The first two regional ISBN meetings of 2019 have taken place. A regional meeting is a meeting of representatives of national ISBN agencies who share a common geography, language or market and it provides a useful opportunity for agencies to discuss issues affecting a specific area.

First up, in May 2019, the meeting of the Nordic-Baltic agencies was held. The venue was the National Library of Estonia in Tallinn, kindly hosted by the Estonian ISBN Agency. In addition to Estonia and the International ISBN Agency, delegates from the ISBN agencies in Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden were present.

In June 2019, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, there was held a Balkan regional meeting. The hosting duties for this meeting were kindly undertaken by the Slovenia ISBN Agency and the meeting took place at the National and University Library of Slovenia. This meeting too was well-attended, with delegates from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Republika Srpska, Romania and Serbia - as well as Slovenia and International ISBN Agency - participating in Ljubljana.

Updates from the national ISBN agencies and issues pertaining to each region were discussed prominently. Among the more general themes, recent developments in the publishing industry and legislation changes also featured in the meetings.

There will be at least one more regional meeting in 2019 because the meeting of CERLALC agencies (for the Latin American region) will take place in Santiago, Chile in October to coincide with the ISBN Annual General Meeting. We look forward to that meeting very much.