An International Bookfair for Filipinos

With the theme "Make it a habit", The 27th Manila International Book Fair culminated last August 30-Sept. 3, 2006 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. This is an annual event for book lovers and a big show for all book publishers. Everyone has its own strategies and way to attract book lovers to visit their booths, attend special events and a showcase of their respective products and services. One of them is Vibal Publishing House - one of the big publishers who has free story telling for children. They have children's story and coloring books that are bestsellers. They have invited Ms. Cha Chua and her group from Alitaptap Storyteller's Club to conduct storytelling session at the Function Room B of the bookfair. It was a success and needless to say that it had attracted not just kids but also adults because of their theater-like presentation. It is now the modern approach that is used by storytellers to gain attention and let the listener fully understood the stories being featured.

After that, I went around and take a look on their booth. I was greeted by a presentation showcasing their new multimedia products. These are nominated to the World Summit last year. As I turned around I see more product showcase and glad to know that some of them contains my contribution on photography and other creative stuffs. Some of them are the multi-awarded Regions of the Philippines interactive DVD, the Book Award winner for best in Trave Writing Murada: A Walk to the Historic Instramuros and also I am doing a website project for their coloring books based on the popular TV series "Super Inggo". Their booth is very well designed that it gain as third placer in the booth competition.

The World Trade Center in Pasay City was the venue of this international event. There are more than 80 exhibitors who had joined and it caters all types of books from kiddie books to professionals in all levels. Some of them consist textbooks, educational supplements, general references, religious and inspirational titles, self-help books, management books, Filipiniana, coffee table books, popular novels, children’s books, art books, graphic novels, rare and hard-to-find titles, magazines, audio and e-books, multimedia, teaching supplies and services, publishers’ technology, and travel materials. Giant bookstore chains of National Bookstore and Powerbooks covers the largest part of the venue and it lures the public with big discounts and other surprise gifts.

I scrambled through their isles to look for some books on electronic publishing and other reference books. I'm into book on blogging, wiki's and other computer jargons such as AJAX and XHTML. I need these because I have a huge site being develop. These are new tech-terms that surface and getting popularity among web masters and I think these books has not yet been published. Some of them are just available as documentation online. What I really wanted was a book on actual project implementation and in-depth experiences from several companies who had applied these technology.

This year's event really attracted book lovers and to my conclusion, the event was a big success and more innovations will hopefully be seen next year.