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2017 SSP 39th Annual Meeting

Concurrent 5C: Embracing “Failure”…

Product Strategy
Concurrent 5C: Embracing “Failure”: Innovating and Learning in Scholarly Publishing

Fail fast, fail often is a mantra oft-spoken in the startup and design worlds. In scholarly publishing, companies old and new realize that they must change in order to thrive. And the past decade has brought tremendous change to the industry: new business models, new access models, new marketing strategies, new communication and distribution channels, new products, new users, and of course many new companies. But embracing change brings along inherent risks. In this session, publishers and service providers share their stories of ventures that did not pan out, what they learned from those experiences, and how they approach the topic of failure.

Moderator: Gabriel Harp, Cell Press/Elsevier
Twitter Handle: harpg

Speakers

Katie Hope, MIT Press
As Director of Marketing & Author Relations at the MIT Press, Katie Hope oversees an immensely talented group working in publicity, marketing, user experience architecture, and web design.
The MIT Press is known for pushing the boundaries of technology, its intellectual daring, scholarly standards, and distinctive design. Supporting emerging fields, the Press has an unusually high global reach, and nurtures a culture of experimentation.
Prior to her arrival at the MIT Press, Katie was CEO of Rand Publishing’s “The Skinny On” startup series where she developed enormous respect for the entrepreneurial life. Before this Katie spent several years at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as Senior Editor, and also as Marketing Director of both the Trade division and the Higher Ed division. Katie is an avid sailor and enjoys spending time on the water with her husband and daughter in beautiful Marblehead, Massachusetts.
Twitter Handle: katierosehope
Andrew Fawcett, Sheridan
Andrew Fawcett is a UK-born Chief Technology Officer for Sheridan, a leading U.S.-based printing and publisher services company. He has twenty-five years of experience specializing in leveraging technology to drive organizational growth, performance, profitability, while expanding intellectual property assets. Andrew is interested in removing complexity from systems in an ongoing effort to accelerate development and rate of adoption in the industry.

Andrew is currently working to build new platforms to accelerate the roll-out of several enterprise products aimed at distributed print (central order management, distribution systems) and editorial-author collaboration markets through partnership with leading technology companies.

Andrew is a father of two, a husband of sixteen years, and an inveterate sailor since childhood. Andrew has recently added a Labrador to the family which has (apparently not surprisingly) begun to eat the house from the kitchen out.
Twitter Handle: AndrewFawcett

Helen Atkins, PLOS
Helen Atkins has been working in publishing (East and West coasts) for more years than she cares to remember. She joined PLOS in 2013 as Director of Publishing Services; prior to that, she was Editorial Director in the publishing division of the American Association for Cancer Research, worked at HighWire Press providing services for many publishers, spent 18 years at ISI/Thomson (now Clarivate Analytics) in a variety of management positions, and started her professional life in medical and university libraries. Helen holds a BA in psychology/zoology and a MS in Library and Information Science.
Twitter Handle: hba419