It’s always good (and green) in Goa: PublishingNext Conference

You have got to give it to Goa. This is my first trip to this slender slice of heaven-on-earth in the monsoons. With Goa, one expects a lot of green and blue all the year round. But it really is difficult to imagine how incredibly lush and green Goa is during the rains. I am here to attend the PublishingNext conference organised by Leonard Fernandes of Cinnamon Teal, the winner of British Council’s IYCE award for publishing last year.

The genial Leonard and his team were there to meet and greet every delegate and speaker at Dabolim airport as we arrived in dribs and drabs yesterday. As some of us made our way to our hotel in Goa’s capital city, Panjim, we watched in awe the various vibrant shades of green loom in and zoom past our speeding bus on either sides of the grey road. And the sea sparkled and shimmered not too far away.

My colleague Rwituja and I ambled around our hotel in the evening. There is an inexplicable mix of the old and the new in the capital, best reflected perhaps in its architecture – elegant old colonial buildings crumbling away, gradually being replaced by a style that can only be described as hideous modernism.

Am here to learn more about what the future holds for publishing in the brave old digital world. I am particularly keen to explore what avenues British Council might explore with our English Interface work that looks at (among other things) commissioning and disseminating action research on ELT from across the globe.

The conference aims to address the following:

• Where are Digital Books headed?
• The Impact of Alternate Publishing
• Book Marketing in the Age of Social Media
• Publishing Houses of the Future
• Copyright Issues and IP
• Managing the Translation Market

The programme for the day looks exciting. More anon.

PS: And it’s good to be in Goa in any season for one other reason. A bottle of Tuborg beer costs Rs 25, a bottle of water Rs 20. What do you suppose I am having to slake my thirst?

Posted by Debanjan Chakrabarti, Head English Interface, British Council India