EVENTS
FutureBook Live 2019 Programmer’s notes
Programmer’s notes
Tenth outing promises to be the broadest, boldest FutureBook yet
F
Philip Jones @philipdsjones
utureBook Live this year marks a step-change for the 10-year-old event. The conference began as a digital event, morphed into one concentrated on innovation, and is now squarely focused on the business in its entiret, particu- larly, ahem, the future bit. The opening keynote from
Te conference began as a digital event, morphed into one concentrated on innovation, and is now squarely focused on the business in its entirety
With thanks
We would like to thank all of the sponsors of FutureBook Live, and of FutureBook throughout the year, as well as the speakers, delegates and volunteers at this year’s conference.
+ Images, from top, last year’s FutureBook Conference
speakers included Hachette boss David Shelley, artist Sophia Thakur, and Sir Anthony Seldon
TheBookseller.com
James Daunt, head of both Waterstones in the UK and Barnes & Noble in the US, is emblematic. Daunt has done much to rescue the British chain, with books and high street shops once again to the fore. His speech will see him outline his vision for bookshops, how the model can be improved economically, and what the differences might be between the UK and US chains. It’ll be a must- watch occasion for anyone interested in that future. Got a question for the most important executive working in the book business today? There’s time for that too. Daunt will be followed on the stage by Katie Espiner, m.d. of Orion; Paul Abbassi, formerly known as Data Guy and founder of Bookstat (see p04); and cultural strategist Akua Agyemfra, who works with Stormzy on #MerkyBooks. These are speakers who can address the future, but whose grounding is in the here and now. As in previous years, there are dedicated sessions on the growing audiobook market (see p07, p10), and the always interesting learning space, where speakers from the education and academic sides of the trade will tackle the difficult subjects of Open Access, innovation, the evolving textbook market and what schools want from the publishing and tech sectors (see p11). These will comple- ment sessions on the global book economy, freedom to publish, what publishing looks like from the outside, female leadership in publishing, and how we maintain the cultural caché of books—the key topics we face today. This year the event is split four ways, with speakers and delegates asked to “Hook the Readers”, “Seize the Agenda”, “Take Smarter Risks” and “Hack the Process”. These are not just labels. We want the panels to offer dele- gates practical steps to grow and improve their businesses in today’s difficult and oſten perplexing climate. For those who want a deeper understanding, we are also offering, for the first time, four Lunch&Learn Masterclasses (see p19), where experts in the fields of audio, marketing, data and innovation will take small groups through the big questions dominating these areas, offering practical tips and takeaways. Taking place at 1.30 p.m., immediately aſter lunch has been served, these are optional extras until the conference re-starts at 2 p.m.. Don’t miss the FutureBook Awards either, announced from 5 p.m. and including endnotes from Artificial Intelligence expert Chris Duffey, and FutureBook’s Person of the Year. Finally, this being 10 years of FutureBook, I would like
to offer my gratitude to those colleagues and speakers, past and present, who have made the event what it is today: the most important date in the publishing calendar for those who want to carve out their space in publishing’s bright and incredible future. Thanks all!
03
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
