A year ago, I was wandering through the Leipziger Buchmesse, just to check out the fairgrounds and the big annual event, without a map and without knowing what I wanted to see. Needless to say, I didn’t make the best out of it, overwhelmed by all the booths and a bit lost – it even took me longer than I felt was reasonable to find my way out of the fairgrounds in the end. The costumed people from the big Manga Comic Convention were what caught my eye, but I didn’t want to stare and didn’t stick around very long. I bought a used illustrated recipe book and some pocket-sized German tales with really old worn-out covers, and that was the highlight of my excursion. I couldn’t have predicted then that our Leipzig Glocal, merely days old at the time, would be part of the next book fair in town.
But there we’ll be, and it would be nice to meet some of our readers, chat and even get some tips for what to see in that maze of literary and cultural offerings. In a partnership with our friends from Poniatowski – you’ve probably often read about them here on LeipGlo, because they really do host a lot of diverse cultural events in Leipzig – we’ll make two appearances as part of the book fair’s Leipzig Liest. Both are called “Intercultural Bloggers Cafe” but are a bit different from each other, and on different days; it’s good to use the same name to connect them, and perhaps we can make these blogger-related events a more regular thing if enough people are interested.
The first will be a bloggers and readers meetup at Poniatowski itself, Kreuzstr. 15, where we’ll hang out for a few hours, talk and exchange books we’ve read and liked. It runs from 7-11 p.m. on Friday, March 18th, with presentations by bloggers and related discussions starting at 8 p.m. So you get to meet people from diverse blogs and walks of life. Here’s the lineup:
– Ana Ribeiro and The Leipzig Glocal – intro and welcome
– Alexandra Köpping on balancing blogging about the Leipzig food scene and about the EU
– Stewart Tunnicliff (The Lingo Guy/Stew Tun’s Art) on the technical aspects of blogging
– The Stadtschwärmer team on creating and launching the Stadtschwärmer Leipzig, a modern travel guide with insider’s tips for Leipzig
– Jason D. Smith, The Flensburg Files
– Juliane Klinger and Alexander, Heldenstadtbewohner
– Kerstin Petermann, Peterfrau
The second event will be a panel discussion in the Buchmesse hall – Forum International und Übersetzerzentrum, Halle 4, Stand C500 – with LeipGlo writers and editors and others involved in social media and marketing elsewhere. We invite you to come say hi and ask our panelists some questions. The panel is from 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 20th. Here’s a brief description of our panelists and their topics:
– Anne-Christin Tannhäuser, Innovation in Education and Scientific Communication Consultant on using social media such as FB, Twitter and LinkedIn to share and create dialogue on (scientific) publications.
– Anne Breitenstein, Co-founder of the startup Zitronengrau text&media on her experience in marketing and what it’s like working in a coworking space.
– maeshelle west-davies, visual artist and Arts and Culture blogger/editor for The Leipzig Glocal, on how blogging affects the arts and on being part of a collective blogging project.
– Christijan Robert Broerse, writer and Literature blogger for The Leipzig Glocal on the theraputic nature of writing/ blogging. Why should we blog?
– Harald Köpping Athanasopoulos, political scientist and blogger for The Leipzig Glocal, on the importance of discussing local history and politics through hyperlocal journalism.
Also: Tune in to Radio Blau tomorrow, Tuesday, March 15th. maeshelle and I will be there playing some music and talking book fair stuff and whatever else comes to mind. 10 p.m. on the English-language show Continental Subway, created and hosted by the super cool and chilled-out David Dichelle. The show is now on every Tuesday at 10 p.m. – you can listen to it online or on the radio.
See you this week, hopefully!
