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Producers of creative content can apply for a German or international Wild Card by submitting clever stand concepts.

Frankfurt, 3 April 2018 – It's that time again: Frankfurter Buchmesse is giving away Wild Cards for the fourth time. Whoever most convincingly answers questions about their exhibitor concept will win the top prize: an 8 sqm stand at the world's largest content fair. Over the past three years, the competition has received more than 460 applications from 20 countries. With so many applicants, it was decided to give away two Wild Cards this year – one for a German exhibitor and one for an international exhibitor.

“We are trying to use the international Wild Card to find the world's next big thing – the publisher of today and tomorrow. Whether digital or print – hundreds of entries over the past years have shown how much creativity there is in the content industry”, explains Markus Gogolin, Director of Strategic Marketing at Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Classic publishing companies and all creative-content developers are encouraged to apply, whether they are illustrators, games developers, corporate publishers, vloggers, bloggers, photographers or anything else.

Here's what previous Wild Card winners have said:

2017:
“The Wildcard gave us the wonderful opportunity to bring together the literature community for the Lit & Sit at the fair. It was great how Frankfurter Buchmesse made it so much easier for us to get started”, said Dörte Brilling and Birgit Kidd from litnity.

2016:
“The Wildcard was a great opportunity to call attention to our multimedia textbook (mBook). Moreover, with the ‘Edu Couch’ we were able to create a space for the topic of digital education, helping inspire new ideas”, says Benjamin Heinz, CMO of the Institut für digitales Lernen (Institute for Digital Learning).

2015:
“Winning the Wildcard was a milestone in our company’s brief history. I’d even venture to say that things never would have moved forward as quickly without the attention it brought us: Just a few months later we were taken over by Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH”, reports Felix Plötz of Plötz & Betzholz Verlag.

Interested in winning a stand at the Frankfurter Buchmesse with the Wildcard? Then register and submit your application here by 31 May 2018: www.book-fair.com/wildcard

Terms and conditions for participation

As part of the Frankfurter Buchmesse contest, participants may win the grand prize: an 8-sqm stand (8-sqm inline booth incl. environmental and energy fees, marketing flat rate, “Furniture & Light M” package and ten trade visitor tickets). All companies that have never exhibited at the Frankfurter Buchmesse are eligible for participation. Any companies affiliated in any way with a company that is or has been an exhibitor at the Frankfurter Buchmesse may not participate.

The deadline for participation in the competition is 31 May 2018.

To participate, please visit our website: www.book-fair.com/wildcard

All participants must answer the following three questions:

1. Why does the fair need you as a new exhibitor?

2. How would you publicise your participation in advance of the fair?

3. How would your booth stand out?

The winner will be chosen by a jury of the Frankfurter Buchmesse and will be notified via e-mail in June 2017. Following this notification, the Frankfurter Buchmesse will send the winner all relevant documents for participation in the fair. The award is non-transferable. By participating, participants confirm that they hold all rights to the submitted/posted text/image, or that they have permission to submit/post it for the contest. Where third-party rights exist, participants confirm that they have been granted all rights to participate in this contest and, if necessary, can provide written confirmation thereof. The use of someone else’s images/texts from the Internet is thus not permitted without the prior consent of the copyright holders. Any recourse to courts of law is excluded.

About the Frankfurter Buchmesse
The Frankfurter Buchmesse is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair – with over 7,300 exhibitors from 102 countries, around 286,000 visitors, over 4,000 events and some 10,000 accredited journalists and bloggers in attendance. It also brings together key players from other media, including the film and games industries. Since 1976, the Book Fair has featured an annual Guest of Honour country, which showcases its book market, literature and culture to attendees in a variety of ways. The Frankfurter Buchmesse organises the participation of German publishers at around 20 international book fairs and hosts trade events throughout the year in major international markets. With its Business Club, the Frankfurter Buchmesse offers essential services and an ideal setting for the activities of publishers, entrepreneurs, pioneers, experts and visionaries. THE ARTS+ was launched in 2016 as a fair, business festival and international meeting place for the culture and creative industries. It aims to exploit the potential of digitalisation for creative content and to develop new business areas. The Frankfurter Buchmesse is a subsidiary of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association). www.book-fair.com

Contact for the media:
Press & Corporate Communications Frankfurter Buchmesse
Katja Böhne, Vice President Marketing & Communications, tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-138, press@book-fair.com
Kathrin Grün, Head of PR and Communications, tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-170, gruen@book-fair.com
> Press information online >www.buchmesse.de/en/press/press-releases
> Photos in print quality >www.buchmesse.de/en/press/press-material

www.buchmesse.de/en/wildcard/