Tech Forum and ebookcraft 2017 have successfully wrapped up another year of great speakers, fantastic and attentive attendees, and stellar cookies. If you were there and want to relive the event, this post is for you. If you weren’t there, but want to pretend you were, this post is also for you. We’ve got photos, links to presenters’ slides, a call to fill out our satisfaction survey, and a reminder to sign up for our newsletter so you can be the first to know when videos from the event are available.
So, let’s go back to the beginning. It all started last Wednesday, March 22. Eager ebookcrafters showed up for the third annual workshop day ready for some intensive workshops. They learned:
- why it’s so important to build in ebook accessibility from the start with Sarah Hilderley and Kevin Callahan;
- how to beta test new and powerful features to design a better reading experience with Jiminy Panoz;
- how to get the most out of InDesign with Ron Bilodeau;
- how to use JavaScript to make ebooks interactive with Christina Truong; and
- so much more.
Partway through Day 1 of #ebookcraft and I’ve already learned lots of cool stuff/have a lot to bring back to share w/ my team
— Kristin Brodeur (@knbrodeur) March 22, 2017
Day two of ebookcraft kept the momentum going. First, the swag came out:
The always awesome swag of #ebookcraft. Stickers, networking cards, & pins (on library cards)! cc:@ONLibraryAssoc pic.twitter.com/7jZgaY32fF
— Suzanne Wice (@suzannewice) March 23, 2017
And then we got down to the business of learning some more:
A full house for the start of #ebookcraft! Look at all these smart people! pic.twitter.com/kjHCTu9cIz
— ebookcraft (@ebookcraft) March 23, 2017

Sessions included, among many others:
- ebook usability from the library’s perspective with Maria Cipriano, Jacqueline Whyte Appleby, and Sharon Bailey.
- how to build an automated ebook production toolchain with Nellie McKesson
- offline-first and phase-shifting technologies with Benjamin Young
Our speakers brought it with their awesome and well-designed presentations. Seriously, you should look at all the great decks we saw this year.
Micah Bowers has the coolest slide illustrations I've seen ever #ebookcraft pic.twitter.com/lboIl2BZ49
— Nick Barreto (@nickbarreto) March 23, 2017
We can’t forget to mention that both ebookcraft and Tech Forum once again rose to the challenge of the 50/50 Initiative, which means that at least half of our speakers were women, a standard we are very proud to achieve every year.
Pleased to see that ebookcraft has taken the 50/50 Pledge – and have put it into practice 👍 #ebookcraft https://t.co/jDi07ekEUU pic.twitter.com/zUNzMiLQAY
— Marte Patel (@martepatel) March 23, 2017
At the close of ebookcraft, we announced the winner of So You Think You Can Code and awarded her with the very large cheque! In the second year of our ebook coding contest, Kristin Brodeur took home first prize, which included $2,500 and a Kobo e-reader from Rakuten Kobo, a one-year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, and a three-month subscription to FlightDeck thanks to Firebrand Technologies.

And then we went out and tested our trivia knowledge with the ebookcraft pub quiz! Want a taste? Try this stumper: “DAISY files include both MP3 and XML components that allow users to both hear text aloud and follow along visually. What does DAISY stand for?” If you knew that DAISY stands for “Digital Accessible Information SYstem” you’d have been an asset to your team.
Thanks to everyone involved in #ebookcraft for putting on a fantastic conference: invigorating, interesting, challenging, and fun.
— Simon Collinson (@Simon_Collinson) March 23, 2017
Wow #ebookcraft was the best conference I've ever been to. Every talk was interesting, and thats saying something for an old seadog like me
— Micah (@micahsb) March 25, 2017
On Friday, Tech Forum began.
One of my favourite days of the year is finally here. It's #techforum day!
— Margaret Bryant (@margbryant) March 24, 2017
Again, what would this conference be without the swag?
Want to run a focus group? Give away free books at an industry conference. #techforum @BookNet_Canada @LoanStarsCA pic.twitter.com/IZsMz7zHZt
— Noah Genner (@ngenner) March 24, 2017
Best. Pin. Ever. #techforum #data pic.twitter.com/YDcsRfiHcE
— Brendan Flattery (@BFlattery) March 24, 2017
Swag, then learning (then cookies). The perfect formula for a conference?
During the SalesData presentation, we learned that the sales tracking service has more rows of data than the Space Shuttle, Jurassic Park, and the genome of a mouse! (So you might even say SalesData is more complex than life itself.)

We also learned:
- how to build pre-pub buzz for your books with Kristina Radke, Heidi Sander, Michelle Melski, Bryn Collier, and Lisa Marie Smith;
- how machines can best identify the reader of any book with Nathan Maharaj;
- five ideas about publishing’s future from Robert Wheaton; and
- so much more!
Sadly, we can only highlight so many great presentations in this post, but don’t despair: we’ll be getting videos of all the sessions edited and online in the coming weeks so keep an eye on our blog and social media, or sign up for our weekly eNews to never miss an update.
And, we can’t forget the cookie pictures:
Cookies? More like BOOKies! The cutest cookies at this year's #TechForum! pic.twitter.com/xXCN9d1bBm
— Kelsey Knight (@iamkelseyknight) March 24, 2017
After discussing how to solve all of the publishing industries problems with diversity, we have a break. Cookie game is strong #TechForum pic.twitter.com/B22nhHsbVr
— Victoria Dombrowski (@VD429) March 24, 2017
We had such a great time at the conference this year. If you were there, please tell us what you thought! Your feedback will help us make the events even better next year. If you fill out the survey before March 31, you could win one of these great prizes:
- a Kobo Aura e-reader;
- a free ticket to Tech Forum or ebookcraft 2018 (to be held in Toronto);
- a copy of The Canadian Book Market 2016; or
- your choice of one of our consumer research reports.
Thanks @BookNet_Canada & @MaRSDD for a fun & really well executed #techforum!
— Allison MacLachlan (@A_MacLachlan) March 24, 2017
Thanks @BookNet_Canada for the excellent #TechForum sessions & TY for tracking + showcasing CDN #audiobook data & adoption! #VO pic.twitter.com/kMiXYeCJJO
— Braden Wright (@bradenwright) March 24, 2017
Thanks to the presenters, organizers, sponsors, MaRS Discovery District staff, and all who attended! See you next year. We’ve even got the dates: March 21-23, 2018. Put them in your calendar!



