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O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference Opens Registration: Program Will Explore What Digital Publishing Means Today

Press release: October 28, 2008

Sebastopol, CA, October 28—Registration has opened for the O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, taking place February 9-11, 2009, at the Marriot Marquis Times Square in New York City. Program Chair Andrew Savikas and co-Chair Mac Slocum have announced the program, which investigates the emerging trends in digital publishing through keynotes, sessions, tutorials, panels, and other events designed to surpass the high expectations inspired by the sold-out TOC 2008.

The third annual TOC Conference will decipher the tools of change for the industry and help cut through the hype in order to reach a more profitable future in publishing. From authoring, editing, and layout to distribution and consumption, new technologies will continue to change all aspects of publishing. TOC 2009 will focus on industry-wide strategic issues, like the changing retail and supply-chain landscape. In addition to examining "long-view" trends, the conference will also supply practical tales from pioneers already experimenting and innovating on the digital frontier of paid content.

TOC will bring together those passionate about the future of publishing in a digital age, including book publishers of all kinds, senior editors, marketing managers, production managers, digital content managers, publishing consultants, authors, agents, business managers, librarians, technologists, information suppliers, academics, and those in the business of book supplies.

New speakers join the line-up daily, but the confirmed program includes:

Keynote speakers:

  • Laurel Touby, founder and CEO of MediaBistro
  • Jeff Jarvis, blogger and author of What Would Google Do?
  • Nick Bilton, New York Times R&D Lab
  • Chris Baty, creator of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
  • Jason Epstein, chairman, OnDemand Books

Other sessions include:

  • "What Does the Future Look Like for Book Publishers?" by Sara Lloyd of Pan Macmillan
  • "The Rise of eBooks" by Mark Coker of Smashwords, Inc., David Rothman of TeleRead.org, Joe Wikert of O'Reilly Media, Russell Wilcox of E Ink, and author April L. Hamilton
  • "Smart Women Read eBooks" by Kassia Krozser of Booksquare.com
  • "Youth and Creativity: Emerging Trends in Self-Expression and Publishing" by Julie Baher of Adobe and Bill Westerman of Create with Context
  • "eBooks: How Soon Is Now?" by Peter Balis of John Wiley and Sons
  • "If at First You Don't Succeed: Using Agile to Relaunch XML at Cengage Learning" by Greg Shepherd of Cengage Learning
  • "Lessons from a Book's Simultaneous Publication in Print and on the Web" by Stephen Smith of Crossway Books
  • "The Long Tail Needs Community" by Gavin Bell of Nature
  • "What Happens When Anyone Can Edit Your Book, Online?" by John Broughton, author of O'Reilly's Wikipedia: The Missing Manual
  • "Speaking the Same Language: Universal Technology Standards in Publishing and Bookselling" by Lila Bailey of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Otis Chandler of Goodreads.com, Aaron Miller of BookGlutton.com, Kevin Smokler of Booktour.com, and Tim Spalding of LibraryThing
  • "Making an Impact with Travel Content—in Print, Online, and Mobile" by Ensley Eikenberg of Frommer's
  • "Where Do You Go with 40,000 Readers?: A Study in Online Community Building" by Ron Hogan of Beatrice.com, Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor Books, and author John Scalzi
  • "Crafting a Digital Road Map: One Publisher's Path to Success" by Adrienne Kinney and Andrew Malkin of Rodale
  • "If Shakespeare Had a Hard Drive: The Challenge of the Born-Digital Belletrist" by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum of the University of Maryland
  • "Building Old World Publishing Values into New World Automated Workflows" by Phil Zuckerman of Applewood Books

Sponsoring companies for TOC 2009 include Adobe, codeMantra, Connotate, Malloy, Mark Logic, and The Media Services Group, Ltd.

TOC 2008 brought together representatives from companies and organizations like: Simon & Schuster, Random House, American Booksellers Association, Amazon.com, Appingo, Author Solutions, Inc., Barnes & Noble.com, BookSquare, Bowker, Chronicle Books, Cold Fusion Entertainment, Connotate, Copyright Clearance Center, Disney Publishing Worldwide, Doubleday, Fodor's Travel, Follett Digital Resources, Getty Publications, Good Company Communications, HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group USA, Harvard Business School Publishing, CQ Press, F+W Publications, Hewlett Packard, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, IEEE, Ingram Digital Group, Library Journal, LibreDigital, Lightning Source, Inc., Lulu, Loyola Press, Mark Logic, Microsoft, Microsoft Press, Oxford University Press, Peachpit Press, Penguin Group, Princeton University Press, Publishers Weekly, Really Strategies, Inc., Safari Books Online, SAS Institute, Inc., Sony, The Media Services Group, and Zondervan.

Early registration, which offers a savings of $200, will end December 18, 2009.

Get more information on the TOC Conference

For the latest on publishing innovation, visit the TOC blog

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If you'd like to stay up to date on information relating to TOC, sign up for the conference newsletter (login required)

See TOC's News & Coverage for articles, blogs, photos, and other coverage of last year's event

View video clips and speaker presentation slides from TOC 2008

Read Tim O'Reilly's take on the future, on the O'Reilly Radar

For information about sponsorship and exhibit opportunities at TOC 2009, contact Sharon Cordesse at 707.827.7065 or scordesse@oreilly.com

If you would like to discuss forming a media or promotional partnership with O'Reilly for an upcoming event, contact mediapartners@oreilly.com

About Andrew Savikas
Andrew Savikas is the Director of Publishing Technology at O'Reilly Media, and is the General Manager of O'Reilly's Tools of Change for Publishing division, which spreads the knowledge of publishing innovators in person, online, and in print. In addition to serving as Program Chair the TOC Conference, Andrew has led several Publishing Technology initiatives at O'Reilly recently helping to plan O'Reilly's ebook and digital publishing strategy.. He is a frequent speaker at publishing and content management conferences, a regular contributor to the O'Reilly Radar blog, and the author of "Word Hacks: Tips & Tools for Taming your Text". Andrew has an MBA from Northeastern University in Boston and a B.S. in Media Studies from the University of Illinois.

About Mac Slocum
Mac Slocum is the Managing Editor of O'Reilly's Tools of Change for Publishing and co-Chair of the TOC Conference. He frequently writes about the intersection of publishing, technology and the digital transition on the TOC blog. Mac has an M.A. in journalism from Emerson College and a B.A. in journalism from the University of Richmond.

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