For years, we’ve spoken and written about digital publishing, sometimes as if it was a separate part of the business. Those days are clearly over. Publishing is a digital business. Even when the final product is a printed book, the processes that get that book into print, and ultimately discovered, and into a reader’s hands, are digital.
At this year’s London Book Fair, the digital conversation will once again showcase the impact of ever-powerful technology throughout the book business. From the opening Digital Minds conference, to the exhibit floor, through the fair’s professional program, you’ll hear from—and hopefully meet with—a wide and ever-growing range of service providers and innovators. And once again, much of the action throughout the fair will be found in Earls Court 2, in Tech Central.
The switch to the name “Tech Central” from the previous “Digital Zone” reflects the overall change in the way digital has been perceived at the fair: what began in 2009 as a small corridor of stands and a cramped, 23-seat presentation area on the edge of the show floor has grown—and changed—quickly. The new name captures the role of technology in the publishing business—no longer a part of the business to be “zoned” off, but something that is indeed central.
Tech Central will be a bustling hub at the 2014 London Book Fair, with a wide range of exhibitors dedicated to “all the new ways in which content can be treated,” whether “an app, a game, a mobile development or an enhanced e-book, or a development not yet launched.” Oh, and there is a networking bar, because really, what better way to talk tech than over a good single malt? And, of course, there will be a full slate of programming in the Theatre at Tech Central.
To help you plan your LBF activities, we’ve included the schedule of presentations and demos at the Tech Central theatre over the next three days. (Note: the schedule is subject to last-minute changes, so do check the final program, or check the schedule at the theatre for any changes).
Tuesday April 8
| Seminar Title | Speaker | Company | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:30 AM. | The Impact of Common Core on Publishing Today | Roy Kaufman | CCC |
| 10:00 AM. | Selling Direct and Building Your Community | Kaushik Sampath, Kathy Wiess | Qbend |
| 10:30 AM. | Interactive Video Books—New Interactive Technologies for Individualised Teaching and Learning | TBC | Ricoh |
| 11:00 AM. | What Self-Publishing Can Teach Publishers— | Dave Anderson | Kobo |
| 11:30 AM. | Time is Money: Changing the Way People Build Websites | Mark Harvie-Watt, Rupert Haslam | Supadu |
| 12:00 Noon | Getting Your eBooks Discovered is the Biggest Challenge in the Digital World | Richard Stephenson | YUDU |
| 1:00 PM. | The Quest for eBook Digitisation | Ken Jones | Circular Software Limited |
| 1:30 PM. | Connect with Readers around the World: Selling eBooks on OverDrive’s HTML5 Browser-based Platform | Julia Graber | OverDrive |
| 2:00 PM. | Big Data: How to Use Analytics to Increase eBook ROI | Gareth Cuddy | ePubDirect |
| 2:30 PM. | Key Factors to Consider in Producing Multi-Platform Content | John Prabhu | SPi Global |
| 3:00 PM. | The Profit in Knowing—Using Semantics in Education and Academic Publishing | Jarred McGinnis | Ontotext |
| 3:30 PM. | How to Overcome the Pain of Digitalization? | Tomasz Boszko | YDP |
| 4:00 PM. | Producing and Distributing Audiobooks through ACX | Jon Fine | Amazon |
| 4:30 PM. | Turning Digital into Dollars (and Pounds and Euros…) | Gregg Sullivan | Cenveo Publisher Services |
| 4:50 PM. | Producing and Distributing Audiobooks through ACX | Jon Fine | Amazon |
| 5:20 PM. | The Challenge of Highly Illustrated Content in an eBook | Anupam Jain | Innodata |
Wednesday, April 9
| 9:30 AM. | Need of the Hour? Collaboration | Ravi Venkatramani | Exeter Premedia Services |
| 10:00 AM. | Project Managing Digital Assets | Darren Ryan | Deanta |
| 10:30 AM. | TBA | Steve Rutberg | Net Galley |
| 11:00 AM. | Adaptive Content: A Publisher’s Wish List’— Using in Financial/Media Publishing | Borislav Popov | Ontotext |
| 11:30 AM. | MPS DigiCore: Expediting Speed-to-Market for Journal Publishers | Harish Iyer | MPS |
| 12:00 Noon | A Global White-Label eBookstore Mobile App, Paving the Way to the Future | Dr. Panayiotis Paschalakis | DigiBooksForAll |
| 12:30 PM. | Selling Direct and Building Your Community | Kaushik Sampath, Kathy Wiess | Qbend |
| 1:00 PM. | Need of the Hour? Collaboration | Ravi Venkatramani | Exeter Premedia Services |
| 1:30 PM. | Alternative to Publishing Outsourcing—Publisher and Author-friendly XML | Pradeep Jain and Jim Hill | Ictech |
| 2:00 PM. | Interactive video books—New Interactive Technologies for Individualised Teaching and Learning | Norbert Van Halderen, Director Ricoh Europe | Ricoh |
| 2:30 PM | Evolution in the Digital Age: Adapt to Survive or Adapt and Thrive? | Randy Petway | Publishing Technology |
| 3:00 PM. | Freemium Strategy in Premium Dictionaries | Alexander Zudin | Paragon Technologie GmbH |
| 3:30 PM. | Smart Content—From Discovery to Engagement | John Prabhu | SPi Global |
| 4:00 PM. | A Complete Digital Conversion Services for Your Content | Floyd Fletcher | Allzone Digital |
| 4:30 PM. | The Impact of Digital Watermarking on Piracy | Devon Weston | Digimark |
| 4:50 PM. | STARTUP @ TECH—Learn More about these New and Exciting Companies | TBA | STARTUP @ TECH |
| 5:20 PM. | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Thursday, April 10
| 9:30 AM. | New Solutions to Accelerate the Production and Monetization of Digital Publications | Manuel Ranchin | Aquafadas |
| 10:00 AM. | eBooks—Possibilities Unlimited | Natraj Kumar | HTC Global Services |
| 10:30 AM. | A Complete Digital Conversion Services for Your Content | Floyd Fletcher | Allzone Digital |
| 11:00 AM. | How Websites, Apps and Games Can Use Basic Licensing Principles to Enter the Consumer Products Market | Kelvyn Gardner | LIMA |
| 11:30 AM. | Making it Real | Alistair McNaught, Tim Coates, Liz Warman | The Publishers Association |
| 12:00 Noon | Emerging Trends and Challenges in Technology Adoption by Scope eKnowledge | Deborah Harman | Scope eKnowledge |
| 12:30 PM. | Rule 14: Using Big Data to Drive Content Aggregation | Shao-Shao Cheng | SourceHOV |
| 1:00 PM. | Selling your Book through Kindle Direct Publishing | John Fine | Amazon CreateSpace |
| 1:30 PM. | eBook Watermarking and Personalisation: BooXtream social DRM as the Better DRM Alternative for ePub | Huub van de Pol | BooXtream |
| 2:00 PM. | Bringing Content to Life with Contentra’s Digital Solution | Pawan S. Narang | Contentra Technologies |
| 2:30 PM. | Creating a Single Comp Workflow for Digital and Print via XML | Walter Walker | Codemantra |
| 3:00 PM | Connect with Readers around the World: Selling eBooks on OverDrive’s HTML5 Browser-based Platform | Ms. Johanna Brinton | OverDrive |
| 3:30 PM. | Introduction to iPublishCentral & Case Studies of Successful eBook Strategies Leveraging iPUblishCentral | Sameer Shariff, Gary Rodrigues | Impelsys |
| 4:00 PM. | SSPARKL—Content Delivery Solution for Handhelds | Gopinath Rajamani | Diacritech |
| 4:30 PM. | TBA | TBA | TBA |
