What is FutureBook conference?

Designed specifically for senior leaders across all areas of the book trade, FutureBook is a short, high-energy and big-picture conference followed by the FutureBook awards ceremony, which celebrates publishing’s innovators and entrepreneurs.

What is FutureBook 2025’s theme?

As the book industry faces massive change, driven by technology, shifting publishing models, and cultural upheaval. FutureBook 2025 will bring leaders together to tackle these challenges, explore strategies, and ask what’s next. Focused on innovation, the conference features high-energy keynotes on Tech, Culture, Sustainability, Leadership, Storytelling, and Audience where industry leaders will discuss solutions, offering insight for the year ahead.

FutureBook 2025: Take the lead on tomorrow.

World-leading experts deliver impactful keynotes across three crucial themes: Leadership, Strategy and Vision. After each keynote, two pairs of industry leaders will engage in discussion about what they’ve heard, where they are in their organisation and how they think the trade needs to change. Nuanced, informed and brutally honest, these conversations will help steer ideas and actions for the year ahead, combining to create a day of challenge and inspiration that cannot be missed.

Alongside the keynote stream, there will be three deep dive sessions into Future Work, Future Campaigns and Future Global. Led by experienced practitioners in each field, they will drill into case studies, key insights and trends that are set to influence the trade over the next year, and offer detailed discussions on how book professionals can lead — rather than follow — the change that’s coming.

What are the FutureBook awards?

In a time of unprecedented challenge and change, the book industry needs fresh perspectives, radical ideas and decisive moves more than ever before.  We urgently need to identify and support the most exciting aspiring leaders who are striving to shift the status quo — and that’s why the FutureBook Awards are getting a major glow-up.

For 2025, we’re going big and bold, creating a dedicated ceremony after the FutureBook conference which will offer our nominees a rare chance to properly celebrate, collaborate and network. An extended set of categories covering Leader of the Year, Future Leader of the Year, Start-up of the Year, Freelancer of the Year, Rising Editor of the Year, Rising Bookseller of the Year, Rising Agent of the Year, Rising Designer of the Year and the FutureBook Initiative of the Year Award will offer a comprehensive preview of the horizon we’re heading towards, led by publishing’s top talent.  

This is our moment to celebrate the pioneers and the game-changers, the outsiders and the allies, the wave-makers and the dissenters and the champions of wild but potentially brilliant ideas. There’ll be cocktails. There’ll be cheering. There’ll probably be some controversy. And who knows, there might just be conversations that change the course of the book industry for years to come.

Aspiring leaders, assemble. This one’s for you.

One day. One audience. One mission: to unfollow follower mentality and take the lead on the future of books.