The World Book Summit is the last major event in the programme of Ljubljana, World Book Capital.

The World Book Summit conference 2011 entitled 'The book as bearer of human development', which in a theoretical sense is the most important event in the programme of Ljubljana – World Book Capital 2010 takes place at Cankarjev dom from 31 March to 2 April.

Conference themes

The themes of the conference will include the relationship between electronic and printed books, the role of Google in the field of books, the changed business models in publishing and bookselling and their impact on the quality of information supplied, state support policies on changing the book environment, the role of ‘linear’ reading in the digital context, the importance of translating and cultural interchange in the field of books, the impact of books on past, present and future civilisation and the (ir)rationality of the claim that information must be free.

The Ljubljana Declaration

At the end of the conference the Ljubljana Declaration is to be signed, which as added value to the project emphasises the importance of books as a bearer of human and social development and represents a document for the implementation of its starting positions in the national programmes of European and other countries in the cultural field.

UNESCO Regional Forum

In parallel with the conference there is also to be a special UNESCO regional forum on 'Writing, publishing, translating: building cultural diversity in South-East Europe' supported by the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, the UNESCO office in Venice and the Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO. Thus the World Book Summit is also to be visited on Thursday 31 March by UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova.
Among the conference speakers it is worthy of note to mention Jens Bammel (Switzerland), Andrej Blatnik (Slovenia), John Carlin (Spain), Roger D. Sell (Finland), Francis Galloway (South Africa), Meta Grosman (Slovenia), Pramond Kapoor (India), Miha Kovač (Slovenia), Mike Shatzkin (USA), Rüdiger Wischenbart (Austria) and Claire Squires (UK).

More about the World Book Summit conference and its programme is available at the official conference website.