Bradley Metrock is CEO of Score Publishing, which produces a variety of print and digital content. Score owns the podcast network VoiceFirst.FM, and produces the VoiceFirst Events portfolio, which includes The Alexa Conference, the Voice of the Car Summit, and Digital Book World, as well as a growing list of voice-technology-related events. Metrock’s journey to voice began in 2008, when he started a video game and retail entertainment company. He sold the company in 2013, and, during some downtime, started investigating new areas. “I’d always been interested in publishing and started Score Publishing in 2014 as an interactive content creation and development company,” he said. He built up a client base that was on the vanguard of technology, and kept getting asked, “What’s up with voice? What’s up with Alexa? What do we need to be doing?” At the outset, he didn’t know, “but the more I got asked the question, the more intrigued I became.” He delved into voice technology and Score Publishing launched The Alexa Conference, whose inaugural event was a success. The conference was moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., (“which most people don’t realize,” Metrock said, “has the fastest Internet in the United States”) and it’s been growing ever since.

Metrock hosts the podcast This Week In Voice and has become one of the leading experts on the up-and-coming voice technology, which is insinuating itself into more and more industries—and is starting to make some inroads into printing and publishing. Metrock will be presenting a session called “Voice-First Printing: How Voice Assistants, Smart Speakers, and the Movement Toward Voice Is Impacting the Print Industry” this fall at PRINT 19 in Chicago.

I spoke with Metrock about the current state of voice—and how it fits into today’s, and tomorrow’s, print world.