Painting the town red

The 'Windy City' of Chicago will provide the backdrop to the 40th annual meeting of the Society of Scholarly Publishing (SSP) in May.

As the SSP celebrates its 40th anniversary, the theme for the conference highlights the many crossroads within scholarly publishing, including past and future practices, changing revenue models, funding challenges, regulation changes, technological innovations, and reaching new markets while maintaining established ones. 

These crossroads introduce challenges as well as opportunities for scholarly publishing and for the communities it serves and push the scholarly publishing community to keep up with the changing needs of researchers and academics who both generate and use the content. 

The conference will question whether the industry could we have predicted 40 years ago where scholarly publishing would be today, and how it can anticipate the needs for the future.

Keynote speakers will include Safiya Umoja Noble, assistant Professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication, and Steve Mirsky, editor and columnist at Scientific American.

Other highlights will include:

• SSP 40th Anniversary Celebration-Paint the Town Red: the SSP Annual Meeting is always the highlight of the organisation's conference calendar, and 2018 is poised to be the biggest meeting yet. The SSP plans to celebrate this milestone in grand fashion with a gala event for all attendees, Wednesday evening at the Navy Pier Lakeview Terrace, complete with music, food and fireworks. Delegates are encouraged to wear their best red outfits!;
• Pre-meeting seminars: four half-day seminars on May 30 offer in-depth discussions and practical advice to prep delegates for the concurrent sessions;
• Networking: attendees will enjoy ample opportunities for meeting colleagues and sharing ideas at evening receptions, interactive lunches and other events;
• Exhibitors marketplace: Our popular exhibit hall provides a central area to learn about new products, programs, services and solutions; and
• Bonus content: registration includes free sponsored sessions on Wednesday afternoon. Plan to arrive early to take advantage of this additional content provided by industry knowledge experts.

The conference will be held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago, a first-class hotel in the heart of the city, from 30 May to 1 June.