Code Meet Print TO is the new booky, geeky, beery event series from BookNet Canada which I organize. The plan for CMPTO was simple: get book industry experts and tech experts together in one room so they can meet each other, share ideas, and have a few drinks.
Our inaugural event took place Tuesday night at The Pilot and we were thrilled with the turnout! Often publishing events are filled with the same small group of people, so it was refreshing to see all the new faces in the crowd. It was particularly nice to meet new people from the tech side of things who came up to me and told me they had no experience in books, but were really interested in getting involved in the publishing world.
The Recap
If you were not able to make it to CMPTO, you can take a look at the conversation that was happening on Twitter by searching the #CMPTO hashtag.
Brian O’Leary
Brian presented Context First: A Unified Field Theory of Publishing. He has previously presented Context First at Books in Browsers and at Tools of Change for Publishing. I saw the presentation at TOC and knew we needed to bring it to Canada at some point. One of the most interesting takeaways from Brian’s presentation is the idea that we can either give our readers information in the way they want to receive it or they’ll figure out a work-around on their own. Or, as Brian put it, “Open up your API or someone else will.”
Read over the script or watch the screencast.
Marlon Rodrigues
Marlon is the Director of Alliances for Polar Mobile. He built off Brian’s presentation, explaining that we need to start with context and then move to containers, talking about why we should be focussing on mobile as one of those containers right now. I’ve already told Marlon that I’m going to be blatantly stealing his ice cream truck analogy from now on: If you make great ice cream you also need to care about the truck it’s delivered in. Otherwise, you’ll be delivering milkshakes to your customers.
Nancy Carter
Nancy has a background in film and television, but has somehow ended up creating an enhanced e-book with location-based storytelling for Toronto Unearthed. Nancy told us about why she chose to make a mobile app, challenges along the way, and where she wants the project to go in the future. It was particularly interesting to bring the perspective of a producer on the book space.
Feedback
We want to hear from you! If you have feedback on our first event or ideas for future events, please let us know. You can comment here, leave reviews for the event or for the group itself, jot down some ideas on the discussion board, or contact me directly via email, twitter, etc.
Thank you to all of the speakers and attendees who made our first event a success! I’m looking forward to seeing all of you again and finding out where we take this group.
I’d also like to give a little shout-out to the other BNC team members who helped out with CMPTO—Tim for brainstorming, Sue for logistics, Sam for marketing, and Noah for letting me run with crazy ideas—and to Code Meet Print NY for letting us jump on the bandwagon.
To stay up-to-date on future CMPTO events, please join our group on Meetup.com or follow us on Twitter.
