categorize, create, and share curated lists of titles with bookstores and libraries.

Moderator: Ganna Gnedkova (translator, literary critic) 

Speakers: Oksana Hmelyovska (chief editor of Chytomo), Kateryna Kazimirova (founding editor of Craft Magazine), André Störr (publisher, Friedrich-Mauke-Verlag)