PANZ International Conference - Publishing for the Future

With a title like that it is no wonder publishers turned out in force today in Auckland.
Around 150 of  them from all parts of the industry and from across NZ turned up at Auckland's Mercure Hotel for two day talkfest on their future.

Star attraction Geneva-based Jens Bammel, Secretary General of the International Publishers Association,(left) got the show off to a lively start with his wide-ranging address Surfing the Avalanche:The Changing Face of Global Publishing in which he looked at the speed at which the publishing industry is ever-accelerating. This is a man who knows his subject and suddenly it seemed the hour was over.
The second session, Strategies for Selling More On-line: Trends in EBook Consumption, Cracking the Non-fiction code and more was chaired by Ka Meechan, MD Nielsen BookData with panellists Mark Tanner of Google Australia, Malcolm Neill of Kobo ANZ, and Mark Higginson, Head of Digital Development, Harper Collins Australia.
After a break for afternoon tea we then heard from Elizabeth Weiss, Academic Director of Allen & Unwin Australia on the subject Refining your Digital Strategy: Work-flow and the Scale of Change; POD and International Distribution. She gave an amazingly frank account of Allen & Unwin's digital publishing experience and this would have proven most helpful to many in the audience just feeling their way in to the digital publishing process.
Finally for today's session we had Fighting the Pirates:Digital Rights, Publishing Agreements and more chaired by AUP's always lively and entertaining Sam Elworthy with panellists Paula Browning, CEO Copyright Licensing NZ, Anthony Healey of APRA here from Australia, and Jens Bammel of the IPA making his second appearance of the day.
Whew, all worthwhile and illuminating but now I need a drink.
Delegates will be back for dinner in a couple of hours and then tomorrow's sessions start at 8.30am.
Hats off to PANZ for their initiative in setting up this worthwhile conference and for the smooth organisation in place.
Footnote:
Read Jens Bammel's excellent piece in the New Zealand Herald a few days ago. Well worth reading.