Talita Facchini is a journalist who worked as a reporter and assistant editor at PublishNews—the leading information portal on the Brazilian publishing market—for nine years.

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In recent years, she has closely followed the main developments and research in the Brazilian publishing sector, responsible for news, podcasts, Sabatina PublishNews, and other multi-format projects. She has also covered the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the Sharjah and Beijing International Book Fairs, as well as national literary events such as the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro Book Fairs and the Paraty International Literary Festival (FLIP).

With her expertise in the publishing market, she has also been invited to moderate several discussions on industry-related topics, such as standardized metadata, the use of social media by publishers, the audiobook market in Brazil and its diverse perspectives, among many others.

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Read Talita's interview on publishing innovation, "It’s important to remember that innovation is a broad concept", over at All about Digital Publishing!

Christian holds an MA in computational linguistics and has worked in the publishing industry for 20 years, leading digitalization projects and technology teams. He has led digitalisation efforts for STM, humanities, education, trade, legal, and specialist publishers, research institutions, and newspapers. In 2022, Christian joined PLOS (Public Library of Science) to lead the Technology and Engineering teams in adopting agile ways of working and developing the next generation of Open Science infrastructure. He is based in Berlin, Germany.

Marie-Laurence de Rocher is the Head of Communication & Events at the European Digital Reading Lab (EDRLab), a non-profit development laboratory founded in 2015 and based in Paris.

In this role, she manages the Digital Publishing Summit, a professional nomad conference that annually gathers over 120 professionals from around the world to share insights and explore the future of digital publishing and reading.

Her work extends to working on strategic European projects, including the recently launched Thinkpub, an initiative designed to help the European publishing sector adapt to digital disruption, fostering sustainability and job creation. Previously, she managed the Europe Comics project, a pan-European digital venture involving 13 publishers from eight countries to create a collective digital English-language catalog of comics and graphic novels.

Beyond her role at EDRLab, Marie-Laurence is a director of two master's degrees in publishing in Paris and is an active educator in the field. Her diverse background also includes serving as a book attaché for the French Embassy in Canada.

Emma House is an international publishing consultant specialising in event curation and management, research and reports, international business development and mentorship.​ Emma’s career spans 26 years including 6 years in magazine publishing and 20 years in the book and journal publishing sector. She was Head of International Development at the London Book Fair and Deputy CEO at the Publishers Association until 2019 before setting up her own publishing consultancy. She is a board member of the PublisHer network founded by Bodour Al Qasimi, a trustee of the Publishing Training Centre, a board member of the advisory group for Oxford Brookes University Centre for Publishing Studies and a consultant to the publishing technology company ‘Simbi’, and to UK based not-for-profit ‘Civic’ on the Future Libraries Initiative.

Virginie Clayssen is a consultant for digital strategy in publishing. Former Director of Heritage and Digitization for the Editis group, the second-largest publishing group in France, and President of EDRLab (European Digital Reading Lab), she has chaired the digital working group of the Syndicat National de l'Édition (French publishers association) for 15 years. Her expertise in digital publishing and the challenges of AI has led her to speak at numerous international conferences, including in Frankfurt, Seoul, Taipei, Tallinn, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Tangier, and Madrid. She was the recipient of the Digital Publishing Award in the 'Digital Leader(ship)' category in 2025.

Nathan Hull is CSO at Beat Technology powering audiobook and ebook services for the publishing industry. Beat is the pulse within market leaders Skoobe (DE), Fabel (NO), Fluister (NL), Audiotribe (RO), Volume (PL), Adlibris (SE & FI), Volume (PL), Pegasas (LT), Rahma Raavat (EE) and Jukebooks (GR). Prior to Beat, Nathan launched the curated Dutch service Bookchoice in 9 markets and was Chief Business Development Officer at Denmark’s Mofibo launching in two further markets prior to its purchase by Storytel. Notably Nathan was also Penguin Random House’s Digital Product Director, with strategic responsibility for its award-winning digital portfolio and innovation strategy working closely with the likes of Stephen Fry, Jamie Oliver, Jeff Kinney, and Roald Dahl’s estate. As well as having spoken and moderated at major publishing and technology events in over 25 countries, Nathan has also mentored start-ups in 12 countries and consulted for the likes of New York Public Library and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development.

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Read Nathan's interview on publishing innovation, "The biggest lack of innovation? Books into the hands of every child globally", over at All about Digital Publishing!

Jörg founded the Canon Future Book Forum in 2014 with the vision of driving innovation and change in the publishing industry by bringing together book printers and players in the book publishing industry from around the world. As a thought leader, enthusiastic networker and advocate of cutting-edge digital technologies, he and his team have developed the Future Book Forum into the industry's leading networking and innovation event. With 30 years of experience in sales and marketing, a passion for printed books and deep insight into international markets, Jörg supports publishers and book printers alike in developing ideas, sharing best practices and shaping the future of the publishing industry.