Speed Networking: Fast Facts!

(back l-r) Neil De Young, Jaime de Pablos, Stephen Acunto, Jr, Karina Mikhli, Lavinel Savu, Laura De Silva, Angela Bole; (front l-r) Kastoory Kazi, blogger Rebecca Hytowitz, Mark Steffen, Liz Peterson

Ever wondered how to build a personal brand? (Hint: remove your home address from your résumé and add your LinkedIn URL instead.) How about best practices for social media? (Engage and interact with your audience instead of just pushing content!) These were just some of the topics and comments tossed around at the first-ever “Speed Networking” event hosted by the newly-constituted NYU Publishing Alumni Committee last week at NYU’s Torch Club. Committee co-chairs Laura De Silva and Jaime de Pablos and their devoted event committee members have been working on this for months—and their efforts showed. The committee invited seasoned and senior publishing alumni to serve as “speed facilitators” at each of five tables. Each facilitator was assigned a specific theme to discuss. Committee members were also assigned to each table to help with the discussion.

Abu Dhabi Diary, Part II

Peter Balis shows his iPad to Sulaiman Adebowale from Senegal

The delicate art of the swipe and the pinch was demonstrated again—and again—as 25 publishers from all over the Arab world (and beyond) fingered iPads and also got acquainted with the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader and the new Kobo eReader. Peter Balis, director of digital content sales for John Wiley and  Sons, had hauled his stash of digital toys half way around the world to demonstrate the latest technology to his 24 students assembled in the brand new, high-tech classroom on the campus of NYU Abu Dhabi.

It was day three of the four-day executive training sessions for Arab-region publishers co-sponsored by The Center for Publishing at NYU-SCPS and KITAB, the joint venture company formed by the Frankfurt International Book Fair and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Today’s subject was digital publishing: the what, the why and—for some in the room—the when.

Abu Dhabi Diary, Part I

Philip Patrick lecturing in Abu Dhabi

“It’s profoundly important to be willing to fail. What’s important is trying new things,” said Philip Patrick, a publisher at Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, as students from 14 nations listened raptly. Most were thousands of miles from home, seated at student desks at the brand new campus of New York University Abu Dhabi, participating in the inaugural executive publishing training sessions for publishers from the Arab world (and beyond).