User's Guide to the World Publishing Expo

If you add five strategic business conferences, four open stages, workshops, hackathons and initiatives like the World Innovation Network, the events also provide a mammoth collection of knowledge and innovation for those who direct and guide news publishing companies around the world.

Getting the most of the event takes a bit of preparation. So here is a user's guide to the events, to ensure that participants get the most of the opportunities to engage with industry innovators, learn about transformative emerging technologies and their benefits, and take away strategic insights to help news media compete and thrive.

Full details can also be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/ifraexpo2013.

The Exhibition

The World Publishing Expo (IFRA Expo and Conference) will be held at the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds from 7 to 9 October next. The Expo, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) for more than four decades, showcases the latest technologies and brings together suppliers to the industry with its thought leaders and decision makers. It is one of the world's best venues for the latest developments in print, workflow efficiency, social-local-mobile, revenue generation, and more.

Axel Springer's CEO Mathias Döpfner will open the World Publishing Expo 2013, speaking about the importance of technology for the future of publishing.

A full list of the exhibitors can be found at http://tinyurl.com/pmu9lab.

Conferences for media professionals: both paid and free

More than 200 speakers and presenters will be featured over the Expo's three days, in both free and paid-for events.

The free events, to be held on four "Media Port" stages scattered throughout the Expo, will feature collaborations between publishers and suppliers and provide case studies of what can help publishers now. The paid events are for top-level industry executives and editors and will discuss strategies for the future of news publishing.

These premium events include the 6th Tablet and App Summit on 7 and 8 October, the World Editors Forum International Newsroom Summit on 8 and 9 October, and three Shaping the Future of News Publishing (SFN) Forums on digital printing opportunities (7 October), audience analytics (8 October) and new revenue streams (9 October).

The Tablet & App Summit will focus on the next generation of apps and tablets and present successful cases in what appears to be a golden age of experimentation. Among others speakers, Mario Garcia will share some of his iPad Design Lab ideas. Other speakers include Guy Crevier, President and Publisher of La Presse in Canada, which has invested millions in table strategy, and Audra Martin, Vice President of The Economist Digital, which has been reinvented for mobile platforms.

The World Editors Forum's 12th International Newsroom Summit aims to provide strategies for breaking down barriers in the newsroom and increasing collaborations between editorial and technology and among broadcast, print and digital operations. Speakers include Raju Narisetti, Senior Vice President and Deputy Head of Strategy for News Corp, Kerry Northrup, creator of the US$2.5m Newsplex prototype convergent newsroom-studio and currently the Turner Multimedia Professor at Western Kentucky University, and Anthony De Rosa, Editor-in-chief of Circa, the first born-on-mobile news publisher.

The Open "Media Port" Stages will focus on four issues of key concern to news publishers: So-Lo-Mo (social-local-media), Power of Print, Workflow efficiency, and Revenue. Exhibitors and publishers alike will be demonstrating best practices in presentations that will continue non-stop throughout the three-day Expo.

World Innovation Network

WAN-IFRA's World Innovation Network is an initiative designed to share new ideas and to provide a platform for publishers to network with innovators from within the industry and beyond. The WIN will be organising a hackathon during the Expo, and will showcase itself during a Media Port session that will feature: Johnny Ryan, Chief Innovation Officer at the Irish Times, Rick van Dijk, Operational Director for Stimuleringsfonds voor de Pers in the Netherlands, Ole Molgaard, Program Director at CBS Executive, Denmark and many others.

Workshops

The Expo will be providing participants with the opportunity to attend three workshops: one for German speakers on Cross Media Sales (10 October), and two in English, on Search Engine Optimisation and a tutorial on improving newspaper colour quality for the International Newspaper Color Quality Club.

Social events

WAN-IFRA events are always known for their conviviality, and the Expo is no exception. The Expo will feature a News Publishers' Night at the architectural monument Umspannwerk Kreuzberg, a former electricity generating facility that is now home to a variety of companies from the creative and web industry. Other events include a Women in Media event and an Apéritif Français.

Tours to start ups

The Expo will take advantage of Berlin's reputation as an incubator for start-up companies by organising a tour for participants to meet and network with these innovators.

Full details for all World Publishing Expo events can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/ifraexpo2013.