Next month’s Digital Book World — March 8 and 9 — will feature many current headline-making stories on the main stage. As the tech world wrestles with “The Elephant in the Valley” survey on bias against women (an issue that will carryover to SXSW later in March), we’ll have a panel on Women at the Intersection of Publishing, Finance and Tech with Sourcebooks ceo Dominique Raccah, NetGalley president Susan Ruszala, entrepreneur and banker Joanna Herman, Penguin digital product manager Katherine McCahill, and consultant and journalist Charlotte Abbott. Plus we have Mary Ann Naples — just hired as Disney Book Group publisher — giving one of the Transformation keynotes.
With the Supreme Court about to consider Apple’s request for appeal of the ebook verdict — and the California iPhone case drawing attention to the role and power of tech giants in today’s society — USC professor Jon Taplin evaluates the Silicon Valley values clash; Dr. Jessica Sänger at the German book trade association will provide an on-the-ground look at the emerging antitrust cases in Europe against Amazon and others (with attorney Jonathan Kanter providing a US view); and entrepreneur and NYU professor Scott Galloway will look broadly at tech’s Four Horsemen.
Barnes & Noble will report earnings on March 3 and their recently-hired first chief digital officer Fred Argir keynotes on March 8. John Ingram keynotes on his company’s digital transformation on the heels of acquiring Aer.io in December; Data Guy just released a new Author Earnings report based on revised methodology last week and will unveil new publisher-focused data for the first time; the king of SEO Rand Fishkin will have new insights tailored to publishers; and author and analyst Virginia Heffernan will provide an advance look from her June 2016 book about how the Internet and digital technologies have changed our fundamental relationship with content.
That’s just the keynotes — the panels have even more new data and topical presentations — but for a show we have to start programming 9 months advance you should find this year’s DBW thoroughly aligned with the hot topics of today, tomorrow and beyond. This is a show about the future (not about ebooks), and with our most diverse lineup of speakers yet, it will be unlike any digital publishing show you have been to before. If you’re putting DBW on your schedule, use this Publishers Lunch link to get the best available remaining discount on individual tickets (and check out the three-day Total Access Pass for the best value, with our biggest “Day Zero” roster yet).