Friday, 1 May 2020
10am – 5 pm (followed by the Booktown Opening)
Clunes Football Netball Club, Clunes, Victoria.
After 13 years of Booktown in Clunes, we know a lot about books. Now, it’s time to celebrate and support book clubs in Australia.
Why? Because the power of book clubs is often under-estimated and under-celebrated, and we want you to help us change that.
How? With Australia’s first National Symposium on Book Clubs, Book Clubs Friday, on 1 May 2020 and the launch of a nationwide project that will literally map the thousands of book clubs in Australia.
At the symposium, book club members will be able to share their own stories about what book clubs mean to them, the challenges they’ve encountered and the many ways in which they can work really well.
For industry professionals, it will provide insights into book club research, models, their existing and potential contribution to the book industry and how they can be developed in the future – particularly in areas where they could strengthen more communities.
Late in the afternoon, there will be the Battle for the Book Clubs with pitches to the audience for specific types of clubs. This will be followed by the Booktown opening when you can continue the conversation and also meet visiting authors, locals, VIPs and other Booktown supporters.
TICKETS
Tickets include morning and afternoon tea and , lunch, post-symposium drinks, free parking and entry to the Booktown Festival on May 2 and 3.
Concession refers to Australian Pensioner, Healthcare card, Carer card, full-time student card holders and Australian Senior Card holders
PROGRAM
09.00 – 10.00 Prologue. Registration and tea/coffee
10:00 – 10:15 Setting the Scene. Leslie Falkiner-Rose. Chair, Book Clubs Friday
10.15 – 10.55 Headline Act. Keynote and Q&A.
Toni Jordan, novelist.
What do book clubs mean to authors?
How can authors and book clubs benefit one another
Are amateur reviewers becoming more impactful than
professional ones?
10.55 – 11.10 The Pregnant Pause. (Leg stretch/pit stop)
11.10 – 11:50 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Book Clubs.
Panel on what works and what doesn’t with running book clubs
Chair: Jennifer Hutchison, author, publisher and BCF Committee
Panel: Panellist (tbc)
Pam Kershaw, Book Club veteran and BCF Committee Member
Shay Leighton, Founder and Director, Tough Guy Book Club
11.50 – 12.10 Life in the Fast Lane.
Wrangler: Heather Horrocks, BCF Committee.
Sleuthing while speed dating with others in the audience
12.10 – 12.45 Bold Types. Best tales and tips from the trenches discovered
during Life in the Fast Lane
12.45 – 1:30 The Hunger Games. Lunch
1:30 – 2:15 Great Expectations. Keynote and Q&A
Kate Torney, CEO of the State Library of Victoria.
What libraries can do for book clubs and vice versa?
2:15 – 3:00 The Three Musketeers.
What can different types of book clubs learn from each other?
Chair: Maryanne Vagg, Reviewer, Programmer, Librarian
Panel: Annabel Pitt, Ballarat member of the Girly Book Club,
Not-So-Young Adults Book Club and the Good Book Club
Bill Collopy, Manager, Council of Adult Education Book Club
Operations
3.00 – 3.30 Of Literature and Lattes. Afternoon tea
3:30 – 4:00 The Book of Tomorrow.
Audience Discussion led by Cora Trevarthen, BCF Committee
Where to from here?
Should BCF be a one-off or a series?
Should we establish a formal Book Clubs Network?
How might network look? What would be its value?
Should we encourage more clubs?
How could we encourage more clubs?
4:00 – 4:45 Fight Club for the Mind.* The Battle for the Book Clubs.
Panellists each do a five-minute pitch for a specific book clubs.
People with Disabilities – Robyn Thompson, Journalist and BCF
Committee
Rural Fiction – Jennifer Scoullar, author of eight novels about the
land, people and wildlife that she loves.
Sharing Later Life Experience – Richard Freadman, Emeritus
Professor of English at La Trobe University and Adjunct Professor
at Swinburne University specialising in life writing in health care
settings, including writing later life experience. International
authority on autobiography.
Online Book Clubs – Maryanne Vagg, Reviewer, programmer
and librarian who established an online book club on the
Gold Coast.
Two more panellists tbc
4.45 – 5.00 The Remains of the Day (wrap up)
Observations of the inaugural national book clubs symposium
Key takeaways for Australia’s book clubs and the book
industry.
5.00 – 6.30 Booktown Opening (same venue)
*Yes, we have stolen this line from the toughguybookclub.com website