I know it’s a bit late (for reasons too complicated/embarrassing to go into) to be posting this now, but, just for those of you who missed it, I went, on Monday, to the second FutureBook Conference in London, run by the FutureBook team at The Bookseller. Well-organised and informative, with (for me) stand-out speeches from Stephen Page of Faber and Jon Ingold of Inkle, I, and many others, live-tweeted throughout, and you can find our tweets (for now, at least) here, several of which have links to stats and blog posts.
I will have a shot at posting a blog posting my impressions of the day if I have time over the weekend.
Immediately after the conference, the FutureBook Innovation Awards were presented. I was on the jury, but, because Nosy Crow’s Cinderella was on the shortlist for best children’s app, this year, I had to recuse myself from that part of the judging, disappearing to another room and biting my nails… and we won our category!
Above you can see our very smart and glassy award.
Our Three Little Pigs app was highly commended at the first FutureBook Innovation Awards, for which there was just a single apps category (won by Faber and Faber and Touch Press for The Solar System).
For this second round of awards, there were three apps categories, one of which was best children’s apps. The judges said of Cinderella:
“Nosy Crow has created a visually attractive and highly interactive application for children which takes a classic, popular fairy tale and immerses the reader in the world of Cinderella.
“The illustrations are beautiful and the interactive features mean that there is plenty to keep even the youngest digital reader occupied for a long time.
Nosy Crow has managed yet again to marry education with entertainment with this fun, interactive application and deserve to win.”
The awards were reported by The Futurebook, but here’s the list:
Best Children’s App: Nosy Crow for Cinderella
Best Adult App: Faber and Faber and Touch Press for The Waste Land
Best Reference App: Dorling Kindersley for The Human Body
Best Start-up: Unbound
Best Technology Innovation: Bardowl
Best Digital Marketing Campaign: Harvill Secker for The Night Circus
Most Inspiring Digital Person: Rebecca Smart of whom the judges said, “Under Rebecca Smart’s leadership, the Osprey Group’s businesses have demonstrated success across the range of digital publishing – including apps, online services and ebooks – that many larger houses would envy. In giving this award to Rebecca, the judging panel also took into account her generosity in sharing her knowledge through conferences and industry events, and her open and informative use of social media. This willingness to inform and inspire others makes her a deserved winner.”
(Just as a very silly aside, Philip Ardagh was so intrigued by the FutureBook conference and the tweets emanating from it that he “ran” and tweeted (aided and abetted by others who should really have been working), his own non-existent publishing conference, Non-Conference, the following day. You can find the tweets (again, for now, at least) here.)
