The London Book Fair is one of the largest publishing events in the world. Staged annually, LBF sees more than 25,000 publishing professionals arrive in London for the week of the Fair to learn, network, and kick off their year of business.
Despite the Coronavirus pandemic, the fair will go ahead anyways. In a statement form the organizers, they said “The London Book Fair wants to express our concern for everyone impacted by the COVID-19 virus and we send our warm wishes to all our book industry colleagues around the world. Our event in London is going ahead, March 10th – 12th as scheduled. We’re actively and continuously monitoring the situation around Covid-19 Coronavirus in line with Public Health England and WHO guidelines. Working with the venue, the health and safety of our exhibitors, visitors and staff is our number one priority.”
Mobile World Congress in Spain, the largest event dedicated to smartphones and tablets was cancelled this year, for the first time ever. Other events around the world have also dedicated not to run anything, for fear of spreading the virus.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.