The Bologna International Children's Book Fair 2010 is the biggest book fair in the world focusing on children books. It's a trade fair that attracts publishers and media from all over the world. At the fair, rights are bought and sold and new books and new technology are launched. So it's certainly very exciting and the Agency is glad to  be there this year. We have a stand at the Malaysian pavilion and displayed our clients' books and artwork. This year we also sponsored a Malaysian children's book author and illustrator, Emila Yusof to visit the fair. It's Emila's first visit to Italy so it's certainly a good experience for her.

At the same time, the Society of Children's Book Writer and Illustrator (SCBWI) had their biennial convention a day before the fair and also had a booth at the fair itself. So it was a pretty busy time for me as I had duties at the SCBWI booth as well as at the Malaysian pavilion.

I was pleased to see that the books we brought received good response and many people stopped and admired Yusof Gajah's Elephabet, Mother&Child, Emila's Little Guardians and many others.

The very first time I exhibited at the fair last year, I was rather overwhelmed by the many quality books on display but this year I feel our books (from our increasing number of clients) are certainly competitive and truly outstanding in some cases (please allow me my small moment of pride as I am certainly proud of the work produced by our clients and am working hard to promote them to a wider market).

Of course it doesn't just end here. The fair is a good opportunity for market research and networking and continuous follow up is essential to turn those interested queries into sales for our clients. So here's to hard work and wish me luck!