Borneo book publishing conference, book fair next month
KUCHING: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak ( Unimas) will be holding an International Conference on Borneo Books Publishing and Borneo Books Fair ( BBPF) 2017 from Oct 11 until 15.
The conference side of the event will be held at The Waterfront Hotel from Oct 11 to 12, and at the Unimas Campus on Oct 13. Meanwhile, the Borneo Books Fair 2017 will be held from Oct 11 to 15 at Plaza Merdeka.
According to BBPF 2017 chairwoman Associate Prof Dr Jane Labadin, there will be plenty of activities to look forward to at the book fair, including a speech competition, singing competition, buskers presentation, colouring competition, cultural presentation and more in addition to book sales and book launches.
“We are expecting exhibitors from various universities and institutes, and a few independent publishers,” she said during Unimas’ courtesy call on Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah yesterday.
Meanwhile, the conference aims to be a platform for academic content creators, authors and book industry players to exchange experience, knowledge and ideas through forums, presentations and brainstorming.
They also want to encourage academic publication potentiality on Bornean themes.
Around 100 participants are expected for the conference, while the book fair aims to attract at least 5,000 members of the public.
Present was BBPF 2017 advisor Prof Dr Kopli Bujang, who is also Unimas deputy vice- chancellor (research and innovation).
At the same time, Fatimah also received a second team from Unimas, namely from the Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovations ( ISITI).
They were there to brief her about the sixth e- Borneo Knowledge Fair 2017, that will take place on Oct 25-27 in Ba Kelalan.
ISITI director Prof Dr Narayanan Kulathuramaiyer said that their theme this year is ‘Community- Based Sustainability’.
He explained that it will engage with the local community there, bringing together researchers, practitioners and policy makers with the indigenous people of East and Peninsular Malaysia, and Indonesia.
“We are also inviting YB (Fatimah) because empowerment of the community has to start with the women. We can see the development of a community including health, education, and capacity building are all tied with the women. We are looking at a holistic view of development.”
Narayanan said that they are trying to enhance what they did in the past events.
“We will also be launching some new technologies that ISITI has come up with.”