The International Publishers Association (IPA) is pleased to announce that the Korean Publishers Association is organizing its 28th Congress to take place in Seoul on 12-15 May 2008.
At an IPA Congress, every four years, the publishers, senior publishing managers, trade association executives come together, as well as partners in the book chain and in government and intergovernmental bodies. Nobel Laureate for Literature Orhan Pamuk, and WIPO DG Kamil Idris have already confirmed participation in the IPA Seoul Congress. We hope that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will also join in. All these people step back and look at the broader developments in publishing. They learn about trends in technology, legislation and consumer behavior from around the world. They share experiences from different countries and form an impression of the publishing world. They celebrate the book of the future and the people who will make it happen, the authors, the publishers and their partners in the industry.
Under the motto “Diversity in a Shared Future,the 2008 IPA Publishers Congress will be a special event for Korean publishers and for publishers from the rest of the world. For the Korean publishers, the 28th IPA Publishers Congress will be a unique opportunity to showcase their national industry, which is the world’s 8th largest. For publishers from the rest of the world, the IPA Publishers Congress in Seoul will provide a unique opportunity to discover a key publishing industry which has been at the forefront of innovation for years.

A book is an important medium representing the factual knowledge of the social and historical world. There is nothing that so powerfully absorbs the latest technologies and information as books, being the driving force behind the sustainable development of our society. Books play an important role in reducing the gap between the advanced and developing countries and promoting an integrated approach to learn and develop together. Today we live in a world that promotes a healthier democracy and a place of genuine peace. On the other hand, we still witness the ever-growing gap between the economically advanced and the lesser-developed countries, conflicts over religion, and the continuing gap between analogue and digital owing to the introduction of a new digital paradigm.

With this in mind, the 28th IPA Publishers Congress aims to provide an arena for worldwide publishers, and professionals to share and discuss their views and insights into the roles of publishers in realizing books as a bridge to reduce the existing gap between peoples and countries and to pave way for co-prosperity.
This occasion will be an opportunity for dialogue and in forming a new map of new strategies for the sustainable development of the publishing industry.