The Revolution will be published: Rising to future challenges in the book trade, after four decades of change

Join us for a lively evening of insights and discussions on the future of the book industry.
Over the last forty years book publishing has undergone a number of revolutions, and now with AI faces urgent new reasons to evolve rapidly. Reflecting on this journey and challenge, Stephen Page will describe the forces that made the industry of today, and discuss what must change, and what must not, if it is to evolve successfully. Speaking as an eyewitness to events over four decades he will propose that publishing is intrinsically revolutionary, amplified by technology shifts, and must see itself as part of the collective endeavour to make knowledge and stories public to the benefit of society.
Speaker Biography:
Stephen Page, who is Chair of Faber & Faber, one of the world's leading independent publishers, returns to Ealing, where from the late 1980s he worked for Transworld Publishers, now a division of Penguin Random House. He became Chief Executive of Faber in 2001, having held senior positions across corporate and independent publishers--from the small independent Fourth Estate to the large conglomerate HarperCollins, where he was its sales director.
Stephen has been President of the Publishers Association and Chair of Creative Access, a social enterprise that supports careers in the creative industries for those from under-represented backgrounds. He is also a member of the Creative Industries Council, a body where The Government and Industry meet to write and deliver industrial strategy for the creative and cultural sector, where he chairs the Workforce Working Group.
Alongside chairing Faber, he now works as a coach and mentor with arts and creative leaders, and lectures at City, University of London. He has had a lifelong love of music and plays as an amateur drummer in a number of rock 'n' roll bands. In 2022 Stephen was awarded an OBE for services to publishing.