Efficient practices and highly automated workflows for digital publishing figured prominently at the first vjoon user conference in New York.

The views across the East River and the New York skyline provided an impressive backdrop for visitors to the first vjoonity americas. Although the attendees represented publications as diverse as Highlights for Children, Le Point, The New York Times, and The Hollywood Reporter, all share a common bond: They have deployed vjoon K4 with great success, and were on hand to discuss the software’s many uses and learn more about the latest strategies. More than 120 decision-makers and users took advantage of the conference’s welcoming atmosphere to engage in a spirited exchange, discuss the software’s latest developments, gain enlightening insights into the vjoon product strategy, and network with peers.

Real-world practices exemplified
Dr. Norman Firchau, CEO of the US branch of Porsche Consulting, took the lead on the topic of efficient publishing. In his lecture, he drew parallels between the agile manufacturing practices that took the Porsche Group to the top of the world market, and the Unified Publishing Process, which provides the conceptual underpinning for vjoon K4. Olivier Bost, Director of IT & Multimedia at the French news magazine Le Point, explained how to design and deliver apps for smart phones using extensively automated routines. George Brown, Manager Publishing Technologies at Highlights for Children, described how automated routines can also simplify the archiving process. Real-world practices were demonstrated in breakout sessions to show how The New York Times uses axaio MadeToPrint, Prometheus Global Media exports XML content to the web, and HTML articles for DPS are efficiently generated in vjoon K4.

Comments at the vjoonity
"We focused on automating our archiving process in vjoon K4. It is crucial for our global product strategy that we know where content has been used and what rights we have to it when searching our DAMs," said George Brown of Highlights for Children, commenting on his lecture.

Speaking about her breakout session, Meghan Milkowski, Vice President at Prometheus Global Media, said, "Ours is a lean operation, and we are always looking for ways to work more efficiently. With vjoon K4, we can automate what were once labor-intensive tasks such as exporting XML data to our web CMS."

Norman Firchau, President of Porsche Consulting, Inc., said, "The more media channels, the more complex the publishing. vjoon provides a way of managing this complexity, efficiently and sustainably."

"This conference goes to show that the vjoonity’s concept of focusing on real-world practices works and that it has been received with a great deal of enthusiasm on the part of customers and partners," says Andreas Schrader, CEO of vjoon. "The vjoonity in New York has affirmed our strategy of pursuing, by this and other means, more direct interactions with our customers in North and South America and taking up key suggestions in our product development."

New release and product strategy
The afternoon program was devoted to presenting vjoon’s plans. The eagerly anticipated unveiling of vjoon K4 Version 6.8 R1 was another highlight on the agenda. One of the major advances on display was vjoon K4 Overview’s revamped GUI with its many a host of new customized setting options. This latest version allows thumbnails to be scaled in the browser window to gain a better overview of the depicted layouts. K4 Overview and K4 Web Portal now also feature a workspace management tool. Settings made in a previous session are loaded and immediately applied when the next session starts. This enables users to tailor functions, searches and color assignments in the vjoon K4 client to suit their job needs and personal preferences. The newly added PDF export capability met with great interest. In just one step, the layout sequences for one section or the entire issue can be selected and exported in a single PDF for preview. vjoon is a longtime Adobe Solution Partner, so version 6.8 of the company’s software supports the new 2014 release of InDesign CC that Adobe had announced on June 18, 2014.

After exploring a wealth of interesting topics at the conference, guests repaired to the Riverpark restaurant, where the day was wrapped up in typical New York style with great food and drinks and lively discussions. The vjoon community will reconvene soon at the vjoonity europe in Hamburg on November 14, 2014.

vjoonity Website: www.vjoonity.com