The Workshop 

The World Association of Newspapers will host a two-day Scenario Planning workshop on 29-30 January, 2008, to explore the sweeping changes in the Newspaper business, and to create detailed plans addressing each issue. Among the industry challenges to be explored, and corresponding roadmaps to be developed, include:

  • Advertising competition
  • Cover pricing models, including free
  • Monetising digital media
  • Circulation decline
  • Escalating fixed costs
  • Non-traditional content providers
  • Hostile investment landscape
  • Misinformation about the industry in the press
  • Growing pains in China, India and beyond
  • Securing and training qualified workers for a changing environment
Some trends in newspapers for scenario planning - click here



WAN's Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project would like to invite you and your colleagues to participate in the "Scenario Planning for the Newspaper Company" event. The ultimate takeaways for each participant of the workshop will be:

  • Actionable strategic planning scenarios to bring back, tailor and implement at your newspaper company
  • A detailed report on the event, to be published in April 2008, called "Scenario Planning for the Newspaper Company"

The workshop will be conducted by WAN executives along with Scenario Planning experts from Kairos Future, a futurist consultancy in Stockholm. Kairos Future principals Hans Bandhold, chairman of the board of Kairos Future, and Peter Siljerud, senior consultant for the company, will conduct the 2-day workshop. Each participant will receive Kairos Future's book, "Scenario Planning: The link between future and strategy," written by Bandhold, and Kairos managing director Mats Lindgren.

http://www.kairosfuture.com/en/company/employees/hans-bandhold
http://www.kairosfuture.com/en/company/employees/peter-siljerud

Workshop objective

The objective of the workshop is to provide basic knowledge and skills for being able to use scenarios as a tool at your newspaper companies on a daily basis.

Target Participants

Publishers, top executives, strategists, business development managers at media companies. Anyone who wants to try out scenario technique to see if it might be a useful tool in your company's/organization's work related to the future and strategy development.

Benefit

Participants will get a concrete instrument/tool that you can use to help make the future comprehensible for others at your newspapers. You also get tools that help you to manage the uncertainty factors in your situation in a structured way.

Registration

The participation fee is 2,500 Euros for the first participant, and 2,000 Euro for each additional participant from the same company. WAN members benefit from a reduced rate of 2,000 Euros for the first participant and 1,800 Euros for each additional participant. To register for the event, go here

All meals and lodging are included.

The event will take place at Marriot Paris Rive Gauche Hotel
17, boulevard Saint-Jacques
75014 Paris
Tel : +33 (0) 1 40 78 79 92
29-30 January, 2008

Please note that places for this event are limited and applications will be admitted according to geographic criteria in order to guarantee a diverse participation.


Course agenda


28 January
Arrival of participants for welcome dinner. 

Day 1
10.30-11.30    Introduction: Presentation of participants, background and scenario overview
11.30-13.00    Evaluation and prioritizing: Impact and predictibility of trends
13.00-14.00    Lunch
14.00-15.00    Presentation and voting for top trends
15.00-15.30    Interdependencies between trends and driving forces: The Trend Map
15.30-16.00    Coffee break
16.00-17.00    Analysis of the impact of alternative outcomes of the uncertainties
17.00-18.30    Creation and testing of potential scenarios
18.30-19.00    Final decision on what 4 scenarios to use

Day 2
9.00-9.15     Recap: Basic structure of the 4 scenarios
9.15-9.45    Detailed scenario building: Definition of key criterias
9.45-10.45    Analysis of differences between the scenarios
10.45-11.30    Presentation of the results
11.30-13.00    Creation of scenario scripts
13.00-14.00    Lunch
14.00-15.00    Scenario consequences: What impact will each scenario have?
15.00-15.30    Vernissage of scenarios and consequences
15.30-16.30    Final conclusions, comments and next steps


For more information, contact Martha L Stone, Director of the SFN Project, at mstone@wan.asso.fr