Future Book Forum 2025: New perspectives for publishing ecosystems
On November 12th and 13th, 2025 we were guests at the Future Book Forum 2025 in the Canon Customer Experience Center near Munich. Under the motto “Beyond Books: Reinventing publishing ecosystems”, Canon invited industry experts, future makers and trailblazers to discuss the future of an ecosystem that is currently changing faster than ever before.
Conversations, panels, workshops and round tables were about nothing less than the print revolution we are already in: the opportunities and risks of AI, the increasing importance of small and local production as well as new value chains are driving the industry forward and opening up new technical and creative possibilities for authors, publishers and print producers. It is precisely at this interface that we are helping to shape the paradigm shift.
How WirbelWild is rethinking hyper-personalization in print and digital
At our stand and in our round table topic “The future of value creation: Combining data sources with next-gen layout software”, we showed how we understand hyper-personalized content with value and implement it today — with precision, clarity and real relevance. With our software ManyPrint Solution we have created a system that implements products including all the necessary intermediate steps right through to the end. It connects public and private data and interfaces with intelligent layouts and transfers them seamlessly to the workflow systems of printing companies, which can finally fully exploit the potential of their machines. Products are created fully automatically that are tailored to their recipients and really reach them.
Our solution not only leads to optimal use of content, the almost unlimited product possibilities open up new markets for publishers and print producers: from personalized travel companions to cookbooks and training diaries to calendars. What began as an experiment for us in 2014 has long since become reality: We use digitalization for the most relevant print products ever. Our solution is used worldwide and knows hardly any limits in terms of product range.
Personalization in a connected system
In our product, all the steps intertwine seamlessly and remain adaptable at the same time — in the same way, we see ourselves as an impact factor in this industry, which is constantly changing and developing. From the very beginning, we have pursued the aim of not working in isolation, but as part of a functioning ecosystem. Because our products thrive on combining the strengths of a wide variety of partners from publishers, printers and distributors as well as authors and creative people. Gutenberg could not have even dreamed of today's possibilities in print, which also arise from the fruitful networking of the actors.
Many of these opportunities are already floating around the industry ecosystem. We have developed tools to capture them, structure them and translate them into usable, high-quality products. An approach that requires courage, skill and a willingness to experiment.Deborah Koengeter
In a world where personalization has long been part of everyday life, we see no reason why it shouldn't enrich our relationship with print products. The demand is great — and here to stay: Individualization is not a trend, but an opportunity to close the circle of customer data, publishing processes and print production back to the people, who in the end have a really relevant product in their hands — a perfect "ecosystem" in itself.
The media and publishing industry has enormous potential if we view it as a living, interconnected system. A forum that facilitates this exchange and provides valuable insights is an important tool in this regard. We would therefore like to express our sincere thanks to Canon for the invitation and to all our discussion partners for their open and courageous exchange of ideas.