Innovation Day hits sweet spot where publishing meets technology

"The Innovation Day concept is designed to provide a networking platform where publishers, established suppliers, upcoming tech companies and others can focus on a specific challenge in the publishing industry," said Ioana Sträter, Executive Director of Exhibitions & Tech Accelerators for WAN-IFRA.

"This was the first in a series of Innovation Days focusing on the hottest technologies, and we are really pleased that the event was sold out, with around 60 participants," she said. "We were happy to create this opportunity for the exchange of new ideas."

WAN-IFRA's Innovation Day, hosted by Telegraaf Media Group, provided a unique event format that mixed together presentations with "Enlightening talk" sessions where participants shared their experiences on the topic of advertising and technology. It was organised around two main themes: technologies to reach and engage the customer, and technologies to better organise the selling process. The programme can be found at http://tinyurl.com/bo3aol2 and comments on Twitter, hashtag #iday.

The presenters at the event included Tom Ewing, Digital Culture Officer of Brainjuicer Labs, Marcel Udo, Managing Partner of Strictly Digital, Jay Stevens, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Rubicon Project, Giovanni Giuffrida, CEO and co-founder of Geodata, and many others. The full list of speakers can be found at http://tinyurl.com/c8xgchu.

The Rubicon Project was the main sponsor of the event, which had strong support from both the supplier and publisher community. Other sponsors included Anais, enreach, Neodata Group, and Platform 161. Publishing partners included Telegraaf Media Group, the International Classified Media Association, and NDP Nieuwsmedia.

A schedule of future Innovation Days will be announced during the summer; for further information, please contact Ioana Sträter.