BookCamp reveals inaugural lineup

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By Stuart Woods
May 27, 2009
1:36 PM

Filed under: Quillblog, BookCamp Toronto

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The lineup for the inaugural BookCamp Toronto gathering, which will take place on June 6 at the University of Toronto’s iSchool, has been announced. Speakers include a mix of industry insiders – such as BookNet Canada CEO Michael Tamblyn, Random House of Canada director of online sales and marketing Lisa Charters, and Q&Q‘s own Steven Beattie – as well as presenters with backgrounds in technology, Web games, and graphic design. The scheduled talks will cover everything from open-source publishing to Web marketing to the “evolving ecology of the book.”

While the lineup looks promising, the event does seem to be something of a victim of its own popularity. Initially billed as an informal “unconference,” in which there would be no official speakers and participants would set their own agendas, BookCamp has since ballooned to attract nearly 300 registered participants. As a result, only one out of five time-slots is being set aside for open discussion.

Hugh McGuire

While it’s true that the original idea of an intimate gathering of 100 or so people has evolved because of interest, more than half the sessions in the schedule were proposed by participants with no help from the organizing team. In fact, we scheduled *all* the sessions that people proposed, which is why there is so little open space.
Erin Balser

While the popularity of BookCamp has caused a few organizational issues, it’s really exciting to see that these are conversations the publishing community wants to be having and that so many people are open to an event like this.

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