What's another session at SSP on how the industry needs to innovate, evolve the business model, and hire digital natives? It's another session telling us what we already know. Instead, this session will cover a range of topics and give you real, achievable strategies for how to truly make digital transformation happen. Topics will include: Changing culture: How to operate like a commercial business, Your measurement framework and getting stakeholder buy-in, Overcoming your fears of data and analytics, How to scale: when to onboard new tech/tools, when to partner with an external expert, and how to upskill your internal team — and yes, with limited resources, Taking inspiration from outside of this industry, particularly when it comes to product development and user experience

As trusted discipline-specific homes of high-quality content, scholarly associations and societies are well-positioned to support educational initiatives for professional development or academic use. Developing an eLearning product can create a new revenue source for associations facing stressed budgets due to changing meeting attendance and open access. Systems and workflows that support traditional publishing may not equip associations to launch a program. Obstacles including SSO, systems integration, selecting the right Learning Management System, curating learning content, ongoing maintenance, and designing a model to see a financial return can seem daunting. It is worth the effort, however, considering the value in member benefits, retention, and the increased impact of the content. In this panel, we will share how associations are innovating to overcome these obstacles and launch new programs to support eLearning. Associations and consultants working in this area will share lessons learned through specific projects in engineering, medicine, and business.

While current tech news is dominated by the advent of Chat GPT, and AI’s many implications (both known and unknown), there are other emergent trends the scholarly publishing industry would do well to note – believe it or not! This session will be a sampler of three topics, presented by three speakers with unique perspectives on each: 1) changing reader consumption habits, namely the shift from .pdf to full-text and its causes, implications, and opportunities; 2) evolving dynamics around access controls and credentials; and 3) why curated content and sophisticated search are more important than ever.