The London Book Fair, in association with the Publishers Association, has confirmed a raft of new speakers for the Publishing for Digital Minds Conference (pDMC), including leading publishers and content professionals from Gleam Futures, Mashable, Lonely Planet and Cambridge University Press.
The latest additions to pDMC will see the conference take an in-depth look at the trends that are defining the future of publishing in 2015 and beyond. Taking place from 9am on April 13 at Olympia, pDMC - which is sponsored by the Copyright Clearance Center - will welcome leaders in fields as diverse as social content and educational publishing along with pioneers of new business models, all eager to share their experience with an audience of global publishers.
Dom Smales, founder of social talent agency Gleam Futures, has played an instrumental role in turning UK YouTubers into international stars and, in the cases of Zoella and Alfie Deyes, best-selling authors. He will join pDMC in a special 'in conversation-with' session with conference co-chair Sam Missingham.
The theme of how the world of books can work with and alongside social content producers will continue with the panel 'Marketing; Tech; Social', which welcomes Blathnaid Healy, UK editor of Mashable. Blathnaid will bring her expertise of creating viral content to the event, which will also feature James Whatley, Social Media Director of advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. It will be chaired by Pan Macmillan Digital and Communications Director Sara Lloyd.
Another special session at Publishing for Digital Minds will see one of the technology world's keenest brains dissect one of the biggest actors in the book market. Charles Arthur, journalist and former technology editor of The Guardian, will present an independent analysis of Amazon, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of 'The Everything Store'.
Daniel Houghton, CEO of Lonely Planet will join the session 'What does an Effective Content Strategy look like?' to present a case study of how the travel publishing giant is expanding its brand across multiple platforms. This session will be chaired by Faber & Faber's consumer marketing director Matt Haslum.
The fast developing realm of businesses experimenting with new publishing models will also be explored in 'Branching Out', an event curated by independent consultant Alison Jones. On this panel Anna Lewis of Valobox, Bibliocloud's Emma Barnes, Ruth Jones of Ingram, Robin Cutler from Ingram Spark and Readership's Sam Rennie will cover everything from crowdsourcing to whether pay-as-you-go is a viable business model for books.
On the 'Lessons to be learned' panel, pDMC will focus on the huge opportunities for publishers and content professionals in the education market. Here, Cambridge University Press' Helen Cunningham and Steve Connolly of Hodder Education will be joined by Jim Riley, co-founder of free online course provider Tutor2U in a session chaired by Keystone Education's Ben Barton.
PDMC's popular interactive session 'Question Time', which gives delegates the opportunity to question publishing leaders directly returns for the second year, chaired by Publishers Association CEO Richard Mollet. New speakers confirmed to join this session are Mandy Hill, managing director of Academic Publishing, Cambridge University Press and, representing the library sector, Andrew Barker, Head of Academic Liaison & Special Collections & Archives at the University of Liverpool.
