After witnessing all of the effort that the BNC team put into preparing for this year’s Tech Forum, it was truly a pleasure to see how smoothly and successfully it ran. It was my first time at this event so I have nothing to compare it to, but I heard from other repeat attendees that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and some even went so far as comparing it to other conferences that they attended this year, saying it was the best.
It was no small feat to pull off three sold-out events (ebookcraft, Tech Forum + BookNet 101, and an ONIX training course) over three days, but what came out of it was lots of valuable and lively discussion among members of the industry who, without this conference to explore new ideas and initiatives, may not have had the opportunity to meet. We heard from a variety of speakers from all different areas: techies, retailers, traditional publishers, researchers, librarians, and entrepreneurs, to name a few, all getting a chance to share their innovations and wisdom in their field of expertise. Then the audience was encouraged to ask questions, and in true polite-Canadian fashion, many opted out of that offer, but a few brave souls participated and the shyer ones waited until the breaks for some one-on-one time.
Seriously, nerds are the best. RT @BitLitMedia: Good advice for everyone from Robert Wheaton #techforum pic.twitter.com/eMISWfz8uO
— Monique M (@MoAtMost) March 6, 2014Whether you agreed with a speaker or topic or not, one thing is for sure: the conference gave everyone an opportunity to engage in conversation, to challenge each other, and to reexamine things we thought we knew as well as better understand things that were new to us.
This morning, @meghanmac caught me adding a last minute slide to my #techforum deck that just reads ONIX in giant font #metadata
— Shannon Culver (@shannonmaryc) March 5, 2014I learned so much from the presenters and I was fortunate to meet people from all over the industry. While I would have preferred that Noah leave the photo of me as an elf out of his PowerPoint presentation, or that I had not lost the photo scavenger hunt (even if it was to a worthy opponent), I had an excellent time at Tech Forum and I am looking forward to attending again next year.
Thanks to the people at @BookNet_Canada for such a great day. #techforum is always full of big, weird ideas, which is why I love it.
— Janet Verified (@janetmurie) March 7, 2014If you attended Tech Forum, ebookcraft, or the ONIX course, please let us know what you thought:
Whether or not you attended, you might find these links helpful, too:
- Laura Brady’s wrap-up of the events on Storify
- Phil Clarke’s list of books recommended by speakers
- Photos of event speakers
- Photos from the photo scavenger hunt
- Infographic blog post based on our presentation about Canadian book buyers
- Sign up for our eNews weekly newsletter to stay tuned for video and slides from ebookcraft and Tech Forum
