Hachette New Zealand hosted their Christmas Party at the Floating Pavilion last night. A great time was enjoyed by all, with authors, booksellers and media mingling with Hachette staff. An impressive display of 2011 Hachette titles both New Zealand and international was a feature.
CEO Kevin Chapman (also President PANZ) delivered an impressive, thoughtful "off-the-cuff" state of the nation address in which he drew parallels between the year the country had, the industry had, and Hachette NZ had. After the terrible first half with the earthquake and the RedGroup administration he feels all of them are on the up. He said he was very pleased to be going to Christchurch today to hand over a large cheque to the Family Help Trust as earnings from their Christchurch February Earthquake book.Then he talked about how passionate the book community is about promoting books, whether they are digital or physical. He suggested that while we love the beauty of a printed book, as long as we are bringing stories, entertainment or information to our readers then the format doesn't matter.
Finally he waxed lyrical about a matter clearly close to his heart - Frankfurt Book Fair 2012 with New Zealand being having "guest of honour status) He sees it as a great opportunity for New Zealand and he's keen to get the word out.
A few photos from the happy event:
Photo 1 – Phil Gifford, Les Watkins, Christina Sayers Wickstead and Alan Sayers.
Photo 2 – Michael and Linda Cooper
Photo 3 – Jane Hingston, Mike and Vivian Hollman
Photo 4 – Jo and Donovan Bixley, Jim Mora
Photo 5 – Jane Hingston, Peter and Anne Blakeway
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