EPUB Conferences for 2013
Hopefully you are still in your budgeting process for 2013 or have already earmarked money for 2013 travel and conferences because two big opportunities to learn about EPUB creation and production have opened their online registration.
Digital Book World 2013 Conference + Expo
Digital Book World 2013 will be held on January 15–17, 2013, at the Hilton New York Hotel. Featured speakers at the show will be: Mike Shatzkin, founder and CEO of the Idea Logical Company and blogger at the Shatzkin Files; Dominique Raccah, CEO and Publisher at Sourcebooks and Agile Publishing proponent; Christopher Platt, Director of Collections and Circulation Operations, New York Public Library; and John R. Ingram, Chairman, Ingram Content Group.
While the conference does not have an overall theme as such this year, they have listed these as learning outcomes for attendees:
How to create operational infrastructures that quickly and effectively support the growth and development of a digital publishing business.
How to take advantage of new distribution channels to increase your customer base and grow sales.
New trends in consumer behavior that encourage new product development and international growth.
How to partner with authors to increase their profile and improve the discoverability of their content.
New digital strategies from leading publishers, which you can quickly incorporate into your business.
New ways of staffing to ensure a nimble, skilled response to new opportunities.
New technology solutions being developed for the new digital publishing environment.
DBW 2013 includes the conference itself, Children’s Publishing Goes Digital (presented by Publisher’s Launch), an expo, and workshops. You can purchase a ticket for all of these, each individually, or in various combinations. Pricing is discounted for early birds, with prices increasing incrementally on October 6, November 10, and December 8. Total access starts at $1,395; individual full conference starts at $1,095.
PePcon: The Print + ePublishing Conference 2013
PePcon is a conference for Adobe InDesign experts and users that will be held April 28 through May 1, 2013, in Austin, Texas. It is an opportunity to rub shoulders with Adobe-certified trainers, master uses, the Lynda.com group of presenters, Adobe engineers and product managers, and other eBook production folks just like you (wherever you may be in experience).
While the focus is certainly on InDesign, the entire Creative Suite is covered during the conference. In 2012, a great deal of session time was spent on the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, so if that is an area of interest you should attend.
In 2013, the show will include four pre-conference tutorials, a 2-day multi-track conference, and six post-conference tutorials. The sessions and speakers for 2013 are still being planned, but a full conference overview from 2012 is available here and should give you an idea of what to expect. If you are a Creative Suite, the tips and tricks you learn at this conference will likely increase your productivity enough to pay for the trip.
PePcon is moving to the Austin Texas Hilton Hotel in 2013, so it should keep things weird (not that San Francisco was not weird in the past). It might also give attendees a chance to network with the fine folks at eBook Architects while in the Austin area.
You have the choice of attending just the conference, any of the tutorials, or some combination of all of the above. Early-bird pricing is in effect now. A 4-day Gold Pass is currently $1,295; the 2-day conference only is $795.
Have you attended either of these conferences in the past? What did you take away from them? Will you attend in 2013? Are there other eBook and digital publishing conferences you are looking forward to in 2013?
PePCON + eBook Architects + Austin = awesomeness