From Hardbacks to Hot Bytes: the Future of Books & Publishing (March 19 event in London)

Today, I am delighted to announce a very special event on "The Future of Books & Publishing in a connected World", on March 19th, in London. I have teamed up with Clive Rich (Rich Futures / Olswang) and Dominic Pride (the SoundHorizon) to jointly present a powerful, conclusive and inspiring program (8.30 am to 12 noon), geared towards Senior Executives, strategists and decision makers from all sectors of the book publishing industry, including the creatives, i.e. the authors / writers and their agents and representatives.

The Future of Books will present C-Level publishing executives with the real (and so far unspoken) learnings  from the music industry, a business which has been in transition since the days of Napster 1.0 and the first MP3 players. The speakers will present their views on what book publishers need to understand, believe and do, to take advantage of this dramatic shift from selling copies of printed books to selling access to a digital book (or both). Clive, Dominic and me will be making one presentation each, centering around several key questions: 1) what can and should really be learned from the music industry as far as adopting web-native business models is concerned? What really happened during the last decade in digital music, and why, and how could book publishers avoid a very similar situation? Is protection in technology or is it in the business model? 2) What are those 'immediate-future' business models for what we like to call Books 2.0, what exactly are the most likely new revenue streams and how can those real "New Generatives" be nurtured? 3) What needs to change so that a win-win-win future for publishers, authors and consumers can be constructed and realized?

In addition, we will try and address questions such as:

• How can publishers respond to these rapidly emerging scenarios? Will books become "free" and ubiquitous on all digital networks? If customers continue to pay, will authors and their publishers get digital pennies instead of pounds?
• As reading becomes another part of new retail environments and other services, how will it be taken to market? And what are the additional services and usages which will form part of the new value proposition, and ultimately new revenue streams?
• Publishers need to act now to ensure that they continue to play a valuable role in fostering talent, nurturing careers and in providing great content to readers

About the Speakers (apart from myself):

Dominic Pride: Founder and Principal Consultant, The Sound Horizon. Dominic founded The Sound Horizon in 2009 to serve the growing number of companies wishing to create and maintain digital strategies, successfully manage innovation and create new service concepts. Key clients for The Sound Horizon include Nokia Media & Games and City Showcase. Prior to The Sound Horizon, Dominic was Product Marketing Director for Shazam, where he spearheaded the company’s expansion into branded, application-based services on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows and Nokia platforms, and helped to position the company as one of the planet’s prime music discovery brands. At Orange / France Telecom Group, he drove the international market development of mobile and convergent music services and played a key role in DRM-free music.
» www.thesoundhorizon.com
» www.twitter.com/thesoundhorizon

Clive Rich: Principal, Rich Futures and Consultant to Olswang. At Olswang, Clive works closely with the Firm's music and new media practices. Clive has a 25 year history of excellence in the Music business as a lawyer, Board Director and Strategic Director. At Sony BMG Music UK Clive created and ran the “Futures Division”, responsible for all Sony BMG’s new and developing business - including its digital music business, TV programming and brand partnerships. This included developing the business interests of Syco, SonyBMG's TV joint venture with Simon Cowell. Prior to that he held senior business affairs positions with BMG, and chaired PPL and the BPI Rights Committee. Through Rich Futures he has since provided business affairs services to, among others, the Royal Opera House, MySpace, SanDisk and the UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board. He also assists in the business development of a number of emerging digital media companies in which he is a shareholder.
» www.richfutures.co.uk

Olswang London is generously hosting this event; registration is free-of-charge but invitation-only, and limited to senior execs from the book publishing business. If you are interested in participating please contact me directly (and soon - space is limited). 

Prior to the event, check out the Books2.0 Twitterfall, and peruse the related #books20 hashtag tweets. Download the event flyer.

When: Friday 19 March 8.30am - 12.00pm

Where: Olswang LLP, 90 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6XX (click here for a map)

Below is our 'official' video trailer for this event, with all 3 speakers commenting on what we will talk about. A conversation with Dominic Pride and myself can be viewed below, as well. More videos are available on our Youtube channel.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Macmillan CEO tells his side of Amazon spat (teleread.org)
• Some eBook industry 'leaders' are starting to sound exactly like the music industry 5 years ago (mediafuturist.com)
• Book publishers: please learn from the mistakes of the music industry - my thoughts on what to do (mediafuturist.com)
• Meet me at the Guardian Changing Media Summit in London (March 18) (mediafuturist.com)