|
Post performance: The Bangkok Post, a Publish Asia sponsor, displays its many publishing interests at its booth during the conference. Photo by Ed Kohorst. |
|
PressPoint kiosk: Publish Asia guests were invited to print out their hometown paper at a kiosk set up by exhibitor PressPoint. Photo by Ed Kohorst. |
At IFRA/Asia, customer service,
convergence, learning all mix
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Never let it be said that IFRA/Asia doesn't think big -- in this case, the second annual Publish Asia Conference held here March 20-22.
The ambitious program included a publishers conference, an editors forum, a marketers forum, nine learning seminars, exhibits showcasing products and services, a golf tournament, visits to printing plants and the first-ever Publish Asia 2002 Awards.
It provided a wide range of speakers, topics and activities for more than 700 registered guests.
The plethora of conference events covering newspapers, magazines and web publishing were designed to address the broadest range of interests and gather a diverse group of people to exchange and develop ideas for the continued future of the publishing industry.
It seemed to work -- at least at the scene. To what success fresh thinking and innovation survive past the conference dates is another guess.
Company chief executives, publishers and senior management were abundant at the publishers conference, being brought up to speed on the latest in media convergence, how to think as information engineers, what it means to establish cross-media alliances for added revenue, how to adapt and make the most of newsrooms in change, circulation acquisition strategies, the phenomenon of free sheets as threat or opportunity, and the new offerings of digital printing.
At the editors forum, speakers from the Bangkok Post, Chicago's Tribune Co., IFRA/Europe and IFRA/USA presented case studies on the development of common newsrooms for newspaper, TV, radio and the Internet.
Forrest Carr, broadcast news director for Florida's Tampa Tribune, Wfla-TV and TBO.com, gave a first-hand account of the issues, problems and benefits of actually integrating the company's reporting efforts across traditional lines.
Convergence on a massive scale
The real story on media convergence came from a keynote address by Joachim Arenth, senior vice president and head of strategy at Bertelsmann AG, which operates in 56 countries, with 82,162 employees and revenues of US$17.56 billion.
This German media company, with interests in magazines, newspapers, television, radio, book publishing, music labels, professional information, print, media services, plus book and media e-commerce, gives real meaning to the term convergence. Bertelsmann provides information, education and entertainment through every possible outlet in every conceivable format.
While there was plenty of discussion on the technical issues of publishing, there was also ample attention paid to the problems and solutions of marketing -- translating technology into profits.
Bernhard Schreier, chairman of the board of Heidelberg Druckmaschinen AG, addressed the main body of the congress, delivering the message "adapt or die."
Schreier used an interesting metaphor to illustrate the need for the publishing industry to embrace and purchase new technology.
"The trends point in one direction -- the need to add digital technology. And in thinking about how to best do that, we are put into a position similar to one of contemplating the purchase of a special gift to commemorate an important date in our life -- a wedding anniversary.
"You don't know what to buy, but know it should be expensive; you don't understand the full impact of the decision until long after the purchase is made -- and although uncertain about the outcome, you believe it's important to do for the future of the enterprise."
According to Schreier, digital printing is projected to be the fastest growing segment in the industry.
"We estimate 18 percent annual growth for digital color and around 11 percent for digital black-and-white printing over the next four years," he said.
But the most difficult change to be made, according to Schreier, is the one from "We'll do what we can" to "What can we do for you?" In other words, customer service. And that means around-the-clock service from point-of-sale and beyond.
For the publishing industry to thrive, Schreier said customer service must become a company's image and obligation.
"At Heidelberg this means we do literally everything -- supply the parts, train our customers' staff in the use of new products and perform the work quickly and reliably. And that's just the beginning of our customer service philosophy," Schreier said.
In the wings: digital printing
After reflecting on the positive yet demanding message from the Schreier presentation, it was almost a relief to hear the anticipated blah-blah-blah on the future of print, knowledge management, how to survive in a slowing economy, content management and XML, branding and the like.
For the marketers, quality rating points (QRP) -- or "How I learned to think differently about selling space and re-inventing the rate card" -- preceded a discussion on how one newspaper has protected and even increased classified ad revenues.
And the art of digital printing was presented as a legitimate solution to those publishers wanting to deliver the printed product in small numbers with little capital investment.
If, as a publisher, you wanted to find out how to turn calls to cellular phones into revenue streams, or how to digitize, convert or deliver everything, there were opportunities galore to be entertained, educated and, in some cases, put to sleep.
It seems some speakers have yet to learn the value of simplicity in their presentations. A major discourse on eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for content publishing was so overloaded with PowerPoint pizzazz that the information was virtually incomprehensible.
The nine learning seminars were a first for this event and received high marks from those who attended. They addressed publishing systems for traditional and new media, digital photography, trends in pre-press workflow, CTP in practice, press-mailroom and auxiliaries, industrialized production, info graphics for magazines and newspapers, design for newspapers and "Popular Newspapers: Concepts to Implementation."
Suppliers were well represented, with more than 45 companies demonstrating new or existing technologies. Heidelberg, MAN Roland, Epson, Apple, IBM, Atex, DTI, PPI, Xerox, Goss, Agfa-Gevaert and CCI Europe were just a few of the suppliers here.
Another first for this conference was the contest to recognize the best in design, graphics, digital photography and printing. At a festive and well-attended awards dinner and presentation, more than 700 entries, judged down to a precious few, received recognition and some pretty impressive goodies.
Guest speaker Steve Forbes, chairman and chief executive of Forbes Inc. of New York, was entertaining: "If I had been elected president, I wouldn't be here tonight." Informative: "This economic recovery will be more statistical than one you can feel."
And critical: "The IMF [International Monetary Fund] are more responsible for the cause rather than the cure of countries in financial distress. Members of the IMF should in fact, be paid in the currency of the country in which they have devalued that country's money."
Winners in the design, graphics and printing categories received a nicely crafted globe mounted on a wooden base -- handsome, but it paled in comparison to the awards presented to the winners in digital photography.
The sponsor, Nikon, gave each winner a professional camera body and telephoto lens, in a stainless carrying case. Each prize was conservatively valued at between US$5000 and US$7000.
The organizers of IFRA/Asia for 2003 are hoping the contest will attract more entries next year. Once the word is out on the prizes, they may want to think about renting a larger hotel.
-- Ed Kohorst; kohorst@colepapers.net
| 