Another year, another Tech Forum come and gone. While we’re sad we have to wait another whole year for the next one, we’re happy to have learned so much from this year’s event.
Our morning keynote, delivered by Ritu Bhasin, was incredible and the Tech Forum audience really responded to it:
Blown away by @Ritu_Bhasin‘s keynote on Disrupting Bias: Overcoming Our Discomfort with Differences. Great use of real examples, supportive data and tangible takeaways we can implement today #TechForum
— Alysha D’Souza (@AlyshaDSouza) March 20, 2019
inclusion is about quality. are you spending the same money and time marketing diverse content and authors? do you allow authenticity in the workplace? if someone has to change their ways and words because of their differences, then it’s not inclusion. #techforum @Ritu_Bhasin pic.twitter.com/eSsQHI6zcD
— izzie the peasy, a lemon squeezer (@isadoracal) March 20, 2019
We had perhaps more sessions this year than any other year, and lots of them were run concurrently, so many Tech Forum attendees were wishing they had Hermione’s Time-Turner. Luckily for them, most of our sessions were recorded and will be shared in the next several weeks on BookNet Canada’s YouTube channel. You can subscribe now to be the first to know when they’re ready for viewing and re-viewing. You can also see the presentation materials for most sessions on Sched: Just click through on the session you’re interested in and scroll down for links to the presenter’s slides or code. And, if you can’t wait another minute for your Tech Forum content fix, you can listen to the episode of Jennifer Baker’s Minorities in Publishing podcast that we recorded live at Tech Forum with guest Jael Richardson right now!
Here are some of the highlights from the Tech Forum attendees on Twitter.
We’ve got some audiobook inspiration:
Did I happen to mention that @wendy_a_reid is amazing? Listening to her talk about the future standards for audiobooks at #TechForum makes me want to record one <3 pic.twitter.com/oQ7IZURMXG
— Rachel Comerford (@rallyfora11y) March 20, 2019
This was another great #techforum session (…many of us are old enough to remember the era of Coles Notes.) Loved hearing about the success of Tanya Taqaq’s audiobook. https://t.co/rlxtZeHIZt
— Peter Schneider (@PCCSchneider) March 20, 2019
Diversity and equity among underrepresented groups both within the publishing industry and among authors was covered in several sessions and gave us lots to think about.
For publishers looking for the business case for publishing diverse voices – talk to your libraries! They have good evidence for you (paraphrasing Janet Horne @VPL) #techforum
— Nordicity (@NordicityGlobal) March 20, 2019
Appreciate @Scaachi keeping it real about being on yet another #diversity panel to discuss issues that are prevalent and work upward in the #publishing channel. #TechForum “The people who need to be in this room aren’t here.”
— MinoritiesPublishing (@MinoritiesinPub) March 20, 2019
Attended a great session on equity-driven acquisitions and left thinking about how these lessons can be applied to cookbooks. Whose voices and cuisines should we be amplifying? how can we more actively seek them out? how can I market them better? #TechForum
— Michelle Arbus (@michellearbus) March 20, 2019
This is important to me:
If we rely on the same old tactics, the people we’re bringing into our publishing companies are not going to look any different. #TechForum pic.twitter.com/Sk1Vn5ibmE
— Dulce Rosales (@dulceisnormal) March 20, 2019
As always, the Tech Forum swag and snacks were well-received. Our famous topical, pop culture, and book-related cookies made an appearance:
.@BookNet_Canada #TechForum conversation and cookies always on point 👌🏳️🌈📖 pic.twitter.com/Qs5BYRPQld
— Christen Thomas ✍🏼 (@MetaphorceX10) March 20, 2019
book conferences have the best swag. @LoanStarsCA back at it again at #techforum @BookNet_Canada pic.twitter.com/NpVM7ZVLV2
— Candis Green (@candygreeen) March 20, 2019
We also tried something new this year at ebookcraft and Tech Forum. Instead of only doing physical swag, we gave our conference-goers the opportunity to get professional headshot photos:
You can replace swag for a more #zerowaste conference by offering professional headshots for online use to attendees. That’s what #techforum @BookNet_Canada @ebookcraft did this year and I wanted to share the idea.#leavenotraceandtakeonlyphotos pic.twitter.com/LrqNzCHl1F
— Garbage Lady (@GarbageLady) March 23, 2019
See more tweets about the conference — the sessions, the swag, and (we have to self-promote) the praise — in this Twitter moment we put together. For even more great tweets, you can go through the #TechForum hashtag to see everything.
If you joined us at Tech Forum this year, we’d really appreciate your feedback. It helps us to make next year’s events even better! We have a survey for attendees: Fill it out before April 4 and you’ll have a chance to win one of these great prizes:
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A free ticket to next year’s conference (to be held in Toronto)
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1 of 3 $25 Kobo gift cards
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1 of 3 #AmReading & Chill tote bags and digital copies of the full #AmReading research series
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A free copy of The Canadian Book Market 2018
A special thanks to Elder Whabagoon, Ojibway Elder of the Lac Seul First Nation, for the ceremonies that marked the official beginning and end of Tech Forum & ebookcraft 2019. We’d also like to thank our speakers, organizers, MaRS Discovery District staff, and attendees for making this conference possible. Tech Forum is presented BookNet Canada, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Literary Press Group of Canada.
Subscribe to the Tech Forum & ebookcraft mailing list for all the updates about videos from this year’s event and everything related to next year’s conference, too. We hope to see you all again in 2020!
