Are Your Processes Lean Enough? This slogan will set the agenda when decision-makers and users in the international publishing industry convene in Hamburg on November 29 to discuss strategies and best practices.

vjoon GmbH, a leader in cross-media publishing software, has invited customers and experts from publishing houses and corporate publishers to Hamburg to attend its international users' conference on November 29, 2013. Prestigious speakers from Germany and abroad will be on hand to discuss current trends and issues in the publishing industry. The focus will be on how to optimize networked digital and print publishing processes in the face of rising cost pressure, while gaining more time for creative pursuits. This theme will figure prominently at the presentation of the new version of vjoon K4^_®, as will the cross-media publishing platform's extended feature set with its enhanced digital asset management (DAM) capabilities. vjoon CEO Andreas Schrader will provide an outlook on the company's strategic product planning and present several major projects that are already in the pipeline.

International speakers to present pioneering best practices
Andreas Baier of Porsche Consulting will kick off this year's vjoonity with his keynote address. He will talk about how the automotive sector's lean principles can be applied to publishing and how workflows can be optimized while improving quality. Transitioning seamlessly to the next topic, Malcolm Simms, CTO of Condé Nast International in London, will explain how one of the world's leading publishers is harmonizing its global IT and using vjoon K4 to unify the process by which print, tablet and mobile content are created across more than nine countries. He will be followed by another international guest, Meghan Milkowski, Vice President at Prometheus Global Media, publisher of the prestigious Hollywood Reporter and Billboard Magazine. She will discuss how digital and print editions can be prepared simultaneously using parallel workflows with vjoon K4. Representatives of the Germanophone countries will also be on hand with Gregor Haake from FOCUS Magazin Verlag and Ingo Bettendorf from Burda Digital Systems. They will be reporting on the efficiency gains achieved using vjoon K4 and the Adobe^® Digital Publishing Suite to publish a tablet version of FOCUS magazine. Phil Büchler of Infel Corporate Media AG and Ole Rauch from by the way communications AG will also speak at the conference.

Debut for the new release and insights into strategic product planning
Another highlight will be the presentation of the next version of vjoon K4. Its search and filtering capabilities have been enhanced, as has the way in which results are displayed. Take, for example, the full-text search, which may be combined with classic queries and filters. Results are displayed in a clearly arranged overview. This high-performance search engine delivers rapid results even when dealing with very large quantities of data. Commenting on the upcoming version, Andreas Schrader says, "The new features will extend our cross-media platform to incorporate added digital asset management capabilities. And with that, we are continuing to pursue our strategy of offering the ultimate in a user-friendly, integrated end-to-end solution." This strategy is also reflected in the company's medium- and long-term plans for product development. "Our product planning is usually based on several components. For one, we keep track of what the market in general demands of our global customers; for the other, we keep up a constant dialog with our system's users. This yields different requirements and goals for its capabilities and usability, whereby regional variances are considerable in some cases. We have already implemented much of this in the upcoming version of vjoon K4, but other functions and functional areas are also part of our strategic product planning," says Andreas Schrader. A set of workshops will round out vjoonity 2013 with experts answering questions about publishing practices, legal matters and technology.

The vjoonity, an industry event
Around 150 international customers and partners from the publishing industry convene every year at the vjoonity. This year the conference will take place at the Sofitel Hotel in downtown Hamburg. The event offers customers and users a chance to meet with industry peers, exchange ideas and learn more about innovative practices presented by select industry representatives. After the conference, participants will have the opportunity to spend the evening enjoying good food and interesting conversations in the relaxed setting of Hagenbeck Zoo's exotic Tropical Aquarium.