Honorary president: Judith Butcher Honorary vice-president: David Crystal OBE

SfEP AGM and 19th annual conference
Twenty-twenty vision: Looking forward, looking back

St Catherine's College, Oxford
Sunday 7 to Tuesday 9 September 2008

The 19th SfEP Annual Conference at St Catherine's College will celebrate the Society's 20th year of existence. Much has changed in the world of publishing and non-publishing in these two decades. This year's conference programme aims to address the learning and training needs of the wide-ranging SfEP membership.

Speakers at Oxford will include:

• Charlotte Brewer, fellow of Hertford College and lecturer in English, Oxford University, and author of Treasure-House of the Language: The living OED (Yale University Press, 2007).
• David Crystal, our charismatic honorary vice-president. If you missed his excellent lecture at the Birmingham conference, you'll now have a chance to hear him talking about English on the internet.
• Susanne McDadd, former non-fiction director at Faber and founder of Publishing Services, an 'umbrella' for commercial self-publishing authors and small and medium-sized publishers, providing sales, marketing and distribution outside the traditional publishing framework. Susanne also acts as a contact between her clients and 'third-party suppliers' such as copy-editors and proofreaders. These looser publishing relationships are becoming common and will increasingly provide work opportunities for SfEP members.

As usual there will be 12 workshops with something for everyone. If you want to expand your skills, this conference will offer you the opportunity to sample several possibilities. Several workshops focus on non-publishing areas, while others will show what else is possible in traditional publishing:

• Editing for business – what makes it different?
• Effective copywriting – getting your message across in print and online media
• Macro magic – don't waste time on repetitive tasks
• Wild card search and replace – an editor's delight
• Computer housekeeping – customise your software and protect your PC
• Introduction to HTML – becoming a basic skill?
• Pricing strategies – don't miss out on just rewards
• Networking skills – how to mix business with breakfast
• Development editing – guiding authors to create the structure and content for the end-product
• Opportunities for indexers in the non-publishing world
• Collective wisdom – what are the best reference sources?
• Editing with T_EX – learn about this versatile software.

Computer-based workshops: see note on right.

Conference programme.