ReBoot: Books, Business, and Reading, comprising an October 13 conference plus research tracks, is designed to analyze how Covid-19 could reshape the global publishing industry. Organized by Ruediger Wischenbart Content and Consulting (Austria), Carlo Carrenho (Brazil/Sweden), and Klaus-Peter Stegen (Germany), in partnership with KNK, Bookwire, Publishers Weekly, and #coisadelivreiro, the program will provide a global virtual forum to gather data, write case studies, and foster debate among industry executives and thought leaders on the best ways for the industry to move forward.
The full ReBoot initiative contains a series of “Preparation Tracks” leading up to the October 13 conference, some of which have already begun. These tracks include several workshops on four themes: consumer research; insights into hybrid publishing; bookselling across multiple formats (print and digital), channels (bricks-and-mortar, online), and models (sales, downloads, subscriptions); and finally resulting transformations of the supply chain. The October 13 virtual conference will feature four sessions, each devoted to one of these four main topics.
Conference speakers include John Ingram, CEO of Ingram; Nitasha Devasar, head of distributor Taylor & Francis’s Indian operations; Carmen Ospina, director of marketing, communication, and business development at Penguin Random House Spain and Latin America; and Michael Reynolds of Europa Editions and Eva Ferry of its Italian sister publisher Edizioni E/O. Others set to participate are David Worlock from the Outsell executive consultancy; Knut Nicholas Krause, founder of the KNK publishing software house; Mitchell Davis, founder of BookSurge and now library and author community promotor; and Jens Klingelhöfer, cofounder of the international digital aggregator Bookwire.
More details about ReBoot are available at rebootbooks.org and via @rebootbooks on Twitter. The online conference will go live at 7 a.m. EDT.
<small>A version of this article appeared in the 09/21/2020 issue of <em>Publishers Weekly</em> under the headline: ReBoot Kicks Off </small>
