Penton Media Announces e-Book World Conference

Posted on June 9, 2000

Penton Media has announced the launch of a new conference focusing on the emerging electronic book marketplace. e-Book World, scheduled November 6-7, 2000, will focus on the technological aspects of e-book publishing, the issues and concerns facing traditional publishers, as well as the cultural change that this technology will bring. Michael Wolff, writer, commentator and Internet entrepreneur, will chair the event.

e-Book World is being launched by Penton Media, producers of Spring and Fall Internet World, ISPCON and a number of other Internet related events and magazines. Carl Pugh, president, Internet Events Division of Penton Media said, ``After drifting along for almost a decade, the electronic book market appears poised for meteoric growth. This raises some intriguing business, technological, legal, ergonomic and emotional issues that promise to make for a very lively conference.''

``The e-book is the most significant development in the book business since the advent of the paperback,'' commented Michael Wolff, e-Book World conference chairman. ``This timely event presents an opportunity for the book industry to begin to consider the economic, literary, distribution, and aesthetic impact of this new form of publishing,''

``The business model for traditional print publishing is beginning to change as a result of all that's happening in the 'e-book world,' said Jill Campbell, executive show producer. ''Advances in reading devices that make them easier on the eyes, the emergence of such innovations as electronic paper, and other technologies will have a major impact on the way we consume books and all forms of the written word for entertainment, information and educational purposes,`` she continued. ''e-Book World is the first event that will focus exclusively on the issues, questions, and concerns surrounding this business and cultural change. Virtually every aspect of e-books will be examined in our conference,`` she noted.

Michael Wolff writes a weekly column about the media --old and new-- for New York Magazine, where he has taken on such figures as Rupert Murdoch, Michael Eisner, Barry Diller, Michael Ovitz, Tina Brown, and Steve Brille. He is the author of the best-selling book Burn Rate, a tale of the birth of the Internet Industry and the rise and fall of Wolff New Media, the Web business he founded.