Do you want to find out how to make money from digital? See some of the most innovative digital publishing projects? Network with colleagues in the publishing industry and beyond?
Please join Media Futures for a day about innovation and the future of the book:
http://www.mediafutures.org.uk/2011
For special discounted rates for Cyprus Well associates and South West writers please e-mail mail@cypruswell.org
For anyone interested in publishing, digital media, creativity and innovation the Day will be both inspiring and practically useful, as well as a chance to meet colleagues in the publishing industry and beyond. We are pleased to present our programme:
Innovation and the Book sets the scene: William Higham of The Next Big Thing describes the trends shaping the future of publishing; Future of Publishing Report author Alastair Horne looks at both the challenges and opportunities the industry currently faces; and Michael Kowalski of tool-makers Contentment presents the development of an app-based e-book, showing innovation in practice.
In Making Money from Digital publishers present ‘show and tells’ sharing their lessons and how they are – or aren’t – generating revenue. Jonas Lennermo of ustwo gives a frank account of their successes and failures and considers new territory for publishing; Meg Geldens of Touch Press demonstrates the much-celebrated The Waste Land app created with Faber & Faber – a great example of how to be imaginative and make money; and e-book packager Amber Books’ Charles Catton discusses its successes with titles such as Bodies of Evidence.
Professionals from the publishing and other industries debate whether publishers are Pioneers or Playing it Safe? in a panel including Fionnula Duggan of CourseSmart (formerly head of Random House Group Digital); digital agency Brandwidth’s Dean Johnson, whose projects include the ground-breaking Guinness World Records iPad app; Naomi Alderman, a novelist who has won the Orange Award for New Writers and written for online alternate reality games.
As well as looking at how we make money from digital, it is also important remain ambitious and excited by the possibilities for publishing – and prepare accordingly. For Inventing the Future we bring together Dave Addey of Agant, which created Malcolm Tucker: The Missing Phone, a new form of app-based storytelling; Bardowl’s Chris Book, who is pioneering a subscription service for audiobooks; and Alexis Kennedy of Failbetter Games, whose Varytale story engine gives writers tools to create game-like narratives – as well creating a new revenue stream.
With so many ideas and so much experience we still need to consider How to Innovate, using systems and ad hoc models from open innovation to labs, hackdays, and ‘20% time’. Matt Marsh of Firsthand Experience describes his novel research methods for Plastic Logic’s e-reader; RedWeb’s David Burton explains how they create environments for rapid innovation for publishers such as Random House; and Mike Phillips of Plymouth University’s i-DAT programme talks about how it is informing innovation in the publishing industry and beyond.
For the full programme and to book please visit:
www.mediafutures.org.uk/2011
The Future of Publishing programme is produced in partnership with Cyprus Well and Plymouth University, powered by NESTA, and supported by the Creative Industries iNet, which is part of the Government’s Solutions for Business portfolio, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and led by South West Screen.
