One of the biggest challenges for any publisher or society is how to keep up with the changing industry. Managing a publishing or membership operation is challenging enough by itself, and inevitably, current awareness and identifying best practice have to be slotted in around other, more pressing, engagements.
This is why the Molecular Connections Publishing Thought Leadership meetings are so valuable. Each year, in September, Molecular Connections provides a forum for presentation and discussion for a select group of senior figures in the industry. There are presentations from leaders (this year by Martha Sedgwick, (Vice President Product Innovation at Sage Publishing), Steven Heffner (MD, Publications, IEEE), and Jay Neill, VP, Publishing Products at Wiley) Jayne Marks, (VP Global Publishing, Health Learning at Wolters Kluwer),; but just as importantly, the meetings provide the opportunity to talk with peers, and to share common concerns.
Martha Sedgwick
Vice President Product Innovation
Sage Publishing
Steven Heffner
MD, Publications,at
IEEE
Jay Neill
VP, Publishing Products at
Wiley
Moderator
Jayne Marks
VP Global Plushing, Health Learning
Wolters Kluwer Health
“When we set up the Thought Leadership meetings, we had no idea they would become such a popular fixture in the calendar. We discovered very rapidly that interaction between industry decision-makers was more valuable than simply pitching our own solutions. We deliberately keep the numbers down to enable the participants to get to know each other.”
CEO of Molecular Connections:
Topics discussed at the meetings include the provision of an analytics dashboard for publishers to make management information provision more streamlined; providing personalized topic alert tools for societies; using AI for content classification and recommendation engines; and an automated journal finder. But, stressed Jignesh Bhate, the aim of these meetings is not to present solutions so much as to identify common problems. “We see the Thought Leadership meetings like a members’ club. The meetings are a dialogue, not a lecture. The floor is open to the participants; it is their meeting, and see simply see ourselves as facilitators, to identify if and how a potential solution might be identified to common problems. We aim to provide a solutions team for companies that don’t have the resources to develop their own tools – and that extends to some of the largest societies, such as the IEEE.”
"While services such as Scholarly Kitchen do an excellent job of raising topics of concern for academic publishing, they are not really designed for debate and discussion. The MC Thought Leadership meetings enable that debate and discussion to take place. There is no charge to attend the meetings, and between each annual event, participants are regularly contacted for ideas and insights. Membership is by invitation; please contact Krishna K if you would like to told about forthcoming events for the thought leadership team."
VP, Business Development & Marketing
