The challenges for traditional print media businesses as they move to a multimedia platform will be a key focus of the 2015 Future Forum, the largest news publisher conference of its kind in the Asia Pacific region.
This year’s event, titled Influencing a Connected World, will be held at Sydney’s Hilton Hotel on September 10 and 11 and will bring together newspaper executives and delegates from around the world. More than 600 delegates attended last year’s event.
Opening day will feature a Print & Production masterclass that will examine 'latest trends and changes in the world of print and production, featuring presentations on the future of digital printing, reliability centred maintenance, newsprint and recycling, case studies and more.'
Printing Industries’ retiring CEO Bill Healey will speak about the future of printing apprenticeships and the PIAA’s Future Print initiative. Other speakers in the four-hour Print & Production session will include Marcus Hooke from News Corp, Brian Rock from The Newspaper Works, Tania Gordon from Australian Newspaper Publishers, Martin Okkes from Manroland, Sean Tait from Fairfax Media and others.
The two-day forum will feature keynote speakers Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and chief executive of WPP, and Raju Narisetti, senior vice president of strategy for News Corp. Joining them will be executives from The Huffington Post, Google, and NZME.
“The influence of our brands and journalism has never been greater, yet finding new commercial models to sustain our future beyond the core business of print newspapers remains a complex challenge, and one that we will explore at this year’s forum,” said Mark Hollands, chief executive, The Newspaper Works.
“Our world class speaker line-up will explore how mobile and video will set the commercial agenda for newspapers, the growth of programmatic trading, content marketing and native advertising, and how to continue to produce high quality products that play an influential role in the advertising and communications industry and society in general.”
The Advertising and Marketing Awards will be held after the end of the first day of the forum on September 10, and the Newspaper of the Year Awards will take place on September 11, after the conclusion of the forum.
The Future Forum is free for members of The Newspaper Works.
For more information on how to register, click here.
The full program is available here.
Event organisers have released a Future Forum 2015 video which features some highlights from last year's event: