On September 14, 2023, the Book Manufacturing Institute (BMI) hosted the Book Manufacturing Mastered 2023 conference for book manufacturers at the Penguin Random House offices. The conference aimed to bring together publishers, manufacturers, printers, binders, and others involved in making the printed book and discuss how all aspects of the industry can work together for success.
On the agenda were speakers and panelists who discussed the current state of the industry and the printing environment. First up, Marco Boer, VP of IT Strategies gave a detailed presentation regarding the printing industry which was followed by a panel discussion about today’s printing scenario. On the panel were speakers Jorge Velasco (BPG), David Heatherington (Books International), Todd Roth (Thomson Reuters- Core Publishing Solutions), and Ken Miller (Pixelle); moderated by Michele Cobb (PubWest).
A break sponsored by Horizon was a terrific opportunity to break the ice for networking, followed by a second panel which continued the dialogue about the printing environment. It was moderated by Joe Upton (Gasch Printing) and the panelists included Linnea Knollmueller (Random House Publishing Group), Roger Naggar (Macmillan Education), Jennifer Blanc-Tal (Rutgers University Press), and Ilan Stavans (Restless Books). The second panel discussion led into a sumptuous lunch sponsored by Maple Press.
The post-lunch roundtable discussion hour continued the energetic discussion around paper and printing; and the wrap-up session by Jaime Marco (Evolve the Business) had exercises and strategies that encouraged participants to share their experience and learning from the day-long event. The keynote seamlessly merged into another networking session at the reception sponsored by Lindenmeyr Paper, which also included a tabletop exhibition by printers, binders, and manufacturers.
Students Kaitlyn Keel and Harshdeep Kaur from the MS in Publishing department, Pace University served as interns at the event. Also in attendance were Professors Jennifer Romanello and Eileen Kreit. They had a productive time at the conference and met Pace alum Brooke Sufrin, now a Project Coordinator for Proprietary Sales at PRH!
Students Harshdeep and Kaitlyn
Professor Romanello with alum Brooke
Professor Kreit with alum Brooke and student Anya