In September this year Hachette UK organised a one-day conference for our publishers, held at the IMAX theatre on the South Bank. This included contributions from our businesses; guest speakers from The Telegraph, Sony and Hachette Filipacchi; and keynote presentations from Joanna Shields and Ben Hammersley. As part of the programme, my team was responsible for making a short film. This was intended to put the digital development we're experiencing at the moment in the context of the history of the book – and to show that while the format changes, the things that we take from books remain constant.

(The story is told using thirty five references to books or series that we publish – some obvious, and some rather harder. See if you can identify them all!)

We were fortunate enough to work with a fantastic creative team led by David and Ed from Fancy, who worked around the clock to meet a challenging deadline, and to find a wonderful reader. Having spent the last few months using this film internally, I hope it might now provide some entertainment or interest to a wider audience.

"Measured by the concentration of technology firms and the availability of generous and informed investors, California’s Silicon Valley is still in a league of its own. But in the second division of hubs, this chunk of east London is near the top, along with the likes of Boston and Tel Aviv. That its growth took place so quickly, and during a recession, is remarkable enough: the high-tech zone in Cambridge has taken decades to evolve. But the fact that Silicon Roundabout also emerged without government support, or even direct links with universities, should pique the interest of countries that have tried to cultivate technology hubs without the same success."

"Twitter is to open a London sales office as the microblogging site eyes up the European ad market."

I've been thinking a lot about cultural change and digital skills lately, and as often seems to happen, links to interesting pieces on the subject started appearing via social media - first Russell Davies's quote, and now this article by Edward Boches on the experience of talking to students at Boulder Digital Works. He's writing from an advertising perspective, but what he says has relevance to every creative industry, including (especially?) publishing:

"But here's the rub. When they were done, we asked the group of 20 how many wanted to go into advertising or work in an agency when they finished their stint at BDW. Answer? Not many. Virtually every one of them wanted to start their own company so that they could build something and reap the rewards. Repeat. They want to build something and reap the financial rewards. This is what's coming. A new generation of talent, ambition and digital chops. They're the kind of people we all need in our agencies and marketing departments. We have two choices. We can offer them opportunity to build things – products, platforms, services – with us, or watch them take their newly learned skills and passion somewhere else. What is your company going to do?"

(cf. Matt Jones's reworking of a classic slogan)

"The only way to be a Post Digital business is to be a thoroughly, deeply, massively digital one. To be digital in culture not just in capabilities. To know how to iterate in public, to do experiments not research, to recognise that it's quicker and better to code something than it is to describe it in meetings. You need to be part of the wider digital culture, to have good sharing habits, to give credit where it's due..."

http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2010/11/post-digital-an-apology.html

Samsung Electronics, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker, forecast sales of more than 1m of its first tablet computer by the end of this year, as it revealed plans to launch the device in several sizes to fight Apple's dominance of the fast-growing segment.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d189f330-e843-11df-8995-00144feab49a.html