Sunday 19th April 2026
9.00 - 9.45
Conference registration and welcome coffee
Sponsored by Nielsen
09.55 - 10.55
Welcome words and keynote speech
11.05 - 11.55
WORKSHOP
My shelf and Me: Let’s talk self-censorship in the bookshop
PANEL
Foresight: Exploring the futures of bookselling
PANEL
Building digital learning hubs for booksellers
PRESENTATION
The Italian Book Market
12.05 - 13.15
Lunch
Sponsored by Libro.fm
13.15 - 14.05
WORKSHOP
My staff and Me: Let’s talk people management
PRESENTATION
EIBF: Who are we and what do we do?
PANEL
Focus on public procurement: challenges, opportunities, and best practices
PANEL
How to create a long-lasting book club
14.15 - 14.55
Afternoon keynote
14.55 - 15.20
Coffee break
Sponsored by Nielsen
15.30 - 16.20
WORKSHOP
My shop and Me: Let’s talk about failures & challenges
PANEL
How do young booksellers see the future of bookselling ?
PANEL
Focus on community initiatives that make a difference
PRESENTATION
Ignite session: one thing that works wonders in your store
16.30 - 17.10
End of the day keynote
18.30 - 19.30
Drink reception
Sponsored by Gardners
19.30
Dinner
Sponsored by Ingram
Monday 20th April 2026
9.00 - 9.30
Welcome coffee
09.30 - 10.10
Keynote speech
10.20 - 11.10
WORKSHOP
My shelf and Me: Let’s talk self-censorship in the bookshop
PANEL
Going beyond Western narratives: curating international representation
PANEL
Going through a successful bookshop succession
PRESENTATION
Everything you need to know about THEMA
11.10 - 11.30
Coffee break
11.40 - 12.30
WORKSHOP
My staff and Me: Let’s talk people management
PANEL
From green practices to long-term resilience: the making of sustainable bookshops
PANEL
Everyone is welcome in the team: ensuring inclusivity and representation in your workforce
PANEL
Reading starts here: reading promotion across the sector
12.40 - 13.50
Lunch
13.50 - 14.40
WORKSHOP
My shop and Me: Let’s talk about failures & challenges
PANEL
Bookselling perspectives on AI
PANEL
How to build a diverse and profitable events offer
PRESENTATION
Bookshops under attack: risks, responsibilities, and the power of political engagement
14.50 - 15.25
Closing keynote
15.25 - 15.35
Closing words and unveiling the 2027 conference location
15.40
Closing drinks
Sponsored by Legami
PANELISTS, WORKSHOP FACILITATORS & MODERATORS
Adam Hewson
Adam Hewson has been bookselling since the mid-1980s, first in independent bookshops then the major chains Waterstones, and Books etc. (Borders UK). Adam did considerable training and staff development. After Borders closed, Adam moved to the RHS, championing books in an industry where books aren’t centre stage. In 2016 Adam and his wife Wendy purchased 2 independent bookshops in South West London. The shops were thriving and had strong reputations and with . Wendy’s display background and Adam’s operational and book knowledge growth was ensured. Adam sits on the Booksellers Association Council.
Alexandra Harvanová
Alexandra Harvanová is a dedicated literary advocate and the face behind the independent bookstore Kníhkupectvo Na Korze. Her career spans journalism, cultural production for the European Capital of Culture project, and bookstore management. As an author and organizer, she is best known for her innovative community initiatives, including student reading scholarships and charity book campaigns. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between quality literature and the general public, fostering a vibrant local community of readers.
Anaïs Combeau
Anaïs Combeau began to work at Lilosimages in 2016 as a bookseller specialised in children's literature and B to B manager. In 2019, she became the co-owner of the bookshop. She is an active member of several French booksellers associations, to promote the added value of the independent bookshops in the book industry.
Carmen Lee-Stocker
Carmen Lee-Stocker was born in Bern in 1989. She studied theatre studies, dance studies and musicology at the Universities of Bern and Vienna, completing her master's degree in Bern in 2016. She worked as a cultural journalist in Basel and in opera dramaturgy at various theatres in Switzerland and Germany. In 2019, she completed a career changer course in the book trade offered by the Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association (SBVV). For more than ten years, she has worked at the Kulturhaus Bider & Tanner in Basel. She is the head of the marketing and communications department and a member of the management team. She is married and has one daughter.
Carolynn Bain
Carolynn Bain is an award-winning bookseller, entrepreneur, and speaker, based in Brighton, UK. In 2020, she founded Afrori Books, an independent bookshop exclusively selling books by Black authors, driven by her passion for diversity and representation. Under her leadership, Afrori Books was honoured as the Brighton business of the 3 years in a row and she has won bookseller of the year twice and several other awards. Carolynn also established Brighton's first Anti-Racist Kids Club (ARK), delivering workshops to schools across the South East. Carolynn is the founder of Brighton Book Festival, now in its fifth year. She has been featured on major news outlets, including Sky, ITV, and the BBC, for her pioneering work in promoting Black stories for everyone.
Chris Saynor
Chris Saynor works for EDItEUR, the international standards body responsible for book supply chain standards like ONIX and Thema. He joined the organisation in late 2016. Prior to that he worked for a company in Paris creating metadata solutions and websites for publishers. Previously he worked for many years as a bookseller, first in the UK for Waterstones, then in Paris for Shakespeare & Co and W.H. Smith. He originally started training as a librarian but preferred the world of bookselling.
Christoph Hänni
Christoph Hänni is head of the education department at the Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association since March 2024. Among other things, he organizes courses on AI and has noticed a growing interest in this topic. The apprenticeship program for booksellers in Switzerland is currently being revised, and AI is also being included as a topic of discussion. Previously, Christoph worked as co-branch manager of a bilingual (German/French) bookstore.
Cian Byrne
Cian Byrne is a second-generation bookseller from Maynooth, Ireland. He joined his family business in 2017. Since joining the company, he has led the expansion from the original two shops to four, both of which were won through competitive public tenders. In his two university bookshops, he has won the public contracts to supply branded merchandise. Since the introduction of free schoolbooks in Ireland in 2022, Cian has doubled the schoolbook supply part of the business through public procurement. He was named as one of The Bookseller Magazine’s Rising Stars in 2024. Cian is the current Chair of Bookselling Ireland.
Debbie James
Debbie opened Kibworth Books in 2009 after a career in music. Over the years, she has twice expanded the bookshop to include a secondhand and antiquarian book space and a bespoke Children’s Book Room. Debbie sits on the Divisional and Group Boards at the Booksellers Association of the UK & Ireland (BA) and was elected as their co-vice president in 2022. She became BA President in March 2026 and her key areas of interest are wellbeing and sustainability. She’s a keen supporter of the BA’s coaching project, was a founding member of the Sustainable Bookselling Group and also sits on the Sustainable Industry Forum and the Book Industry Communication’s Green Supply Chain Committee.
Eija Lietoff
Eija Lietoff owns and runs Läslusen (“The Bookworm”) a specialized children’s bookshop in Uppsala, Sweden. Since the 1990s, Läslusen has been a dedicated space for children’s literature. The collection of new and second hand books is curated with a highly personal touch. Eija actively reaches out to the community through collaborations, school visits, and a regular children’s book column in the local magazine. Her goal has always been to find the right book for every child, and personalized book subscriptions are also available to order online. The aim is to show that Läslusen can be your local children’s bookshop no matter where you live.
Emma Bradshaw
Emma Bradshaw began her career as a bookseller at Ottakar's before moving to the publicity department at HarperCollins Children's Books. She joined the Bloomsbury Children’s Books team in 2007, where she worked for almost 11 years as Senior Publicity Manager. In July 2018 Emma took up her current role as Head of Marketing and Communications at the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland. Emma and her team look after all of the Books Are My Bag consumer-facing campaigns, including Bookshop Day, the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, Indie Book of the Month, the Indie Book Awards and Independent Bookshop Week.
Fabrizio Lombardo
Fabrizio Lombardo studied at the University of Bologna. From 1991 to 2004, he worked in the large‑scale retail sector for Coop Adriatica, where he was responsible for both commercial management and store operations in the non‑food division.
In 2005, he launched the librerie.coop project, overseeing its development and management, both on the commercial side and in human resources. Since 2015, he has served as Chief Operating Officer of librerie.coop. He is a member of the board of ALI – Associazione Librai Italiani and, since 2024, has been part of the Scientific Committee of the Scuola Librai Italiani, where he also teaches.
Fleur Sinclair
Fleur Sinclair is the owner of the Sevenoaks Bookshop in Kent. She is a past President of the Booksellers Association for the UK and Ireland, winner of the 2025 Futurebook Leader of the Year, and sits on the board of UK Bookshop.org and the advisory committee for the Booker Prize.
Before bookselling, Fleur trained in photography and worked in the fashion industry as a photographer’s agent.
Fredrik Svensson
Fredrik Svensson is co-owner of Spongs Bokhandel in Karlskoga, Sweden. After many years in the business world, a longing grew – to create something more local, more vibrant. Something that really means something. When the opportunity to take over a bookstore arose, it was the start of a joint journey for Fredrik Svensson and Linda Björnberg. What started as an idea quickly became a joint project, where they combined Fredrik’s business drive with Linda’s sense of literature, people and culture. Together they have developed the bookstore into more than just a store – a place where people meet, talk and find new worlds.
Hannah Frisell
Hannah Frisell is the owner and CEO of Minervabokhandeln in Kristinehamn, Sweden. While completing her degrees in literary science and the library and information sciences, she worked as a project manager in rural and regional development, as well as a cultural events coordinator, before becoming the owner of her local bookstore in 2021. She strives to make her bookstore a welcoming and inclusive meeting place, with a special focus on book related events and the queer community.
Iris Hunscheid
Iris Hunscheid (53) is working in the bookselling business since 2001, when she started as a trainee in an independent bookstore. She has been working in different independent and chain stores for a few years before she opened up her own bookstore in 2006 together with her husband, Buchhandlung Hoffmann in Achim. In 2014 they added a second store to their own little bookshop chain by taking over Buchhandlung Jost, a traditional independent bookshop in Bonn.
Besides her everyday routines in the shops she is also engaged at EIBF and at Boersenverein, the German BA, where she represents the interests of the independent booksellers.
Jamie Fiocco
Jamie Fiocco founded Flyleaf Books (Chapel Hill, NC, USA) with her husband Michael Fiocco in 2009 after over a decade in publishing sales and marketing. Flyleaf Books-- regularly named best bookstore in the region-- features both new and used inventory and hosts hundreds of author events annually. Jamie is a past Board President of the American Booksellers Association and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.
Jan Smedh
Jan Smedh is the co-founder and owner of The English Bookshop in Uppsala, Stockholm and Gothenburg in Sweden. The original shop started in 1995 in Uppsala and won the Bookstore of the Year award at the London Bookfair in 2018. The idea has always been for the bookstores to be strongly grounded in their communities and to compete with quality, curation, service and events. Jan is on the board of the Svenska Bokhandlareföreningen (Swedish Booksellers Association).
Jennifer Jackson
Jennifer Jackson is a child psychoanalytic psychotherapist and owner of Paper Bird Children's Bookshop. She opened the store 10 years ago in Fremantle-Perth, the most remote city in the world. It is internationally renowned as a destination bookshop for the magical experience of climbing through the Narnia Wardrobe among a wonderland of fascinating books. All kids, no matter how small, are taken seriously, from selecting a book, to writing and illustrating their own stories through workshops. Jennifer sees children's access to literature as a human right and the preventative medicine arm of her clinical practice located in the same building.
Julia Nacht
Julia Nacht is a bookseller and event manager from Switzerland with experience in leading and organizing book events.
Kimberly Brock
Kimberly Brock is the Adult Book Buyer at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she has worked for more than twelve years. She began as a frontline bookseller before becoming a Book Buyer in 2021. Guided by her mission to ensure diverse books remain accessible to all readers, Kim approaches her work with passion and advocacy. She holds master’s degrees in Tourism Administration and Publishing from The George Washington University. Kim serves on the Board of Directors for the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC) and on the American Booksellers Association’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She brings curiosity, care, and purpose to every part of her work in books.
Kristīne Pīkenena
Kristīne Pīkenena has been a bookseller at Jānis Roze for more than a decade. She uses her knowledge and expertise to educate and fascinate readers through multiple social media platforms by being the Harshest Book Blogger in the country. As a bookstagrammer, podcaster and professional bookclubber, she rarely shies away from difficult topics, unpopular opinions and hard truths, but will never forget to have fun while doing it. Bookselling is her mission to save the world, one book at a time. She is happy to live in Latvia with her husband and two kids.
Laura Karlsson
Director of Finnish Booksellers Association. 25+ years of experience on book branch from different points of view: retail, publishing, producing, lobbying, entrepreneurship. Has been responsible for several national campaigns promoting reading and literature in Finland as well as Helsinki book fair and Finlandia-prize.
Mairi Oliver
Mairi Oliver (she/her) runs the award-winning Lighthouse: Edinburgh's Radical Bookshop; a queer, feminist, anti-racist community bookshop that hosts Edinburgh's annual Book Fringe and Radical Book Fair. She's worked in the book trade for over a decade in the UK and Australia, opening Lighthouse in 2017, a reincarnation of the Word Power bookshop that had first opened in Edinburgh's Southside in 1994. Mairi is Vice President of the Bookseller Association and organises with collectives such as Fossil Free Books, and the Alliance of Radical Booksellers, including overseeing their Bread & Roses Award for radical publishing.
Marianne Slagter
Marianne has been working in the book trade since 1988. She has worked as a store manager in both brick-and-mortar and online bookstores, held marketing and sales roles at several publishing houses, and led the purchasing team of a major bookstore chain.
In early 2024, Marianne joined the Royal Booksellers Association as Strategic Manager. Together with colleagues, she is committed to creating a strong and sustainable business environment for bookstores. As there had previously been no formal training pathway for booksellers in the Netherlands, Marianne relaunched this programme in 2025. In addition to an e-learning programme on bookselling expertise, they now offer a Masterclass in Entrepreneurship and a range of in-company safety training programmes.
Nicoletta Maldini
Nicoletta Maldini, born in Bologna in 1961, is a reader since 1965, and a bookseller since 1990, loves cinema and collaborates with Neu radio talking about books and events every Friday afternoon.
Nina Stavisky
Nina Stavisky was originally a bookseller, although she has not worked in a shop for the last fifteen years. She has specialised in computerised stock management by working for several IT service providers, for the Syndicat de la librairie française and now for ALIRE, of which she is the General Delegate. ALIRE brings together French-speaking booksellers who share the same objective: to develop the use of efficient IT tools, supplied with reliable, up-to-date information at controlled costs.
Philippe Hunziker
Philippe Hunziker is General Manager of SOPHOS in Guatemala, a bookshop that has become a cultural and bookselling reference in Central America, because of its bibliographical selection and copious cultural agenda. He has participated in several forums dedicated to the book world and has written articles for industry media. In 2016, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in the Chevalier grade by France’s Minister of Culture. From 2018 to 2021, he was President of the Asociación Gremial de Editores de Guatemala and from 2018 to 2024, Vice President of the Grupo Iberoamericano de Editores. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Centroamérica Cuenta literary festival. He is cofounder and president since 2025 of Fundación SOPHOS, responsible for managing La Teca, biblioteca para todos, in Guatemala City 's downtown.
Sanne Muijser
Since 2023, Sanne is Director of the Royal Booksellers Association (KBb) and Boekenbon NV (book vouchers) in the Netherlands. Sanne is an experienced association director and worker, prior to joining the KBb, for a number of trade associations, including the gaming and casino sector and other retail and industrial sectors. Above all he is a big fan of bookstores and is thrilled to be part of the bookselling community.
Sheila O’Reilly
Sheila O’Reilly is Project Manager for the Booksellers Association’s Learning & Development Platform, the Skills Hub. She also mentors’ independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland. Sheila is on the board of the European and International Booksellers Federation and is a non-executive director Batch, a subsidiary of the Booksellers Association of. Sheila is a seasoned book industry professional with over 35 years’ experience. In 1995, while running the customer service department for a leading US publisher, she launched an online bookshop, specializing in audiobooks. She went onto own three award-winning independent bookshops in London before moving home to Ireland in 2018.
Stephen Davidson
Stephen Davidson is the co-owner of The Spaniel's Tale Bookstore, a general trade bookstore in Ottawa, Canada. He serves on the selection committee the The Booksellers' List, the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association's spotlight on each season's top titles. He also served on the nominating committee for the 2026 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards. Stephen has a diploma in marketing communications and worked in property management prior to opening the store with his husband in September 2022. This summer, he and his husband are opening a stationery store to make more room for books at the bookstore.
sweet pea Flaherty
sweet pea Flaherty is the owner of King's Books in Tacoma, WA. They've been a bookseller since 2000, having previously worked at A Room of One's Own in Madison, WI. sweet pea moved to Tacoma to work at King's in 2003 and bought the store in 2010. King's Books is a community-centered bookstore with 15 book clubs and 2 bookstore cats. sweet pea is the co-founder of the Tacoma Wayzgoose letterpress festival, since 2005, and the Banned Book Club, since 2006.
Willemien Wagner
I’m Willemien Wagner. I am married and we have three beautiful daughters. Boekhandel Wagner was founded in 1967 by my parents in Sassenheim, a village with 17,000 inhabitants in the Bollenstreek region of the Netherlands. As a child, I always worked in the shop and later worked in all areas of the book trade, from printing and publishing to sales. I have been the owner of the bookshop since 2010. With almost 60 years of experience in the trade, we are a household name in the Bollenstreek region. Together with a small but strong team, we organise many activities in the shop and far beyond, which are appreciated by our customers.
Yolanda Auza Gómez
Yolanda Auza Gómez is a cultural entrepreneur and founder of Casa Librería Wilborada 1047 in Bogotá, an independent bookstore recognized for its outstanding curation, the expertise and warmth of its booksellers, and its innovative cultural programming. With a background in systems engineering and information technology, Yolanda Auza Gómez brings a unique perspective to fostering inclusive and vibrant literary spaces. Honored among Latin America’s top businesswomen by Latin Business Chronicle and Latinvex, Yolanda Auza Gómez is committed to advancing the role of bookstores as cultural and community hubs.
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