Book Expo Day 1 – Devices & Desires
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time to go and schmooze with the other bookies and book industry professionals.
The conference portion of Book Expo this year was broken into 2 days – one focused on publishers and authors – Devices & Desires; and the next focused on book sellers – Super Saturday.
While I’ve been critical of Book Expo talked tech in the past, this year’s Devices & Desires was focused almost exclusively on discussing the need for publishers to recognize the changing behaviours of their customers and future customers. And encouraging the big publishing houses in Canada to become agents of change in this process, rather than scrambling at the nth hour to recover from the shifting forms of communication, range of delivery mediums/tools and full range of opportunities to integrate the new technologies.
Okay, that’s a little heavy for what I normally post. Still true, but a little biz-knobby. (It doesn’t get better below the fold)
While I enjoyed most of the speakers, my favourites were Alexander Manu, danah boyd and Sarah McNally.
Alexander Manu, the key note speaker, defined his role as helping businesses to “decode the disruption of the signal”.
Amusing note: you’ve got to love a presentation that starts with a Bravo-style warning “The following presentation contains nudity and coarse language. Viewer discretion is advised.”
Quill & Quire has listed some things that they heard & overheard Day 1.
