This year Frances Pinter of Bloomsbury Academic is one of the keynote speakers at the Tools of Change for Publishing conference. Just reading the first line of the blurb “Living through a time of transition is exciting, stimulating, stretching and expensive!” causes excitement. This publisher embraces future trends “experimenting with open content licensing for scholarly monographs” while maintaining a comfortable position in tradition. This promises to be a great talk.

Another keynote speaker is Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Huffington Post. Just recently I talked about the influence The Huffington Post has on the future of publishing (I wonder at O’Reilly’s skill in knowing exactly what I’m looking for). “Publishers just need to find new and innovative ways to reach these digitally-focused eyeballs.” As the publishing industry free-falls, Ms. Huffington steps up with possibilities in the brave new world.

I look forward to hearing Angela Bole, Associate Director, Book Industry Study Group, Inc. speak about the eBook consumer. Allison Belan Assistant Production Manager for Journals, Duke University Press and Maureen McMahon President & Publisher, Kaplan Publishing are joining together to explore “Change”, how to drive it and achieve real lasting change.

Lisa Shannon, Associate Publisher at Wiley speaks about the transition from ebooks into training. Christine Perey of PEREY Research & Consulting brings her “18 years experience working in emerging multimedia communications markets” to speak about “augmented Reality … mixing digital information and the real world in a highly interactive manner “. They are joined by Angelina Ward, Senior Acquisitions Editor at Syngress. Ms Ward is presenting a case study about a year growing her publishing business.

I’m always excited by Adobe, and I’m sure I won’t be disappointed by Julie Baher, Experience Design Manager at Adobe as she discusses the future of digital reading. Diana Childress, Senior Director, Content Partnerships at Blackboard Inc. and Carrie O’Donnell,President at O’Donnell & Associates, LLC talk about the digital reality and whether or not digital content eases research or not.

This sample of influential women is only from one day of the three day conference. And, just as last year, I am unable to attend in person. Thanks to O’Reilly I can view all the sessions online; I “attend” a little later than everyone else.

This promises to be a great conference. Hope you can make it.

To read this book as a producer, director, editor, cinematographer for video promotions is obvious. Yes, read the book. Find out how to tell the story, the logline, in a small time frame. Is this for people who creating learning modules? I argue that anyone who creates a “story”, whether it is how to use a product or pure entertainment, anyone who is in front of an audience can benefit from this book. This book is about how to tell a story.

Someone who creates eLearning modules must be aware of the elements that go into a good production: creating the logline, the purpose of the module, writing, design, directing, cinematography, editing, optical and visual effects, music, and special sounds. When you create a module, you are telling a story. You are engaging the viewer in your world, giving over to him or her the essential information. You are telling a story.

We don’t compete with books anymore. Online learning, electronic learning are not competing against tutorials in a book. Nor are these modules competing against a classroom setting where the speaker can physically dominate the talk; where the speaker can cause change and excitement through bodily movement. Online and eLearning are competing against movies, web series, and television shows. The viewer expects to learn, but has been so conditioned to passively watching that any module must be, at some level, a form of entertainment.

How many people out there have sat through an online tutorial only to wake up and find that they missed a half-hour of the module because they fell asleep? I have. And I’m fairly focused. eLearning, online learning must capture the audience the way movies capture the audience. There must be those moments where the viewer almost “leans” forward in suspense.

Now lest you think I’m cracked, I actually have experience with some very good trainers. The people at Lynda.com such as Tim Plumer and Sven-Erik Seaholm, or the guys at Layers Magazine like Corey Barker, Rafeal Concepcion, or Kelby Training really understand how to tell over their stories. And one of my favorite instructors is RJ Jacquez with his Adobe Connect learning modules for the Adobe Technical Suite 2 and the Adobe Learning Suite.

There’s some great training out there. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of poor training. If you are in the business of story telling, which is what publishers are, you need to read The Lean Forward Moment.