Pictured infront of Taipei’s iconic building Taipei 101 l-r: Mark Sayes, David Glover, Adele Bryant (ENZ), Kathy Ferrier, Dame Wendy Pye, Bob Andersen, Joy Allcock, Sandy Roydhouse, Robert Roydhouse (front).
Making their airfares work harder were a group of Kiwi educational publishers led by David Glover, who added Korea and Hong Kong to their itineraries prior to TIBE.
Bob Andersen (Wendy Pye Publishing), Mark Sayes (ESA Publications), Kathy Ferrier (Lanky Hippo) and Joy Allcock (MJA Publishing) began their tour in Seoul. Activities included 17 individual meetings, visiting a school ‘full of Kiwi teachers’, learning about Korea’s big, sophisticated market for educational materials, and an event hosted by NZ’s Embassy in Seoul.
In Hong Kong they added John Huria and Graeme Cosslett of NZCER to their ranks, and held 12 individual meetings with educational publishing counterparts, along with a networking function at the NZ Consulate. These were interesting conversations as the Hong Kong possibilities and onward connections into China were discussed.
Reaching Taipei, the delegation was joined by Dame Wendy Pye, David Ellis (NZCER) and Sandy Roydhouse (Clean Slate). They had many pre-arranged appointments with Taiwanese publishers, and also did a lot of ‘walk-ons’ to the booths of local publishers.
Dame Wendy Pye invites a girl from the audience onto the stage to read from one of her books during the Teaching the World to Read session.
Educational publishers made two presentations at TIBE – one titled Teaching the World to Read and the other NZ Educational Publishing – what makes it special. The latter was followed by a reception, an opportunity for yet more networking.
David says that the three city tour created lots of new relationships between publishers of each country and they have many leads to follow up. “We all have a much better idea of how our materials need to be adapted for these three markets. It was a big learning experience.
“I think the trip has generated some great new opportunities. Existing relationships were strengthened, and from others the message was: We didn’t know you, but now we do we are interested to learn what you can offer.”
