SIPA UK Blog

SIPA UK Congress next week

155 places confirmed so far for next week & some great companies.

My target is 200 - please point your friends, colleagues, suppliers etc. this way.

http://www.sipaonline.com/Chapters/SIPA08_final.pdf

See you next week.

Rory.

Companies confirmed so far include: Abacus E-Media * Accolade Publishing * Adestra * Agora Business Publications * AI Digital * Ant Marketing * Aroq * BNA International * BSI * Business Monitor International * Canonbury Publishing * CDS Global * Cecile Park Publishing * Chemical Watch Research & Publishing * Complinet * Datamatics Financial Services * DMG World Media * Economist Intelligence Unit * E-Consultancy * Electric Word * Elsevier * Euromoney Institutional Investor * Global Water Intelligence * Incisive Media * Informa Healthcare * Informa Insurance * Informa Law * Informa Telecoms * Inside Mortgage Finance Publications * Institute of Physics Publishing * Journal of Applied Science & Technology * Kluwer Law International * Laurence Kay Solicitors * Lawrence Ragan Communications * Melcrum Publishing * Metal Bulletin * Morton Gregory * Nature Publishing Group * News on the Block * Outsell * PPA * Premier Print Group * Property Secrets * Publishing House Research * PureLabs * Rapport Learning * Report Buyer * Research Research * Response Consulting * Rightscom * Sunfish * Verlag fur die Deutsche Wirtschaft * Steven Voss * William Reed Business Media * Wordtracker * WorksSitebuilder

[Still waiting on registrations from some regular attendees - where are you Steel Business Briefing, CRU, Janes, Fleet St Publications, Campden Publishing, van Tulleken & Newseye?]

Advice for all speakers at SIPA UK Congress next week

Life After Death by PowerPoint

SIPA UK Annual Congress - 8 days to go

There are now just 8 days to go until SIPA's Annual Congress in London. For those of you who have yet to register please make sure you do so today. Nearly 150 people have confirmed their attendance so far and I am still competing with Julian to beat his record from last year.

A full brochure and booking form can be found here.

I had to write my Chairman's introduction for the conference this morning. I thought I would also share it here to see what you think. Comments welcome and I look forward to seeing you all next Wednesday (9th July) at the Tower Hotel in London.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less”

Gen. Eric Shinseki, US Army.

 

Welcome to the SIPA UK Annual Congress 2008. I’m delighted to see the range and scope of companies on our delegate list and speaker roster for today & would like to welcome you all.

 

When we started working on the structure for this event at the tail end of last year your committee hit upon the novel idea of asking SIPA members what were the biggest issues that they faced in their business and then trying to put a programme together which answered some of those concerns. Of the nearly 100 detailed responses we received, some high level themes emerged – the state of the economy; the general shift from print to online & the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on our members’ businesses. It was clear that there was a full mix of emotions behind these responses. For some it was outright fear. “Where do I even begin to deal with all this new stuff?” For others there was an overt sense of excitement about all of the new business and revenue models that were opening up.

 

From my early days as a direct marketer I was taught to appeal to the key emotions of fear and greed in my promotional pieces, so here goes – a packed one day conference for both the fearful and the greedy out there in the audience. You probably know which side of the fence you sit on!

 

We start with embracing the fear. I know that there are several traditional publishers in the audience who are seeing their worlds transformed. The revenue mix is shifting from print to online but the concern is that concepts from the newspaper world like the “Rushbridger Cross” (where growing online ad revenues one day overtake declining print ones) will never happen. What do we do? Put on more events? Launch new forms of subscription products? Move away from news into the development of workflow tools? In our programme today you will hear lots of case studies from other publishers in exactly the same boat as you talking about how they deal with these issues. What’s working and what isn’t.

 

On the other side of the coin SIPA is the association which embraces a lot of the newer, less traditional publishers. These are probably companies which won’t have thought of themselves as part of the old media community & you won’t see them at mainstream publishing events. Often they are web based businesses with no print heritage and work under entirely different business models. Our brave new world of online publishing is great for these organizations – technology costs are falling rapidly, barriers to entry are coming down and, in Google, there is a ready made marketing machine out there to help you reach the ‘long tail’ of customers across the globe. I’m really looking forward to hearing from some of them today.

 

In summing up I think my main message for you lucky SIPA delegates is that our world is changing at a faster rate than ever before. Welcome and embrace that change. Experiment with new business ideas and whether you’re in the fear or greed camp, it is clear that it is vital to get out there to share war stories; pick up tips and build your network of contacts. That’s what SIPA the association, and today’s conference is all about. Enjoy the day.

 

Rory Brown, Incisive Media & SIPA UK Chairman.

SIPA UK Congress - delegate update

I'm really looking forward to the SIPA UK Congress this year. With a little under 2 weeks to go we have a fantastic programme in place and hundreds of specialist publishers who have confirmed their attendance.

If you haven't yet registered please do so today. It's just one day out of the office & cost effective to attend (especially if you bring a group).

You will not only hear from some of the foremost experts in marketing, publishing and content strategies but also meet and exchange ideas with your peer group in a relaxed and open setting. Companies already confirmed to attend include:

• Abacus E-Media
• Accolade Publishing
• Adestra
• Agora Business Publications
• AI Digital
• Ant Marketing
• Aroq
• BNA International
• BSI Business Intelligence
• Business Monitor International
• Canonbury Publishing
• CDS Global
• Cecile Park Publishing
• Chemical Watch Research & Publishing
• Complinet
• Datamatics Financial Services
• DMG World Media
• E-Consultancy
• Economist Intelligence Unit
• Electric Word
• Elsevier
• Euromoney Institutional Investor
• Global Water intelligence
• Incisive Media
• Informa Healthcare
• Informa Insurance
• Informa Law
• Inside Mortgage Finance Publications
• Institute of Physics Publishing
• Journal of Applied Science & Technology
• Kluwer Law International
• Laurence Kay Solicitors
• Lawrence Ragan Communications
• Outsell Inc
• Melcrum Publishing
• Nature Publishing Group
• News on the Block
• Premier Print Group
• Property Secrets
• Publishing House Research
• PureLabs
• Rapport Learning
• Report Buyer
• Research Research
• Rightscom
• Sunfish
• Verlag fur die Deutsche Wirtschaft
• William Reed Business Media
• Wordtracker
• WorksSitebuilder

Come along to the SIPA event of the year. You can download the full brochure and booking form here http://www.sipaonline.com/Chapters/SIPA08_final.pdf or you can contact Karen Hindle  uksipa@btconnect.com for any further information.

Keynote speaker at SIPA Congress interviewed by e-consultancy

In the run up to the SIPA UK Congress check out this interview that one of our keynote speakers, Tim Weller, Group CEO of Incisive Media gave to e-consultancy. In the interview Tim outlines some of the concepts he plans to address at our event on July 9th.

See you there. Places are going fast.

Rory Brown.

(BTW - e-consultancy is a great site that you should check out. They should become members of SIPA - *hint* to Ashley Friedlein & Charlie Salter - I know one of you will pick this up ;)

Tim Weller, Incisive Media Group CEO to keynote SIPA UK Congress

I'm delighted that Tim Weller, Incisive Media's Group CEO and Founder has agreed to give the keynote at this year's SIPA UK Congress.

Tim worked at VNU, Centaur and Reuters before founding Incisive Media in 1994. From humble beginnings Incisive now employs some 2,000 people around the world & is backed by one of the largest global private equity groups - Apax Partners.

At the SIPA Congress Tim will speak about the importance of publishing 'narrow and deep' - becoming deeply embedded in the communities you serve - an area that has always been very close to the heart of the specialist publishing industry.

I have obviously spent a lot of time with Tim since he bought the company I worked for - the Risk Waters Group - in 2003. He is one of the most engaging & passionate speakers in the sector and when planning the schedule I could think of no-one better to deliver our opening keynote.

If you haven't already booked your team in to attend the SIPA Congress please do so today. We have around 40 expert speakers and round table hosts from Europe and the US and expect around 200 attendees. Full programme details and booking forms can be downloaded here.

Companies which have already confirmed their attendance include:

Abacus E-Media * Accolade Publishing * Adestra * Agora Business Publications * AI Digital * Ant Telemarketing * Aroq * BNA International * BSI Business Intelligence * Business Monitor International * Canonbury Publishing * Cecile Park Publishing * CDS Global * Complinet * Datamatics Financial Services * DMG World Media * Economist Intelligence Unit * Electric Word * Elsevier * Euromoney Institutional Investor * Incisive Media * Informa Insurance * Informa Law * Inside Mortgage Finance Publications * Institute of Physics Publishing * Kluwer Law International * Laurence Kay Solicitors * Lawrence Ragan Communications * Melcrum Publishing * Nature Publishing Group * News on the Block * Outsell Inc. * Premier Print Group * PureLabs * Report Buyer * Research Research * Rightscom * Verlag fur die Deutsche Wirtschaft * William Reed Business Media * Wordtracker * Works Site Builder... and more

The congress features both plenary sessions and breakouts for publishers, marketers, editors and online / e-publishing leaders. Delegates can tailor the sessions around particular interest areas.

Bring your whole team & join us for the UK specialist publishing event of the year. I personally guarantee you won't be disappointed. [I'm also on a mission to beat Julian's attendance figure last year...]

See you in July (8-9 in London).

Rory Brown

Virtual friends?

Right. I've had enough of this debate about how it's good to meet people face to face.

I agree.

It is.

But this is interesting & I plan on playing with the technology behind it - Ning.

Folio Media Pro

My name is Rory Brown and I am a geek.

When customers say thank you

"I flew all the way for this!"

With oil at $130 plus a barrel. Increased security checks. And corporate budgets under pressure. Traveling to business conferences just to hear a bunch of speakers read out bullet points from PowerPoint slides, when improved communication and social media mean you could have listened in from the comfort of your office...All this is really raising the bar for conference organizers. Or so says author of Permission Marketing, Seth Godin.

Anyone who's ever read his white paper on 'Death by Powerpoint': Really Bad Powerpoint will have looked back and cringed at their own slide decks crammed packed full of bullet points and dense text that has delegates' minds wandering or plain squinting at the screen.

The days of the traditional format conference are surely numbered. But from roundtables, to Q&A sessions, to interactive group discussions, to plain-old networking in the halls, there's no substitute for the shared learning experience conferences offer, when done well.

So imagine our delight when a delegate at Melcrum's recent Employee Engagement Summit in Sydney, Australia took it upon themselves to buy our very own Amy Lyons the most enormous bouquet of flowers with a card that referenced all the wonderful things Amy had done to make their conference experience second to none. (Customer service smug factor: 10/10).

It would seem that the value of attending conferences is alive and well, after all. And can social media and so-called 'virtual conferences' really replace the real thing? Virtual flowers, anyone?

By Robin Crumby, Managing Director, Melcrum

Anyone else heading for SIPA Washington?

Is anyone else making the trip to SIPA Washington this year?

There's normally a merry band of Brits flying the flag (along with around 30 Germans and fellow Europeans). But I'm struggling to find others heading over this year.

Looks a great program. Never too late...

Hopefully see you there.

Robin.

SIPA UK Congress 2008

SIPA UK ANNUAL CONGRESS 2008
- the 14th annual conference for specialised information publishers
8-9 July 2008
The Tower Hotel, St Katherine's Way, London E1W 1LD

We're back! Many apologies for the brief hiatus on the SIPA UK blog - day jobs and all that..

You'll be glad to know that your committee haven't all been slacking. We've been working on the best ever programme for the SIPA UK Annual Congress. If you haven't already done so please register to attend and make sure you bring along colleagues, friends, relatives, pets.. anyone who is interested in the world of specialised publishing.

Full programme details can be found here. A few of the highlights:

• David Worlock, Chief Research Fellow at Outsell Inc., will give delegates and overview of the major trends affecting the b2b specialist publishing industry
• Tim Weller, Group CEO and Founder at Incisive Media, will explain why publishing 'narrow and deep' is the route to success for publishers
• Mark Ragan, CEO at Lawrence Ragan Communications in the US, will give a case study on the transition of a print publishing business online
• Nic Laight, MD at Canonbury Publishing, will tell us the story of how he was questioned about suspected money laundering when an e-mail campaign drove over £1m of orders in just 2 weeks
• Hugh Look, Senior Consultant at RightsCom, will explore the future of paid content in the revenue mix for publishers
• John Whitaker, Online Business Development Manager at DMG World Media, gives a case study on how to exploit your digital assets
• Grace Baynes, Corporate PR Planner at Nature Publishing Group, will explain how the Nature Network social platform was launched
• Richard Londesborough, MD at Business Monitor International, spotlights why site licences should become the most profitable and durable part of your business
• Ken McGaffin, CMO at Wordtracker, explains how keywords can be a rich source of creative ideas and help help you put firm strategies behind your search engine marketing efforts.

... there are many more influential and knowledgeable speakers throughout the day and delegates have the chance to tailor their attendance based on interest areas with breakout sessions, round-tables and discussion forums.

On the 8th July, the day before the main congress, SIPA will also be hosting 2 half day round-table discussion forums.

Senior Marketers Discussion Forum led by Louise White, Group Marketing Director, Incisive Media and Caroline Frost, Group Marketing Director, Informa Healthcare

Publishers Discussion Forum led by Lindsey Grieg, MD at Cecile Park Publishing

I would urge senior marketers and publishers to make the effort to attend these optional half days. They will be highly interactive and you will get to set the agenda with your peers from around the industry.

Finally, there will also be a small exhibition area at the congress featuring key suppliers including: Datamatics Financial Services; Adestra; Ant Marketing; Premier Print Group; WorksSiteBuilder; Abacus E-Media; AI Digital & PureLabs. There are a few remaining sponsorship and exhibit opportunities for any companies interested.

All details of the programme, sessions, speakers, awards programme (forgot to mention that earlier..), drinks receptions etc can be found here.

We expect some 200 people to attend the SIPA Congress and I very much hope you will join us. Phone Karen Hindle on 020 8288 7415 or e-mail uksipa@btconnect.com for any further information.

Look forward to seeing you in July.



Rory Brown, Incisive Media, UK SIPA Chairman and Congress Chair.

"Up to the minute, thought-provoking content delivered by speakers who know exactly what they're talking about"
Emma Warren-Jones, Marketing Director, Informa Healthcare

"A superb day, laden with value, practical advice and expertise - worth every penny"
Michael Smith, Marketing and Business Development Director, Kogan Page.