Publishing can be a relationship-driven industry — but not everyone has the same access to the rooms where opportunities happen. This session brings international publishing professionals together to explore how networks, mentoring and sponsorship can move from individual support to collective, measurable impact.

We’ll swap experiences and demystify the differences: what a network can do for you (and how to find the right one), what mentoring is great for day to day, and what sponsorship looks like when someone actively backs you and helps opportunities move. We’ll also talk honestly about the tricky bits: politics, reciprocity, visibility — and when support systems can slip into gatekeeping.

Alongside real-world examples — from mentoring schemes and speaker pipelines to inclusion and access tactics, sustainability (time, money, tools), and what works best online versus in person — we’ll share what makes initiatives stick and scale in practice, and explore how we can spark new connections between networks, not just within them.

After the panel, we’ll continue with an informal networking / get-together, so you can meet others, compare notes, and find the people and communities that fit your next step.

This session builds on our earlier The Hof digital conversation “Women in Publishing: Female Leadership” (27 Aug, 4:00 pm CET). You can register here to join online:

https://buchmesse-de.zoom.us/meeting/register/9f9I3VIOTrWcZOJVMa51lw