Spark Speak - The Future of Print

Is print dead, or just evolving? Come hear how three veterans of the paper and publishing fields are innovating in the 21st century media environment.

Megan McFarland is a partner and managing editor in the New York–based book packager Sideshow Media, and a specialist in the field of illustrated book publishing. She is a former editor at Rizzoli International Publications and a former senior editor and managing editor at Phaidon Press, where she edited architecture and design titles like The American Art Book, monographs on the architects Eileen Gray and Eero Saarinen and graphic designer Alexey Brodovitch, and two volumes of the Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné.

Originally a textile designer from NYC, Lee Moody is a Business Development Manager for Mohawk Fine Papers in New England and Montreal. Mohawk is leveraging connections in the digital, design and photo space to develop a variety of new tech offerings including Pinhole Pro, a software solution for professional photographers and labs, Pinhole Press is a new consumer-facing photo brand, and Felt & Wire Shop, an online marketplace for social stationery, posters and prints. Lee is on the executive board for AIGA, CADC and on the Board of Directors for the University of Hartford Art School. In June, she was inducted into Connecticut Art Directors Club’s Hall of Fame!

Colin Robinson is co-publisher of OR Books, an alternative publishing company whose "approach jettisons the inefficiencies of conventional publishing to better serve readers, writers and the environment," through on-demand printing and platform-agnostic ebooks. Previously he was a senior editor at Scribner, publisher at The New Press, and managing director of Verso. Among the authors he has published are Noam Chomsky, Matt Taibbi and Jann Wenner. Colin has also written for a range of publications including The New York Times, The Nation, The Sunday Times (London) and The Guardian and has appeared on a wide range of broadcast media including NPR (“On the Media”), CNN, MSNBC, CBC and CSPN.

Moderated by Kismet Principal Carrie Hamilton, whose obsession with ink and paper is far from over.