We came. We saw. We conquered publishing. Calculated Risk: New Adventures in Publishing, our 2010 Tech Forum, was a huge success. Thanks to everyone who came out to MaRS centre for our day of mind-expanding sessions.
In the weeks to come we’ll be posting videos of the sessions. Already there are round-ups popping up online—check them out!
Our attendees were paying attention, and twittering like mad. The #bnc10 hashtag trended in Canada yesterday. Check it out for the day’s highlights.
Just a few of the many attention-grabbing moments:
One of our door prizes was a Kobo reader (plus a gift certificate for ten free ebooks). We got a look at Kobo’s new device in Michael Tamblyn’s (@mtamblyn) presentation. With the Kobo reader, Tamblyn told us, ebooks won’t be tied to the device - you can take your books with you, whatever device you choose to use. (And, wow, does he know how to set Keynote on fire!)
Richard Nash (@r_nash) proposed radical changes to publishing. His way forward? Rethinking books as part of the larger social experience. Content, Richard told us, isn’t king: culture is.
Deanna McFadden (@tragicrighthip) ran through a top ten list of online marketing. Stop making static websites, she implored. Build content, not context.
Mark Lefebvre (@markleslie) talked about how he’s been using the Espresso book machine over at Titles Bookstore at McMaster University. One weird and tempting project: He prints and distributes for Canada UStar novels, a UK-based press that writes you into a novel, mostly romance but also with a classics series that includes titles like Pride and Prejudice. Other uses for the Espresso machine were more obvious—as Lefebvre said, “you can buy that book online and get it tomorrow? I can get it for you in 15 minutes.”
Try it, fail fast, move on seemed to be a recurring theme. Innovation doesn’t always mean success. I was surprised and delighted to hear so many people talk about what didn’t work, what ended up in a dead end, and encouraged by their energy to take it in stride and move on. I suppose that’s what taking calculated risks is all about.
