Even in age of virtual meetings, of global expansionandBRICs and MINTs and CIVETS, the Frankfurt Bookfair thrives - an essential occasion for the publishing industry to talk turkey (and eat schnitzel)1. Last year, the fledgling Kudos platform and team found new fans and friends at Frankfurt. This year, we took the plunge and our first stand2. It was unpretentious (by which I mean it was the smallest stand I've ever seen) but actually more than served our purposes: well located to pick up footfall, well positioned among similarly innovative services, well serviced with our very own electricity and ethernet cable (much envied by those struggling with the wifi on their big fancy stands), and well coordinated with the Kudos colour scheme!
The stand, and our wider presence, was a great success, with Kudos "tulip fever" sweeping Frankfurt! Melinda gave a very well attended talk at the "digital hotspot" theatre (top picture) which resulted in lots of questions and interest from a great cross-section of publishers and librarians. Melinda also gave a press conference (in the style of silent disco, with journalists in headphones and Melinda talking quietly into a wireless mic!) while David gave a similar flash talk to a delegation of Finnish publishers and librarians. Only at Frankfurt! Perhaps most excitingly, we signed some major new deals with both publisher partners and data suppliers. We'll be making a substantial announcement on this blog very soon so stay tuned for more.
Meanwhile, if you want to catch up with "tulip train" at future stops, be sure to look out for us at:
- Charleston Conference - Charleston, SC, November 5th-8th
David Sommer and Ann Lawson will be attending, and participating in a number of events including a Juried Product Development Forum (5pm on Wednesday, November 5th - your chance to help shape the development of Kudos - there may be fireworks, but hopefully not treason or plot) and a Charleston Premier flash session (8am on Saturday, November 8th) - UKSG One-Day Conference and Forum - London, November 20th-21st
Charlie Rapple will be giving a lightning talk at the conference, alongside Altmetrics and Plum Analytics; at the following day's forum, she'll be chairing a session on altmetrics (with speakers including James Wilsdon, who is chairing HEFCE's metrics review). We'll also have a stand at the forum so you can easily find us if you want to talk turkey (sorry, no schnitzel) - HighWire Fall Publishers' Meeting - Washington DC, October 29th-30th
On this occasion, it's not the Kudos team but one of our publisher partners - Peter Richardson from the British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery will be talking about that organisation's experiences of working with Kudos, including a snapshot or two of our new user interface, coming soon! - Looking ahead, we'll also be at FORCE2015 in Oxford in January - already lots of juicy abstracts and keynote suggestions have been submitted, so we're looking forward to how this event will shape up.
Hope to see you somewhere soon!
1And for some, to drink. Boozy publishing lunches may be rumoured extinct, but Frankfurt is the habitat in which the last few survive. The chaps seated next to me on my outbound flight were getting started on the red wine even though it was barely lunchtime. "Might as well start as I mean to go on," said one, sheepishly.
2Having just learned the word, this is my first conscious zeugma.
