Amid discussions of AI at this year’s Bologna Fair, the importance of in-person connection and community-building remained front and center. Held at the Illustrators Survival Corner of the fair, the “Agents, Matchmaking, and the Human Pulse of Publishing “ panel featured Kirsten Hall, founder and president of Catbird Agency; Erica Rand Silverman, VP of children’s publishing at Stimola Literary Studio; Susan Rich, editor-at-large at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; author Matthew Burgess; and illustrator Felicita Sala.

Silverman discussed an event that she and Hall co-host called Disco Lunch, a series to bring together those who love illustrated children’s books each Friday in May in New York City. Now in its second season, the event is limited to nine people, but anyone is welcome to sign up. The first iteration of Disco Lunch “created beautiful alchemies with people who might not have connected otherwise,” Hall said. “We weren’t at our computers; none of us were texting or Zooming. We were just in person in the flesh, laughing, getting to know each other, playing games.” At the end, she said, participants said they felt like they were at summer camp.

The organizers said that the event was designed to highlight the importance of community in children’s publishing. “The human connection is the core ingredient to making magic in children’s books, and leading with your heart is the secret to success,” Hall said. “That can seem a little bit at odds with the sort of climate that we’re in, where everything is much more automated and data-driven. But we all [on the panel] firmly believe that your social relationships and cultivating them and nurturing them is as much, if not more, of a secret to success as all of the data that you’re going to find.”

Rich said that she started a group in her hometown of Toronto called Toronto Bookish People. She invited Hall to an event and over time the two began to travel back and forth to each other’s gatherings. Hall once brought award-winning llustrators Eric and Terry Fan to the event. Later, Rich received Jonathan Stutzman’s The Builders of Night, a picture book she described as centering on “a beautiful, magical construction crew that, using ladders and airships and cranes, lower the sun, hang the moon, paint the sky, light the stars.” As she read it, she envisioned it with the Fans’ illustrations. Her connection with Hall made it possible to reach out to them, despite their busy schedules, and they agreed to illustrate the manuscript. “This is all human connection, and it all came together in this idea of a book,” she concluded.

When speaking on the idea of networking, author Burgess said, “Networking sounds corporate, right? But really what we’re talking about is forming friendships with kindred spirits and like-minded makers, people we dream of working with.” Burgess recounted his experience working with Cátia Chien, whose work he’s long admired. At an event, he introduced himself and let her know how much he liked her work. A decade later, when his publisher was looking for an illustrator for his book, he thought of her and advocated for her to illustrate The Bear and the Moon. His publisher agreed and so did Chien. They’ve now worked together several times, including on Fireworks, for which she won the 2026 Caldecott Medal.

Silverman stressed that connections in publishing are often fortuitous. “Sometimes when things are meant to be, they will find their way to be. It doesn’t have to be the first, second, third, fourth, fifth person [you connect with]. It has to be the right person. The advice I would give is if you feel it strongly, just don’t give up.”

Sala encouraged illustrators not to hang all their hopes on an agent. “For those desperately looking for an agent, breathe and relax,” she said. “You don’t necessarily need one. I know a lot of things seem easier or fortuitous with agents, but the primary thing you have to ask yourself is, ‘Why am I looking for an agent? What do I want to do?’ ” She stressed that illustrators should focus on the work and “engage in human relationships that will help you to make books. And then maybe the agent will come after, as a result of you making good books.” She continued with an encouraging story. “One of my best-selling books was born of a conversation I had with a very small French publisher who said, ‘You should make a recipe book.’ I did, and then that got translated. That was outside of the agent relationship. So, agents are great, but they’re not fundamental for everyone. Sometimes you have an agent and it’s a kind of sterile working relationship. It’s not the be-all and end-all of your life. If you realize an agent is important to you, while you’re waiting [to find an agent], keep making new work. If you want to be publishing, it’s because you want to be making stories and art, and you cannot stop while you’re waiting to make a connection with an agent.”

Hall agreed that while long-term agent-illustrator relationships can be wonderful, they can be “fluid” and that sometimes creators have different needs at different times in their careers.

Finally, Silverman encouraged aspiring illustrators and authors to see themselves as already part of the industry. “If you’re here [at Bologna], trying to participate in this industry, you, too, are working in publishing. Subscribe to the PW Daily and PW’s Children’s Bookshelf newsletters, join the SCBWI. Connect with people, hang out in libraries and bookstores, and understand what’s happening and what books are really sparking with kids. Read the rights reports and find out what’s being bought and sold. Be aware of your industry—the one that you work in.”