Pelikan Hubs has been a leading pen enthusiast event since 2014. Its survival through the COVID-19 pandemic shows its enduring popularity. On September 27, the ninth gathering of the fine writing community took place. This year, Hubs were held in 254 cities across 47 countries, with about 8,702 participants registered, a notable increase from previous years. Nearly one-third of participating cities were in the USA, including my own Hub of Philadelphia, one of the original Hubs locations back when there were fewer than 1,000 participants. This year’s growth is likely due to a longer timetable and a simpler registration process, a definite improvement from last year. Missed attending a Hub? Keep reading for an overview of the event and a summary of my local Hub’s activities.
Perhaps one of the most anticipated events in the world of fine writing each year is the Pelikan Hubs. It’s a rare opportunity for people who love pens, inks, and paper to come together and share their passion. Since it started in 2014, the event has grown to include roughly 220 cities in 47 countries. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, however. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a two-year hiatus, and there were concerns about the event’s future when Pelikan International sold the stationery division to the French owned Hamelin group. Those concerns were for nought it seems as it’s been confirmed that Pelikan Hubs 2024 will go ahead as usual. The banner for this year’s event showcases the 2024 Edelstein Ink Of The Year, Golden Lapis, which is usually a highlight at these gatherings. Pelikan values feedback from attendees, and it seems that some welcome adjustments have been made to the registration process. Keep reading to find out how you can register yourself and your city for this year’s event.
Pelikan has been facilitating the annual Hubs event since 2014. Friday, September 22nd marked the 8th annual gathering due to a hiatus in 2020 and 2021 brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The event has grown exponentially since its inception, now counting well over 6,000 participants annually and this year continued that trend. Similar to last year, Hubs were selected in roughly 220 cities spread across 47 countries. That accounts for about a quarter of the nations in the world today. Amongst the selected cities, the United States played host to 76 of them with my local city of Philadelphia once again being chosen. Unfortunately, this year’s registration was rather abbreviated, with Pelikan only providing a two week window for entry, leaving some fans on the sidelines. Every Hub needs a leader and I have had the privilege of helming my local hub for four stints as Hub Master, most recently in 2022. Given the challenges inherent to the role, I happily stepped aside and Frank Limper, now a three time Hub Master, once again took up the position. Our local Hub was in a new Philadelphia location this year, held in a private room on the second floor of Drinker’s Pub, located near Rittenhouse Square. The space accommodated our gathering nicely and allowed for food and drink which was very welcome after a hard day’s work. Read on for a look back at the night’s activities.
The Pelikan Hubs events has grown to become one of the most anticipated events of the year within the fountain pen community and for good reason. It has served as an amazing platform for people of all persuasions to gather and share their love for fine writing instruments, inks, and paper. It sounds like a simple enough conceit but for many, this is one of the few opportunities at their disposal with which to share in that fellowship face to face. Pelikan describes a Hub as “A pivot, a focus of activity. For Pelikan fans, a Hub is a place where they can meet, exchange experiences, and network worldwide.” Despite its humble beginnings back in 2014, the event has grown exponentially larger with each passing year. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the Hubs going on a two-year hiatus but that didn’t stop last year’s resurgent gathering from going on to post even greater numbers than in years prior. Registrations were spread across at least 220 different Hubs locations scattered across 47 countries made up of 6,120 registered participants. Pelikan is back at it again with today’s announcement of the 2023 Hubs event, marking the eighth such gathering to be hosted. Their banner, unsurprisingly, features this year’s Edelstein Ink Of The Year, Rose Quartz. The company’s Edelstein inks were a prominent feature in the first seven Hubs events but was conspicuously absent last year. Will it make a triumphant return this year? Also, new for 2023, is a completely revamped registration process with a rather short window to get in on the fun. Read on to learn all of the known details for this year’s event and how you can register for your chance to participate.
The inaugural Pelikan Hubs event occurred in 2014. Like any new venture, this one was surrounded by uncertainty, largely because no one knew quite what to expect, not even Pelikan themselves. What those few original attendees got was an evening with likeminded people enjoying each other’s company and sharing pens, inks, and paper. Despite their inauspicious beginnings, the Hubs would continue to grow year after year, reaching their peak in 2019. The event’s trajectory predicted noting but continued growth, its future appearing ever bright. Sometimes, life has a way of coming at you when you least expect it. We were all blindsided by the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the Hubs would ultimately be derailed by the unexpected arrival of a global pandemic. Public health considerations would force Pelikan to cancel both the 2020 and 2021 Hubs events to the disappointment of thousands of aficionados. Millions have died, irreplaceable souls who should not be forgotten, and we should not lose sight of the emotional and economic toll this pandemic has extracted upon us all. Still, life must go on and so it was to the elation of thousands that Pelikan announced the return of the Hubs event for 2022. Despite a shorter window for registration, when all was said and done, there were at least 220 Hubs spread across 47 countries counting 6,107 registered participants, numbers that actually exceeded those of the 2019 gathering, a telling reflection of the pent up demand and certainly not a bad tally for an event on hiatus for two years. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has played host to a Hub since the event’s inception. It was my honor to once again helm the festivities as the local Hub Master. This year’s Hub was held in the Pabbit room at Philadelphia hot spot Pub & Kitchen located near Rittenhouse Square. Our hosts were gracious, the food delicious, and the drinks very satisfying but all paled in comparison to the company and the jovial atmosphere. Read on for a recap of the evening’s festivities.
I get a lot of electronic correspondence from around the world concerning all things Pelikan but the question that I am asked most frequently is without a doubt in regard to the Pelikan Hubs event. It is a testament to the impact that the Hubs event has had on the fine writing community. Beginning in 2014, the Hubs was conceived of as a way of bringing together fans from within the pen community from all around the globe in order to share in our combined passion for fine writing. The event became a tremendous success, growing in magnitude each year. The last event held was in 2019 and it occurred in 200 cities spread out amongst 46 countries with over 5,646 participants and future participation showed no signs of slowing down. Then COVID came and forced the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 events to everyone’s great disappointment. In the end, Pelikan simply had no choice, and the cancellations were wholly justifiable amidst one of the biggest public health crises of the 21st century. While COVID is not gone and Monkey Pox is on the rise, there have definitely been signs of improvement and people have been able to once again gather with proper precautions. Pelikan must think so too as we awoke this morning to news that Pelikan Hubs 2022 is a go but the registration window is short so you must act now in order to not be left out. Read on for all of the details regarding Pelikan Hubs 2022.
The global coronavirus pandemic has now been raging for well over a year with no clear end in sight. There have already been almost 211 million cases reported across the globe with 4,413,638 lives lost. The death toll will likely continue to grow as long as vaccinations lag and the delta variant rampages. It’s easy to get lost in the numbers as they are an inconvenient barrier for our desire to return to some sense of normalcy. It’s important to resist becoming numb to the carnage, a global death toll slightly larger than the entire population of Los Angeles, California. I have been at the bedside for hundreds of these people, watching their health deteriorate despite maximal medical therapy until their lives were felled by the ravages of the virus. With the global situation far from under control, it should come as no surprise then that Pelikan announced via their newsletter today that Pelikan Hubs 2021 would indeed be cancelled. Long suspected to be a foregone conclusion at this point, it is nice to finally have an official statement from the company about the state of the Hubs event. I commend Pelikan’s decision, even if it was the only responsible choice they could make. While these are sad times, there is reason to have hope for a brighter future. Despite the 2020 and 2021 events having been necessarily cancelled, Pelikan began their notice with a statement tinged with optimism, a commitment to not letting the Hubs become a casualty of the pandemic.
Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the COVID-19 infection that arises from it have changed the face of our world. We now find ourselves in a place that could scarcely be imagined just a few short months ago. With 5,580,000 people infected and 350,000 dead worldwide, there has hardly been a corner of the globe that has escaped unscathed thus far. In fact, only 15 countries and 11 permanently occupied territories are known to be without any confirmed cases of the virus (and some of those are suspect). Our invisible enemy has no consideration for whom it infects and does not discriminate based on any race, color, creed, or social stature. Perhaps the one thing that makes this tragedy just slightly more bearable is the fact that children have largely been spared its ravages. The upheaval in daily life almost all of us are facing will have far reaching implications for years to come. The impact can be felt in even the smallest aspects of our usual routines. Whether it is social distancing, homeschooling, wearing a mask when out in public, self-quarantining, working from home, or losing one’s job altogether, I think that it is safe to say that whatever “normal” we land on when the dust settles will not be the normal we took for granted a precious few months ago.
