Editor’s Note: Today’s post is by Erin Foley, Greg Fagan, and Jessie Slater. Erin is is Director, Rightsholder Relations at Copyright Clearance Center. Greg is Senior Director of Business Development at Aptara. Jessie is a research and data analyst at Science magazine. All three serve as SSP Annual Meeting Program Committee Chairs.

Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, we can all agree that this is a time of great uncertainty within scholarly communications. The policies and mandates coming out of the US administration are causing tremendous upheaval across stakeholders within our industry, and the challenge of keeping up with the fast-changing state of play seems like a full-time job. AI continues to present existential threats and opportunities as tools and technologies (and policies, litigation, etc.) are evolving daily, and issues and needs around research integrity, open research, data availability and integrity, and more still require attention. Critically, DEIA practices and initiatives which are so fundamental to driving progress and innovation in our industry and society more broadly are being systematically dismantled.

In times like these, we are fortunate to belong to a community which fosters respectful dialogue and collaboration; both will be increasingly important as we continue to tackle some of the threats facing scholarly communications and reinforce trust in research together in the face of broader societal pressures. With so much on our plates it can be hard to invest focused time on building, maintaining, and supporting our community, so we are especially looking forward to the 2025 Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) Annual Meeting in Baltimore as a time out from our day-to-day and an opportunity to connect on an educational, professional, and personal level. This year we asked ourselves: what are we most looking forward to at the Annual Meeting in May?

Erin Foley: The SSP Annual Meeting is always a unique opportunity in my annual calendar to hear from a truly diverse group of stakeholders across our industry on a very broad range of topics addressing both strategic and focused themes within scholarly communications, so I am very much looking forward to the educational aspects of the meeting this year. But perhaps even more than in years past, I am trying to put more energy into my interpersonal relationships; the May meeting is a chance to catch up with colleagues and friends and make new connections. I’m excited to meet some early career professionals and first-time attendees at this meeting — they have such a fresh perspective, and I’m looking forward to the mutual sharing of insights. I’m also very keen to attend the three plenaries this year — the AI debate could not be more timely, the moderated discussion is shaping up to be a really interesting theme-related conversation, and I’m anticipating some illuminating remarks from our keynote (I’ll definitely be first in line for the book signing as well!).

Greg Fagan: I’m looking forward to tapping into the collective wisdom of our community, and like Erin, to reconnect with friends and colleagues and to make new connections, especially with the younger members who are looking for guidance and camaraderie. This is my first year as an Annual Meeting Program Committee co-chair, so I want to see the months of planning and hard work of everyone on the AMPC come to fruition in a successful meeting. We’re also replacing the hybrid meeting of the past few years with an Annual Meeting Highlights webinar, which will take place on June 17th, and I’m excited to see how it’s received.

Jessie Slater: I definitely echo Greg and Erin’s eagerness to reconnect with our community again. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the abstracts we reviewed last year have blossomed into fully-formed sessions replete with critical information and healthy debates about our industry. I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to be a buddy for first-time attendees last year and I’m hoping to meet more newbies to the SSP party and welcome them into our big tent. I too will be cherishing those in-person interactions with my colleagues this May, especially all the post-session discussions that carry over into breaks and receptions that help spark ideas about the future of scholarly publishing.

We hope you’re looking forward to the 2025 Annual Meeting, and don’t forget to register today! Early Bird registration closes next Friday 18 April!