2ND GLOBAL ASSOCIATION OF LITERARY FESTIVALS CONFERENCE

SPEAKERS:
Lola Shoneyin
Poetry Interlude
Carmel Rosato
Musical Interlude

Established literary festivals have been a huge inspiration to event curators all over the world. In this session, we’ll meet the founders of some of the world’s newest festivals and hear about their activities, challenges and future plans.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Wachuka
(NBO Litfest) – Kenya

Kenanao Phele
(Gaborone Book
Festival) – Botswana

Sumayya Jaeh IIilyasu
(Hausa International
Book & Arts Festival)
– Nigeria

Festival organisers have to think deeply about diversity in their programming. However, what constitutes diversity is determined by context. In this session, three festival directors share how they demonstrate diversity in their festival events.

SPEAKERS:
Anja Bengelstorff
(Macondo Literary
Festival) – Kenya

Nora Hadjisotiriou
(International festival for
Young Poets) – Cyprus

Willemijn Lamp
(Read My World)
-Netherlands

The Pandemic saw an emergence of video conferencing tools, forcing many festival directors into a steep learning curve. Are hybrid festivals the future? In this session, three Programme coordinators share their experience of hybrid events.

SPEAKERS:
Lynsey Fineran
(The Times
and The Sunday
Times Cheltenham
Literature Festival)
– UK

Simone Schroder
(International
Literature Festival)
– Germany

Ana Filomena Amaral
(Words of Fire)
– Portugal

From achieving audience growth, managing finances to  mining hidden income streams, all festival organisers have some hard-won lessons to share but there is always something to learn and adapt.

SPEAKERS:

Jean-Claude Cournand (BOCAS Lit Fest) – Trinidad and Tobago

Nermin Mollaoglu
(Istanbul International
Literature Festival)
– Turkey

Marit Borkenhagen
(The Norwegian Festival
of Literature)
-Norway

There are many ways in which festivals can collaborate effectively. In this session, delegates will share some of the ways in which they have worked with other
festivals, whilst exploring opportunities for more  global conversations.

SPEAKERS:
Teresa Grotan (Bergen International Literary Festival) – Norway

Naomi Beth Miller (Bristol Ideas) – UK

Martin Egblewogbe (Pya Gya!) -Ghana

This is probably a top priority for all festival organizers. With world economies grappling with a global crisis, fundraising can be soul-destroying. In this session, festival directors discuss some of the tricks of the trade.

SPEAKERS:
Amanda Bullock (Portland Book Festival) – US

Roland Gulliver (Toronto International Festival of Authors) – Canada

Rosemarie Milsom (Newcastle Writers Festival) – Australia

WORKSHOP

Even seasoned festival directors may be missing out on the benefits of a good campaign. In this session, participants discuss how best to harness social media to maximise their success and boost their brand profiles.

SPEAKER:
Carmel Rosato