Charlottesville, VA - INTERQUEST, a leading market and technology research and consulting firm serving the digital printing and publishing industry, today reported a highly successful 2009 Digital Book Printing Forum with more than 80 professionals from the book publishing industry attending the event.

According to Gilles Biscos, President of INTERQUEST, "We were thrilled with the quality level of the program and the obviously intense interest of the participants. Our sponsors, as well as many of the participants gave us very positive feedback, and we look forward to repeating and building upon this success in future events."

Attendee Karina Mikhli, Production Manager for Oxford University Press, found exactly what she was looking for and more at the Forum. "Since I am involved in the budgeting and scheduling, the manufacturing part is closely related to what I do and keeping costs down with POD and digital goes hand and hand. I actually found it fascinating. I brought back some of the information to my boss and the manufacturing manager."

Caroline Vanderlip, CEO of SharedBook Inc. kicked off the event with a keynote address that explored challenges facing book publishing and highlighted creative responses involving digital printing and other media. According to Vanderlip, "There will always be buyers for traditionally bound and published books, but just like having multiple options for watching a movie, we need to give the book buyer choices and meaningful alternatives. The issue is not whether print is dying or dead. The issue is that the consumer is more in control and we need to deliver what he wants and we need to do it now."

Following the keynote, executives from leading printing systems vendors presented their companies' strategies and solutions for the book market. Speakers included Kevin Joyce, VP of Worldwide Sales & Marketing, Digital Printing Solutions, Eastman Kodak Company; Aurelio Maruggi, VP & General Manager of the Imaging and Printing Group (IPG), Inkjet High-Speed Production Solutions, Hewlett-Packard; Guy Broadhurst, VP, New Technology & Client Development, Production Printing Systems, Océ North America; and Bill Brunone, VP of Ink Jet Targeted Systems, Screen U.S.A. Attendees were afterwards given an update of the digital book printing market based on recent research conducted by INTERQUEST.

Following lunch, an impressive panel of leading book printers presented their experiences, applications, and challenges in digital book manufacturing. Speakers included: Michael Marcian, President, Corporate Press; Bernard Kieffer, Technology and & Supply Chain Direct for CPI, Europe's largest book manufacturing group; John Edwards, CEO & President, Edwards Brothers Incorporated; Bill Clockel, VP of Technology, Integrated Book Technology (IBT); and Dick Snetsky, Director of Planning at Flagship Press Inc.

According to Mikhli, "I really enjoyed the forum. My boss asked me to specifically attend the Digital Printing Forum to hear what different printers and publishers are doing. It was really interesting to hear from the printers. We are almost at the place that we can do POD with color-and that was exciting."

Following an INTERQUEST presentation of research findings based on in-depth interviews with publishers, attendees heard from a publisher's panel, with speakers including: Lynn Terhune, POD & USR Administrator, John Wiley & Sons; David Hetherington, Professor, Pace University School of Book and Magazine Publishing; and Otto Barz, President, YBK Publishers.

Attendee Mimi Esguerra, Director of Manufacturing for Scholastic Inc. said, "I thought it was well put together. You had speakers with diverse backgrounds and they offered different aspects of the business. I thought it was quite impressive. I liked what I learned about unit cost versus total cost. We have to change the thinking on this."

The Digital Book Printing Forum was held Tuesday, March 24, 2009, during the annual Publishing Business Conference Expo organized by Book Business magazine at the New York Marriott Marquis in midtown Manhattan. The event was sponsored by leading players in the market, including Hewlett-Packard, InfoPrint Solutions, Kodak, Nipson, Océ, On Demand Machinery (ODM), Riso, Screen, and Transcontinental.