What a fantastic time we had in Europe – huge thanks to James and Cobus at FIPP for being so welcoming and giving us the opportunity.
We spoke to some fantastic people doing really exciting things, and will be following up today – so look out for news of new supporters coming soon, all of whom have promised to connect us with their international colleagues.
We also made connections with the Department for International Trade, MMA (the trade association for magazine publishers in the Netherlands), the Global Editors Network and several suppliers to the industry.
There was some brilliant ideas to come out of the visit to Amsterdam – Steven O’Hara of Kelsey Media suggested a licensing hub for magazines, so that publishers can come to the International Magazine Centre to see what magazines are available. Christoph Schmitz from Dagblader of Aller Media gave a fascinating talk on website personalisation to increase subscription rates, and Jacob Gjørtz from CCI Europe made us think differently, asking us to treat our content as capital.
Paris gave us similar inspiration. Diane Young from The Drum and Mads Holmen from Bibblio gave us some great advice to make our pitch for the International Magazine Centre more international, with ideas to treat the Centre as a movement with a base, rather than focusing on the building; work with Edinburgh Napier University to bring in guest lecturers on Skype, making the content available through the International Magazine Centre’s website; make the Centre a digital resource for international publishers with examples of innovation in the industry.
And last but not least, FIPP have generously offered us a speaking slot at the World Congress in Las Vegas in 2019 – we’ve just got to get there!!