Information Overload and Education Publishing Marketing

By Lee Wilson, President & CEO, PCI Education

“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention…‚” Herbert Simon – Nobel Laureate in Economics

Are you drowning in information? You are not alone. Our customers are experiencing an information overload. Marketers are screaming ever louder – the average urban dweller is exposed to 4,000 ads a day – and the broadcast model is breaking down and giving way to a conversation model (what some call Web 2.0). But the information is not to blame – we are.

Day 3 from Abu Dhabi

Rounding the corner to the exhibit hall, I understood quickly that this day at the fair would be different altogether. In every direction were lines of school children in pristine uniforms accompanied by their parents and teachers eagerly awaiting the opening of the fair. Altogether, nearly 10,000 visitors would come through the hall today day, nearly half of them children.

Day 2 from Abu Dhabi

Today is the first day of the Abu Dhabi Book Fair and the day reserved for the trade. Hall traffic is rather light except for the crowd surrounding the entourage of advance men and bodyguards accompanying Shiekh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Deputy Prime Minister of Abu Dhabi. Following the Fair’s official opening, he toured the hall and spoke with visitors. We spoke about American English-language learning materials. Despite a somewhat severe appearance, His Highness was gracious, gentle, and soft-spoken. As it turned out, this encounter was not the only one today in which appearances would be deceiving.…but more on that later. Sheikh Sighting

My goal was to learn as much as I could as fast as I could. I visited fellow exhibitors in the hall and participated in the “speed dating” networking session. I talked with smart and experienced people about the potential for our members in this market. The resulting perspective is positive, but cautious.

Day 1 from Abu Dhabi

I arrived in Abu Dhabi a little after midnight and entered almost immediately into the whirlwind that has been the past 36 hours. I got a very broad look at the world today. It began (after 3 hours sleep) with a day-long international publishers conference on the challenges of publishing translations from other languages. From this seminar, I quickly learned some of the issues that shape the cultural politics of the Arab world.

The Abu Dhabi Adventure Begins

Today I leave for London on my way to the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair in the United Arab Emirates. The Fair is billed as the emerging publishing event in the middle east. My conversations with middle eastern publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair also suggested that interest in American english-language learning materials was growing. So I am off to uncover the truth about the middle eastern market and the opportunities it might hold for our members. I will be blogging from the Book Fair every day starting on Monday, March 10. Since I will be 9 hours ahead of U.S. eastern standard time, you can read the latest installment every morning. I’ll look forward to receiving your feedback…cg