Olaf Deconinck has more than 25 years of experience in publishing. Until 2020, he was authorized representative and Head of Process Management Print & Procurement at MairDumont. Since 2021, Olaf Deconinck has been supporting publisher consultants GmbH in the consulting fields of CSR/sustainability, procurement, process management and leadership.

Talita Facchini is a journalist and has worked as a reporter at PublishNews – the main information portal about the publishing market in Brazil – for eight years.

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In her coverage, she has closely followed major movements and research in the Brazilian book business sector, responsible for news, podcasts, Sabatina PublishNews, and other multi-format projects. In recent years, she has also covered the Frankfurter Buchmesse and Sharjah International Book Fair as well as national literary events including the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro Book Fairs and the Festa Literária Internacional de Paraty (Flip).

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

As Head of Business Development at Bookwire, Eric Bartoletti is responsible for the development of new digital products, business models and services for book publishers. This has already included the audiobook production service WAY, the NFT platform Creatokia, the e-commerce offering Engage and, most recently, the audiobook platform Fabely. Additionally, Eric deals intensively with the impact of AI on the book industry, developing solutions for TDM opt-out, AI licensing and continuously enhancing the Bookwire OS platform with AI. Besides that, he supports management in M&A processes and improving the organizational setup of the company.

Mona Klinkhardt works in Business Development at Ernst Klett Verlag, where she deals with the topic of education for sustainable development (ESD). In her role as an ESD ambassador, she promotes the topic within the company and is active in various internal sustainability groups. In addition, she is responsible for managing marketing activities for several projects.

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Mona manages the Stuttgart chapter of "Junge Verlags- und Medienmenschen" (a German association for young professionals in the publishing industry) and is involved with the future@publishing project.

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.

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.

Anna Lemp is Senior Project Manager for Business Development & Innovation at Hachette Livre, the world’s third-largest publishing group. In this role, she identifies growth opportunities, supports digital transformation, and fosters a culture of innovation across Hachette’s global imprints.

She advises executives and teams on emerging trends shaping the future of publishing—most recently AI—through research and presentations. She also develops and manages projects in response to these trends, connecting startups and major tech players with the right internal teams to drive innovation. Prior to Hachette, she worked in media at The Atlantic and in video production. She holds a degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University’s well-regarded Writing Seminars program, as well as a degree in Entrepreneurship & Management.

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.

Marie-Laurence de Rocher is responsible for Communication & Partnerships at "The European Digital Reading Lab" (EDRLab), a non-profit development laboratory, created in 2015 and based in Paris.