La Presse au Futur in Paris – recap

From November 23 to 24 “La Presse au Futur” took place in Paris for the 10th time. This event includes a comprehensive presentation and workshop program as well as a fair with around 70 exhibitors. As one of the largest and most important industry events in France, more than 1,000 publishing experts and executives are visiting this conference each year. For some years now vjoon and its French integration partner, Mediangle are also amongst the sponsors and exhibitors.

I talked to Thomas Koerner, Senior Business Development Manager at vjoon, about his impressions of the event:

What topics were discussed at La Presse au Futur?

The main topics were digitalization, monetization, and future technologies – of course, common topics that are currently discussed worldwide within the publishing industry. Insofar there were no new topics but it was obvious that the visitors were dealing with the questions just mentioned and they expected to be updated about these topics. This was also reflected by the well-attended workshop sessions – including the one “Create, manage, post and distribute your content” performed by our partner Mediangle. Also, we were very busy in our booth, had interesting discussions, and answered many questions.

What did the visitors want to know?

Most of them wanted to know how to automate the deployment of print and digital content on websites or apps – primarily affected by cost-cutting pressure and the massive number of different platforms. For many companies, the large digital publishing solutions, introduced with high marketing pressure years ago, don’t pay off today. That’s why customers are looking for alternatives that enable a cost-efficient and lean production of mobile content. For this purpose, customers are happy to be advised on-site by our regional partners.

And if you already think about automation and workflows, topics like efficient collaboration and approval management are not far away. We already knew about their importance and within the scope of our latest software release, we presented an appropriate solution for that.

Were there many discussions and questions about the cloud?

There are more companies that consider the cloud than commonly assumed. While many companies in the USA already shifted their IT into the cloud, the trend in Europe is rather restrained. However, the interest is growing and covers the whole spectrum of possibilities. Whether it is an entire system including third-party solutions running in the cloud or only a part of it, for example, the data management, it is obvious that the demand is growing.

What’s your conclusion about La Presse au Futur?

Great conversations and many prospects. The positive reactions indicate that we had the right answers to their questions. From our perspective, it was an excellent event and we are happy to return.

La Presse au Futur will take place again next year from November 29-30 in Paris.