Industry analyst Milton Griepps site ICv2 is known for holding thought-provoking conferences each year before New York Comic Con and this year is no exception as the ICv2 Digital Comics Conference tackles the digital comics world, with virtually all the major players in attendance and ready to spill the beans. Note, the Beat is one of the sponsors of the event.
The conference starts Thursday at 1 pm; at 3 I’m moderating “The Medium and the Message–Digital and Creativity” with Alex De Campi, Dave Baxter, Mark Siegel, Rantz Hoseley, Mark Waid and Douglas Wolk. I can’t imagine six more chatty folks, so I’ll just ask a question and then stand out of the way.
Final PR below and attendees below:
With the addition of Dario Di Zanni, an executive from Disney Publishing Worldwide New Media who was instrumental in the creation of Disney Digicomics (based in Italy), the ICv2 Comics & Digital Conference at New York Comic Con has taken on a global flavor. Di Zanni joins Masaaki Shimizu of Bitway, which has a 70% share of the wholesale business in the amazing $650 million digital manga market in Japan, as panelists along with four American speakers on the “Digital Comics and Graphic Novels–Where We Are and Where We’re Going” panel at the Conference on Thursday afternoon at the Javits Center.
With an international perspective that includes Europe and Asia, the panelists at this Conference will provide a great idea of what’s working and the direction of the market for digital comics and graphic novels worldwide.
Panelists recently added include:
· Dario Di Zanni, senior manager, marketing and business development, new media at Disney Publishing Worldwide, who was instrumental in the creation of Disney Digicomics
· Alison Hendon, Youth Selection Team Leader, Brooklyn Public Library, where the YA circulation passed one million last year!
· Rantz Hoseley, Eisner and Harvey Award winner and CEO of LongBox Digital.
· Ron Richards, who heads up the iFanboy division of Graphic.ly.
· Mark Siegel, Editorial Director of First Second Books, MacMillan’s graphic novel imprint, which also publishes TBC, a free Web magazine that serializes graphic novel content.
· Douglas Wolk, author of Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, who writes regularly about comics and graphic novels for Techland.com, the New York Times Book Review, and Publishers Weekly.
These new panelists join Ted Adams, CEO of IDW Publishing ; Dave Baxter, Deputy Director of Robot Comics and Senior Agent at Killing the Grizzly; Eric Beaulieu , Vice President, Transcontinental Premedia; Alex de Campi, Writer, Director; David Gabriel, Senior Vice President of Marvel Comics; Milton Griepp, CEO, ICv2; Lindsey Levinsohn MLIS, Collection Development Specialist at OverDrive; Heidi MacDonald, The Beat; Michael Murphey, CEO of iVerse; Calvin Reid, Senior News Editor, Publisher’s Weekly; John Riley, owner of Grasshopper Comics; Masaaki Shimizu, General Manager of International Business Strategy Division at Bitway; David Steinberger, CEO of ComiXology; and Mark Waid, Chief Creative Officer, Boom! Studios.
Sessions at the ICv2 Comics & Digital Conference include:
The ICv2 2010 White Paper Preview
This year’s presentation will be a preview of the 2010 market overview planned for early next year, looking at first-half 2010 trends in sales of graphic novels and comics, along with info on digital trends.Digital Comics and Graphic Novels–Where We Are and Where We’re Going
Digital Publishers on the present and future of digital comics and graphic novels.The Medium and the Message–Digital and Creativity
How will the digital medium affect how comics are created?Print vs. Digital–War, Co-existence, or Collaboration
How the digital revolution will impact on print sales—from the publishing, retailer, and librarian perspectives.Transcontinental Printing Cocktail Party
At 5 p.m., event sponsor Transcontinental Printing will host a cocktail reception, a time when attendees, speakers, and panelists can meet, mingle, network, and talk about the events of the day.
Another one of those retailer meetings where the comic companies reassure retailers that they’re behind them 100% and promise that digital won’t hurt their business.
Meanwhile, companies know full well the direct market is headed the way of the record store. They just don’t want the retailers to start bailing out before digital is further along.