The 2023 Annual General Meeting took place on 12 and 13 September in Rabat, Morocco. This was the second in-person meeting following a two-year hiatus during the Covid pandemic. The meeting welcomed 47 delegates representing mostly ISBN agencies across the world, with people from key publishing industry organisations also present.

The meeting was hosted by the Bibliothèque Nationale du Royaume du Maroc (the National Library of Morocco), which runs the ISBN Agency and which worked so hard to produce and lively and interesting Annual General Meeting (AGM). We thank them for their exceptional efforts in making the meeting such a successful event.

It is especially impressive and considerate this year, given that only a few days before the AGM Morocco suffered a devastating earthquake. You can read the International ISBN Agency's message about the earthquake and our Statement of Solidarity here.

The 47 delegates we welcomed were from 34 different organisations, 30 of which were ISBN agencies, along with the IPA, the International ISMN Agency (2 delegates) and GS1. Indeed, our meeting was as usual held in collaboration with the International ISMN Agency, who held their own AGM on 14 September. We are grateful for this continued and fruitful cooperation.

The delegates discussed topics as diverse as Artificial Intelligence, publishing trends in Morocco and an agency training programme, as well as the statutory, formal part of the Annual General Meeting.

We now look forward to the 2024 event, which was announced as being held in Paris, France at the kind invitation of AFNIL, which runs the France ISBN Agency.