Later this month in Providence, RI, the Society for Scholarly Publishing (patrons of the Scholarly Kitchen) will be hosting a new kind of conference: SSP IN. The “IN” moniker is designed to invoke three concepts: INteraction, INspiration, and INnovation. These three concepts describe both the conference’s mission and organization:

• INteraction. Unlike other conferences, attendees will be expected to participate in nearly every facet of the conference. With the exception of two keynote talks, IN is organized around small group discussions lead by industry leaders such as John Sack (HighWire), Thane Kerner (Silverchair), Chris Beckett (Atypon), Alex Frost (Alex Frost Consulting), and the Scholarly Kitchen’s own Howard Ratner (Nature Publishing Group) and Kent Anderson (New England Journal of Medicine). Conference participants will begin interacting in advance of the conference on the IN Wiki and will continue the conversation long after IN via both the Wiki and an SSP IN LinkedIn group (IN Squared).
• INspiration. Inspiration is baked into IN. It might come from IN‘s two keynote speakers (John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island School of Design, and John Wilbanks, VP of Creative Commons). It might come from interaction with colleagues in your group. It might come from the SSP IN field trip to art incubator AS220. It might come from a conversation in the hallway, the bar, or the restaurant with another participant—and to foster this kind of impromptu conversation, SSP has reserved the entire hotel for IN.
• INnovation: A cross between a seminar, a symposium, and an unconference, SSP IN breaks new ground. This innovative format is designed to provide the structure needed to for a sustained conversation over the course of 2 days, while at the same time permitting the conference participants the flexibility to take the conference in unexpected directions.

This year’s IN conference will focus on the topic of disruptive change in scholarly publishing. New technologies, new business models, cultural shifts, and the recent economic climate are combining to create both challenges and opportunities for those organizations engaged in the scholarly communication enterprise. IN is designed to help publishing professionals think through the implications of the trends shaping our industry and strategies for thriving in these uncertain times.

Sound interesting?

Join us at IN. Registration is currently open. In order to maintain an INtimate setting, spaces are limited and likely to sell out.

Register today to ensure you will be IN. We’ll see you there.