Session 1

Become a Data Ninja—An Introduction to Creating a Smart Data Strategy for Your Business

These days, there is no shortage of data to help you understand your market—both inside and outside of your business. But sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what you have, and how to work with it in a way that will help you work smarter and solve real problems in your day to day workflow. In this session we’ll start with an quick orientation to the types of data which are mission critical—Metadata, Consumer Insights, and Business Metrics—how they can be used at key points of the content creation & production process, and get attendees into a flexible mindset so they can evaluate hidden sources of business-building information that may be hiding in plain sight.

Session 2

Creating and Managing High-Quality Metadata

One of the most important sources of data in publishing is the book metadata publishers collect internally and send out to their trading partners. This area is always ripe for increases in efficiency and quality, but publishers seem to be in a constant struggle for the time and resources to make the necessary changes to their infrastructure. In this session, Joshua will explain the best practices that lead to high-quality metadata, and give you some tips on how to bring more efficiencies to your metadata management. Great for: Production, Marketing.

Session 3

Three Views: Practical Techniques to See Your Customers Differently

When you really understand your customers—who they are, where they are, and what they do—you can make much smarter decisions at all levels of the business, but figuring out how to get good views quickly and affordably can seem impossible. In this session, Nielsen’s Kristen McLean will explain the how-to of creating three practical views—Mapping Likely Markets, Pricing Analysis, and Hacking Fan Demographics—that you can create yourself with 30 minutes and readily accessible data resources. Great for: Editorial, Production, Sales, Marketing.

Session 4

Making Projections Meaningful

Whether you’re an established or a beginning publisher, forecasts impact your sales, expenses and acquisitions. In this session, Melissa Swierenga and Marty Schoenleber will inform how to use metadata alongside head-knowledge to create more accurate sales projections, give helpful tips for implementing similar practices, and provide quantifiable value prior to the publication of a book. Learn how IVP improved projection accuracy by over 130%, and how you can do the same.

Session 5

Integrating Digital Book Production into Your Existing InDesign Workflow

Digital book production is usually done separately from print production. This means that every digital format—EPUB, Kindle .mobi, App data package, web content—has to be created separately, and becomes yet another product to maintain. In short, digital is alienated from print. What would it mean if the digital versions of a product could be created automatically from the print version? Peace, harmony, and unity? Perhaps, but at least we could cut down on frustration, tedium, and mistakes.

In this practical workshop, we will lay out the path to integrate digital book production into the existing print production workflow. There are several milestones that we will examine on this path, including:

• Preparing the InDesign book interior for digital production. Topics include:
• Styles, not overrides
• Bookmarks for document structure
• Linked tables of contents
• Dynamic endnotes using cross-references
• Conditions to differentiate digital content from print content
• Linked indexes
• Image handling
• Creating digital covers and other images
• Curating the book files as a “living source” for both print and digital products

This will be a practical, hands-on workshop with worked examples and time for discussion. Those who attend will come away with an understanding of the path, and some tools to help begin the process of creating an integrated print-digital workflow.

Session 6

Printer Panel: Developments and Trends

This session will explore and discuss new and interesting developments and trends in the printing side of the industry and what they mean to publishers. Featuring a panel of ECPA members who support Christian publishing, topics will include tips on selecting a print partner, effective working relationships, emerging technologies, paper market updates, and more. We’ll also leave plenty of time for publishers to introduce other topics and questions they would like addressed.

In addition to the new or updated information the attendees will receive, our goal is also to provide a venue for attendees to network and learn from each other’s practices and processes.

Panel includes print professionals from Ingram, Seaway Printing, Twin Rivers Paper, Color House Graphics, and Dickinson Press.

Moderated by Pete Larson (Owner and President, Bethany Press International), panelists include: Brad Carey (Seaway Printing), Rob Clements (Senior Key Account Manager, Ingram Content Group), Phil Knight (General Manager, Color House Graphics, Inc.), Paul LaCroix (Twin Rivers Paper Company), and Terry Musclow (Business Development Manager, Dickinson Press).