Globalocal 2014: a veritable mix of content

According to the GBO, like the edition of 2013 held in Jaipur, coinciding with the Literature Festival there, the focus at Globalocal this year is on increasing networking opportunities within the publishing and allied industries.

In its last few editions, GBO has continuously experimented with the format of the event, introducing different features each year—from roundtable discussions, to conference, to CEO-level meet, and now to a more focused, business-to-business platform.

The highlights of this year’s meet are: Experts’ Table and thematic workshops.

Programme

The Experts’ Table is a panel of industry experts from around the world, who can be sought out by registered participants for advice and suggestions. With the country’s publishing industry growing fast, adopting newer models, and aligning closer to practices from mature publishing markets, such interactions with experts would be akin to attending a master class.

Thematic workshops will cover more market-relevant topics, such as marketing for future, by Sangram Surve of Think WhyNot India; and a workshop on innovation for start-ups, by Marlies Hebler from the Berlin-based ebooks publisher Textunes, and R Sriram of Next Practice Retail, an entrepreneur and former CEO of Crossword Bookstores.

The Rights Seminar by the renowned global copyrights and licenses consultant, Lynette Owen, which was introduced at Globalocal last year, will be held this year too. Owen will be joined by Arpita Das, publisher of Delhi-based Yoda Press, to conduct training sessions on rights and licensing over both days of the event.

Roundtable Discussions will include a CEO Roundtable on Day 1, which will discuss the content industry and its search for an identity, and on the second day, a discussion on pricing models and ideas for STM publishing.

On both days the programme will include business matchmakings, the Experts’ Table, and networking breaks. Hewlett-Packard and Copyright Clearance Center are partners for GLOBALOCAL 2014.

Speakers

At Globalocal 2014, the speakers include Urvashi Butalia of Zubaan Books; Neeraj Jain of Scholastic India; Brijesh Kumar of Digital Media Initiatives; Kiruba Shankar of Business Blogging, a social media consultancy; and Anil Padmanabhan of Mint newspaper.

The STM segment will be represented by P Venkatraman of Jaypee Brothers medical publishers; P T Rajasekaran of Bangalore-based Panther Publishing; Nitasha Devasar of Taylor & Francis; Puneet Mehrotra of STM Journals; and Rohit Kumar of Reed Elseiver.

Experts from UK, familiar with the Indian publishing industry—Richard Charkin of Bloomsbury Publishing; Emma House of The Publishers Association UK; and Kevin Fitzgerald of Copyright Licensing Agency—will take part in the discussions. The other international speakers are: Winnie Hung of Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific, Singapore; James Appell of Bookmate Russia, a digital reading platform; Michael Healy of Copyright Clearance Center, USA; and Kelvin Watson, Director of Queens Library USA.

The keynote speech will be given by actor Suhel Seth, who also leads Counselage India, a marketing and management consultancy. Keynote presentations will be made by Linda Tan Lingard, of Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency, Malaysia; Michael Healy; and, Winnie Hung. There will also be a keynote presentation by Qbend, the digital publishing services company; and a presentation made by Nizam Ahmed of STUDYeBUDDY, a Mumbai-based store for educational ebooks.

Evolution of Globalocal

Globalocal, which began in 2009 as a roundtable for book publishers, expanded its scope to put focus on “content”, reflecting the emphasis given to “content” at Frankfurt Book Fair in the past 3–4 years. Spotting the changing nature of book publishing, and the potential therein for crossmedia convergence, the Fair opened its doors to other media, new media, and technology services some years ago. Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest book fair, is now a fair for content, and describes itself as, “the most important international trading place for content … a meeting place for the ITC (Information Technology Centre) and creative industries, a platform for cultural-political dialogue, and a tremendous cultural event.”

Through Globalocal, the GBO New Delhi, a venture of Frankfurt Book Fair and the German foreign ministry, takes forward this mandate in India. This, at a time when India’s book publishing industry is undergoing rapid transformation, and finds itself at an intersection between a growing demand for books and educational content, and the potential offered by technology to meet these demands and create new opportunities.

Exclusive India tour

Exclusive India, a customized guided tour for international guests, which was introduced as a run up to Globalocal 2013, will be held this year too, three days prior to the conference in New Delhi. The guests will meet companies in Chennai and New Delhi, for an overview of the digital industry and the publishing and printing industries in India. Participants of the tour will then attend Globalocal and move on to the New Delhi World Book Fair for a guided tour on the first day, 15th February 2014.

Who should attend Globalocal?

Anyone who works in, or is interested in working with, the content industry: Publishers, booksellers, printers, digital publishing service providers, distributors, online selling platforms, marketing professionals, editors, salespersons, content creators, self-publishing platforms and agents.