Session 5: The Impact of Alternative Publishing

 The session on “The Impact of Alternative Publishing” witnessed active audience participation. One of the panellists, Michael Bhaskar stated that alternative publishing involves different forms or formats of publishing. Maitreyi Kandoi, added that alternative publishing included alternative content too. Another form of alternate publishing is “multi-lingualism which is the key to international exchanges”, said Elin Jones, Wales.

Chetna, founder of an ezine called Bubble Wrapped supported online media as being more convenient to start and reach out to people. Peter Griffin chaired this session and made it a very interactive one. 

Session 4: Publishing houses of the Future.

Session Four

Seven panelists from diverse backgrounds took the stage for the session on “Publishing Houses of the Future”.

Nilanjana Roy, a Delhi-based literary columnist and critic chaired this session and also addressed a previous discussion on whether print books would die, saying it is instinctive for us to turn back to paper in publishing. Atiya Zaidi, a publisher, said that publishing has a bright future especially in the education sector due to the need for textbooks in schools. Payal Kumar of SAGE Publications India, pointed out that all mechanisms in publishing houses are computerized, making work easier. Tremendous change has been observed. According to her, Publishers should catch up with technological advancements while taking stakeholders along. Sunil Patki, a Strategy and Business planning consultant felt the need for alot of training and understanding in terms of content published. Ulhas Latkar of Ameya Prakashan, Pune shared his experiences in independently publishing in regional languages. Trisha Gupta spoke from the perspective of a reader and put forth her views to the audience. Ramu Ramanathan, editor of PrintWeek India shared his opinions on the publishing scene while being a staunchly pro-books individual.

The session concluded with questions from the audience.

Technologies of the future-Indian and UK entrepreneurs

Presentations by UK and Indian entrepreneurs were organised on the topic of “Future technologies that bridge the divide: Making good in the absence of a supply chain.” The first presenter was Gavin Summers a Digital Services Manager from the UK. He suggested an innovative digital strategy called ‘Dynamic Learning’ and ‘Practise Every Question’ to improve on the print text book. The future of this technology, he said was to ensure accessibility of the book from anywhere, enable collaboration and keep the pace of change in tune with the market.

‘Valobox’ another novel idea was presented by Oliver Brooks from the UK. He discussed with the audience the idea of web-friendly books that have the characteristics of pay-as-you-go, peer-2-peer, premium content layer and revenue for publishers.

Titash Neogi discussed “Themeefy” an online book reading format which also serves as a platform for curated content. His presentation emphasized on the rethinking of fundamental business and personal values.

The next speaker was awarded the British Council’s Young Entrepreneur award in the current year. Ganesh Ram KR spoke about Mobileveda and eMahatva.

Learning from the music Industry's experience-Anish Trivedi

An unexpected but much welcomed session by Anish Trivedi ,  this veteran of the music industry came up and shared  his experiences with the changing music industry scenario over the last fifteen years.

With the onset of piracy , Torrent’s, itunes  and so on, the  industry attempted to protect themselves from the internet but eventually realised that there is no real way to do it. You cannot stop people from downloading free pirated tracks. The way out was to collaborate with online  mediums to make it easier and more convienent  for music to reach the people.

He drew parallels in this respect with the publishing industry, which had all authors and publishers present nodding their heads in agreement. The paradigm has changed he concluded.