Making dollars and sense of the Web

From...

By Frank Thorsberg

(IDG) -- The Seybold San Francisco 2001 publishing conference clicks into gear this week with events keyed around the dollars-and-cents details of turning content into cash.

"As companies continue to struggle with finding the right mix of Web, print, video, and other media technologies, it's more important than ever for folks to get together and share their experiences and learn from each other," says Gene Gable, president of Seybold Seminars and Publications.

Protecting digital goods

One of the hottest subjects on the agenda will be a special session on how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act impacts the publishing business.

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Conference organizers announced last Monday they would proceed with the West Coast show--which focuses on Web, print, and cross-media publishing--despite the unsettled national mind-set that followed the deadly terrorist bombings of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon on September 11.

"We know this is going to be difficult. We know some of you may disagree with our decision to move forward. But we feel strongly that a quick return to business is, in fact, the only response we can make. And it's the right response," Gable says in a statement posted on the conference Web page.

Gable says the overall slide in the economy, especially felt in the technology sector, was the main reason that attendance this year would probably drop by 10 to 15 percent from the 35,000 reported last year.

Show goes on, OS X update

Gable adds that he received more than 400 supportive e-mail messages, and only a handful of objections from attendees who wanted the conference cancelled. About 300 companies signed up to exhibit at the show, including mainstays like Adobe Systems and Apple Computer. Two large New York-based companies, Kodak and Nikon USA, were among approximately a dozen exhibitors that pulled out following the terrorist attacks.

Apple's well-known chief executive officer, Steve Jobs, had planned to address the Seybold show via satellite from an Apple conference in Paris, but those plans were scrapped after the French event was cancelled. The company's worldwide marketing chief, Phil Schiller, remains the scheduled keynote speaker on Tuesday. Apple is expected to release an update to its OS X operating system this week.

Other scheduled speakers include Bruce Chizen, president and CEO of Adobe Systems; Martin Brauns, president and CEO of Interwoven; and Fred Ebrahimi, president and CEO of Quark. Microsoft, which next month unveils its new Windows XP operating system, is sending its vice president of technology development, Dick Brass, to give conference attendees an insider's view about what to expect from the software giant.