London Book Fair E-content pavilion fails to shine

The E-content Pavilion at this year's London Book Fair has failed to live up to the expectations of exhibiting publishers. Last year the pavilion was one of the show's highlights with a special futuristic looking stand and plasma screens. For 2006 the organisers have pushed e-content suppliers into a dark corner at the back of the ExCel hall.

The London Book Fair is the UK's and one of Europe's largest and most important publishing trade fairs with all the big players in town to meet, do deals and discuss the future direction of publishing. For 2006 the event has moved to the ExCel exhibition centre in London's Docklands area, after a long career at Olympia.

"I expected the pavilion to look more modern and exciting," said Ian Gibson, e-Solutions Manager for health and science publisher John Wiley & Sons. Other exhibitors in the E-Content Pavilion, which hosted Elsevier, Thomson and Ebsco alongside Wiley, said there was more room than last year in the booths, but agreed that it lacked excitement and did not differentiate e-content providers from booths displaying book display stands.

Emma House, exhibition manager told IWR that publisher feedback from last year's event revealed publishers did not believe the E-content Pavilion was serving their needs.

Although the E-Content Pavilion failed to ignite interest, e-content issues were the talk of the show on Monday with conference sessions on the future of the book in the digital age and what librarians want from academic publishers being over subscribed, organisers turned people away.

Despite the drab portrayal of e-content providers, the London Book Fair was as a hive of activity. Thomson , Blackwell, Wiley and Lexis Nexis all had impressive separate stands for their print products in the main area.

The organisers Reed Exhibitions have received complaints of narrow aisles, lengthy queues and poor signage at the new venue, but first day attendance on Sunday 5 March was up on last year's and some publishers are reporting more business and meetings being done than before.

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