Digital Publishing Summit 2025

Welcoming remarks

EDRLab’s 9th Digital Publishing Summit will be inaugurated by EDRLab President Arnaud Robert.

With a rich background in publishing, including his role as Group General Counsel and Institutional Relations Director at Hachette Livre, Arnaud Robert brings a unique perspective to the forefront of digital publishing. As chairman of SOFIA and the Legal Committee of the French Publishers Association, he has extensive knowledge of the legal and institutional frameworks governing our industry.

 

This opening speech will set the stage for two days of focused exploration into the latest advancements and challenges in Digital Publishing.

Building on Readium: Driving Innovation with Open Source

This session delves into the transformative power of open-source technology in digital publishing, spotlighting the Readium toolkit. Discover how organizations are leveraging the Readium open-source toolkit to build innovative apps and services that enhance the reading experience and expand market reach.

Hear firsthand accounts from:

Muhammed Salah (Samawy), Digital Product and Operations Manager, will present Samawy as a compelling case study of Readium implementation in the Middle East, showcasing how the platform is revolutionizing the Arabic book industry.

 

 

Leonard Richardson (Bookshop.org), will provide an overview of Bookshop.org’s strategic use of open technologies, including Readium and LCP, and share valuable insights on the challenges and opportunities in today’s digital bookselling landscape.

 

Erik Pattenden (Glassboxx/Firsty Board), Projects Director, will highlight Glassboxx’s success in delivering over 20 white-label apps built on Readium, demonstrating the efficiency and scalability of open-source solutions for publishers.

 

This session will provide actionable insights and real-world examples for anyone looking to harness the potential of open source to drive innovation in digital publishing.

Readium and Thorium Roadmap: the future of Open Reading

Get a glimpse into the future of Readium and Thorium! This session will detail the development roadmap for Thorium Web, Thorium Mobile/Voice Reader, with a focus on exciting new personalization features and enhancements.

Discover the future developments on the horizon from:

Daniel Weck, a software engineer working with EDRLab and the DAISY Consortium, who has been a lead developer in the Readium project for over a decade, with a strong focus on accessibility. Daniel will share his insights on the roadmap for Thorium, drawing from his extensive experience in developing open-source software for digital publishing and accessible media.

 

Jiminy Panoz, the lead developer of Readium CSS at EDRLab. Jiminy will provide expertise in front-end web development, project management, and open standards.

This session is a must-attend for anyone interested in the evolution of digital reading technologies and the future of open-source solutions in publishing.

Tea and coffee will be served. Many thanks to our sponsors for making this service possible:

• Eden Livres,
• Colibrio,
• La Sofia,
• CFC,
• Readium Foundation,
• De Marque,
• Failte Ireland
• and Circular Software / Fresh Page Training

Update on Standards: Charting the Course for Digital Publishing

Let’s discuss the latest advancements in digital reading and publishing standards, from TDRMRep to EPUB 3.4 and accessibility.

Join our expert panel as they provide valuable insights into navigating the evolving landscape of industry standards. The session will cover key developments, including the standardization of annotations, bookmarks, and citations in EPUB; efforts to better incorporate comics in EPUB, with a focus on scrolled comics (webtoons); and the crucial role of community groups in driving standards development and adoption.

 

Laurent Le Meur, Technical Director of EDRLab, will explore the standardization of annotations, bookmarks, and citations in EPUB. Laurent has been the Technical Director of EDRLab since its creation.

 

 

Hadrien Gardeur, co-founder of EDRLab with over 18 years of experience in digital publishing and lead architect on Readium projects, will delve into the efforts to better incorporate comics in EPUB, with a focus on scrolled comics, also known as webtoons.

 

 

Gautier Chomel, a 25-year experienced editorial and book production designer and EDRLab head of accessibility and quality management, will discuss the crucial role of community groups in driving standards development and adoption.

 

This session will provide a comprehensive overview of the key developments and future directions in digital publishing standards.

Precise Locationing in EPUB: Introducing the EPUBCFI Library

This session unveils a significant contribution to the open-source digital publishing community. Colibrio is collaborating with the open-source community by releasing its EPUBCFI library, a powerful new tool for manipulating precise pointers in EPUB content, which will be used to precisely locate annotations. Join Lars Wallin as he talks about this open-source release, a good move for the open-source movement.

This session is ideal for developers and publishers seeking to:

• Improve annotation accuracy and interoperability.
• Enhance navigation within EPUBs.

Learn how the EPUBCFI library can empower your projects and contribute to a more robust and user-friendly digital publishing ecosystem.

 

Lars Wallin is Founder and Product Manager at Colibrio Software, based in Gothenburg, SE. Lars brings experience from previous roles at Lars C Wallin, Colibrio Software AB, Sparkle Innovation AB and Share My World AB. His skills include Graphic Design, Business Strategy, and Interaction Design.

A buffet lunch will be served. Many thanks to our sponsors for making this service possible: Eden Livres, Colibrio, La Sofia, CFC, Readium Foundation, De Marque, Failte Ireland and Circular Software / Fresh Page Training.

Empowering Readers with AI

Experience the cutting edge of AI-powered reading systems. This session will feature rapid-fire demos showcasing innovative applications of artificial intelligence in digital publishing.

• Thorium (presented by Daniel Weck) will present Thorium’s dynamic image description.
• Colibrio (presented by Lars Wallin) will provide insights on using local LLMs and RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) for book queries.
• Chai Reader / Ailaysa (presented by Senthil Nathan) will demonstrate a Readium implementation with AI translations and “ask the book” features.
• VitalSource (presented by Paul Vaupel) will explore student engagement and intelligent feedback based on the doer effect.

 

Senthil Nathan is the founder/CEO of Ailaysa, a multilingual AI platform for content creation. Senthil has two decades of experience in language technology, and created Ailaysa to handle the issues associated with transitioning into AI.

 

 

Lars Wallin is Founder and Product Manager at Colibrio Software, based in Gothenburg, SE. Lars brings experience from previous roles at Lars C Wallin, Colibrio Software AB, Sparkle Innovation AB and Share My World AB. His skills include Graphic Design, Business Strategy, and Interaction Design.

 

Paul Vaupel is Senior Manager for International Publishers at VitalSource. Paul is sales leader with a track record in business development and strategic growth. His expertise includes executive relationship management, problem-solving, and large-scale project execution.

 

 

Daniel Weck is a software engineer who works with the DAISY Consortium. Daniel has developed open-source software in the fields of multimedia and electronic publishing, including validation utilities, authoring tools and reading systems.

Empowering Publishing with AI

Join a dynamic discussion on the transformative impact of AI in publishing. Panelists Nadim Sadek (Shimmr) and Adam Hyde (Coko Foundation), along with moderator Eric Bartoletti (Bookwire) will explore the opportunities and challenges presented by AI, offering diverse perspectives on this rapidly evolving field.

Moderator : 

Eric Bartoletti (Bookwire) is Head of Business Development at Bookwire, developing new business models and services for its publishing clients as well as supporting in M&A processes. He is currently focussing a lot on AI and its impact on the publishing industry, including copyright protection measures, automation & analytics and AI licensing.
www.bookwire.com

 

Panelists:

Nadim Sadek is Founder & CEO of Shimmr AI, with over 30 years of experience in business, advertising, and AI innovation. He is focused on using AI to enhance book discovery and marketing, particularly for titles that have not previously received digital marketing support.
www.nadimsadek.com

 

 

Adam Hyde is the founder of Coko (Collaborative Knowledge Foundation), a non-profit provider of open-source tools and services for the publishing community. He has extensive experience in transforming publishing and knowledge production through technology and workflow innovation.
www.robotscooking.com

Tea and coffee will be served. Many thanks to our sponsors for making this service possible:

• Eden Livres,
• Colibrio,
• La Sofia,
• CFC,
• Readium Foundation,
• De Marque,
• Failte Ireland
• and Circular Software / Fresh Page Training

Digital Reading Today: Exploring a Changing Landscape

This roundtable discussion, moderated by Edward Nawotka (Publishers Weekly), will delve into the evolving landscape of digital reading practices. Panelists will share their expertise on diverse aspects of digital reading: Paweł Kuczyński, Ph.D., will discuss reading habits in Poland. Michalis Kalamaras will explore the digital transformation of the book industry, drawing on his experience as the founder of the ebook and audiobook analysis website eAnagnostis.gr. Joëlle Ebongue will provide insights on digital comics reading in Africa, drawing on her experience as the founder of the Bilili BD festival.

Moderator:

 

Edward Nawotka is the Senior News and International Editor of Publishers Weekly. A widely published essayist and critic, his work has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and other publications. He has more than two decades of experience reporting on global business, culture, and media.

 

Panelists:

Michalis Kalamaras has more than 15 years of experience as a book professional. He is a publishing consultant, Head of Marketing and Content and partner at Thinking, an Athens-based consulting, design and technology agency working with publishers, bookstores, and cultural institutions in their digital transformation. He founded eAnagnostis.gr, a news and analysis website on ebooks and audiobooks.

 

 

Paweł Kuczyński, PhD, is a sociologist, researcher and lecturer at Civitas University in Warsaw. Scholar of the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris and Harvard Business School in Boston. His research projects relate to social movements, the process of radicalization and reading practices.

 

 

Joëlle Epée Mandengue is an author and comic book artist. She began her career in cultural roles and worked as a copywriter before dedicating herself to comic book creation in 2013. In 2016, she published her first comic book, La vie d’Ebène Duta. She is the founder of the Bilili BD festival.

Lightning Talks: Innovation in Action

This session offers a series of fast-paced presentations showcasing exciting new projects and initiatives from leading organizations in digital publishing:

Exploring the creative possibilities of digital books with ENTALE

With the many audiovisual possibilities that modern devices offer us, we could be doing much more to explore how digital reading experiences can be enriched. With ENTALE – funded by Creative Europe – Immer (The Netherlands), Booksa (Croatia) and The Book Company (Portugal) are doing just this, starting last May when 50 participants joined their hackathon in Zagreb. The goal: enrich reading with multimedia while not distracting from the text. During this lighting talk, Niels ’t Hooft, co-founder & CEO of Immer, will present the results of the hackathon, and share a roadmap of how they will be used to expand the Immer Reading System – and create new opportunities for the European digital book ecosystem.

New accessibility tools and methods for digital publishing

Digital publications can be made more accessible with new tools. Ken Jones, Founder and CEO of Circular Software, will talk about new accessibility tools and methods from Circular Software and Fresh Page Training for applying a controlled design system and implementing reading order and image descriptions at scale.

W3C Audiobook Packager 

Piotrek Bator (Bookery) will present a tool created to produce audiobooks in the W3C Audiobook format. The tool allows users to upload audio files, edit chapter titles, add cover art and metadata, and outputs a zip file containing the audio files, an audio manifest, and other uploaded files.

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Want to be featured? You can send us your proposal : contact@edrlab.org.

Cocktail Reception

Join us for a delightful cocktail reception at the beautiful Café en Seine restaurant and cocktail bar, just a short walk from the conference building.

EDRLab, with the generous support of our sponsors Eden Livres, Colibrio, La Sofia, CFC, Readium Foundation, De Marque, Failte Ireland and Circular Software / Fresh Page Training, invites you to unwind and connect after a rewarding first day of the summit.

Enjoy sharing platters (with vegan and vegetarian options) and a selection of beverages, including wine, beer, and non-alcoholic choices.

This is the perfect opportunity to:

• Discuss the day’s insights.
• Forge new connections.
• Network with industry peers.
• Catch up with old friends.
• Prepare future partnerships

We look forward to seeing you there for a memorable evening!

 

Production and Remediation of Accessible Ebooks

This panel will explore practical solutions for creating and remediating accessible ebooks, a crucial aspect of modern digital publishing. The discussion will feature Pedro Milliet presenting the Agora Editor SaaS platform, Jens Tröger showcasing Bookalope‘s AI-assisted tools that streamline the publishing production workflow, and Florent Dilien from Eden Livres sharing their approach to integrated accessibility.

The panelists will provide valuable insights into tools and workflows that make accessible ebook production more efficient and effective.

 

Pedro Milliet, Chief Innovation Officer of Fenix Editorial, will present the Agora Editor SaaS platform. Pedro brings extensive experience in digital book production, accessibility, and web applications.

 

 

Florent Dilien, Technical and Sales Agent at Eden Livres, will share Eden Livres’ approach to integrated accessibility.

 

 

 

Jens Tröger, founder of Bookalope, will showcase Bookalope. Bookalope’s tools are approved by Benetech as born-accessible publishing tools. Jens is a software architect with expertise in software systems, programming languages, and web backends.

Accessible backlist: issues and solutions for a large collection

This session, presented by Emilie Delaporte, will focus on the challenges and solutions involved in making large collections of backlist titles accessible. Émilie will discuss the Soliman project, an extensive collection remediation adventure, and how FeniXX, a company for the digital edition of unavailable books from the 20th century, is automatically creating key metadata.

This presentation will provide valuable insights into strategies for efficiently and effectively bringing large catalogs of older works to a wider audience through improved accessibility.

 

Émilie Delaporte is the general manager of FeniXX, a company digitizing and marketing 20th-century books unavailable in print. Since 2014, FeniXX, under the aegis of the French Ministry of Culture, has digitized and marketed over 96,000 books, including 30,000 accessible to the visually impaired.

Web Publications as Production Format

Vincent Gros and Ivan Ostrowicz from Hachette will present their ongoing work regarding the utilization of Web Publications as a pivot format for production. This session will detail the transformations involved, the identified advantages, and the specific work undertaken by Hachette in this area.

Attendees will gain insights into the practical implementation and implications of Web Publications within a large-scale publishing environment.

 

Ivan Ostrowicz is Digital Education Director at Hachette Livre, in charge of innovation, marketing and distribution of digital educational resources. He has over 20 years of experience in corporate management, IT, strategy and business development, and has a background as an entrepreneur in digital education.

 

 

Vincent Gros is ebooks and data project manager at Hachette Livre. His specialties include digital books (EPUB, XML / ONIX, accessibility), data (Python, Power BI, MongoDB, SQL), and other technologies such as web monitoring, API, and XSLT.

Tea and coffee will be served. Many thanks to our sponsors for making this service possible:

• Eden Livres,
• Colibrio,
• La Sofia,
• CFC,
• Readium Foundation,
• De Marque,
• Failte Ireland
• and Circular Software / Fresh Page Training

Future of Digital Reading

This session explores the future of digital reading from the reader’s perspective, combining different subjects on the future of ebooks, including ebook quality, readers’ expectations on audiobooks and specialised organisation from the Daisy consortium study on multimodal readers.

Jamie Bowman (London University Press) will discuss the need to enhance ebook quality, and share his interest in the Qualebook project. Lindsay Tyler from the CELA Library will address the specific needs and preferences of readers with disabilities, including the importance of customizable audiobooks. Kirsten de Haan (Dedicon) will share the principles of a universal reader, giving an overview of the requirements the group has obtained so far as DAISY is working on a DAISY Reading Apps User Requirements.

 

Jamie Bowman is Production Manager at University of London Press, overseeing the production process for books. He has a background in language textbooks and English language teaching.

 

 

Lindsay Tyler is a Senior Manager with the Centre for Equitable Library Access. A professional librarian with an MLIS from McGill University, she has expertise in accessible content and services, digital service development, community outreach, training, and readers advisory.

 

 

Kirsten de Haan works at Dedicon, an organization focused on providing information to people for whom reading is not self-evident. Her expertise lies in connecting language and technology to meet the needs of users with reading disabilities.

Closing Session & Farewell Lunch

We will conclude this portion of the Digital Publishing Summit 2025 with a final opportunity to connect over a farewell buffet lunch, served at 12:30. This will be a last chance to share your reflections on the past two days, exchange contact information, and solidify the connections you’ve made.

For all of this, we extend our sincere thanks to our amazing sponsors: Eden Livres, Colibrio, La Sofia, CFC, Readium Foundation, De Marque, Failte Ireland and Circular Software / Fresh Page Training, for their generous support of this event.

For those of you who are EDRLab members, we invite you to stay for our Annual General Meeting, which will be held in this room at 2:00 PM.

If you’re able to extend your time in Dublin, we encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities:

• Enhance your skills: Circular Software / Fresh Page Training is offering two days of in-depth training with Ken Jones on designing and building compelling, accessible print and ebooks, all in Dublin following the Digital Publishing Summit.
• Explore Dublin: Enjoy the city of Dublin, including a visit to the Book of Kells and Old Library, located on the Trinity College campus. You may also want to experience the Immersive Digital Exhibition.

At this point, we will be hoping you have enjoyed the DPUB Summit and found it valuable. Stay tuned for information about future EDRLab events and consider subscribing to our newsletter to keep up-to-date with the latest news and opportunities!

EDRLab Annual General Meeting

This is a member-only hybrid session; EDRLab members who cannot come to Dublin will be able to participate remotely.

Its duration is 1:30h maximum so that participants can take their flight or train on the same day.

Safe travels!