One benefit of working in publishing is the occasional escape from Sydney for three days in country Victoria to become steeped in what is both the art and science of commercial printing.

Seven CCH’ers attended the “Communication in Print” client training seminar run by McPherson’s Printing Group, Australia’s leading book printer, in Maryborough, Victoria, in July.

The printer of all CCH book and loose-leaf products, the McPherson’s team taught us about the many facets of the printing process: requesting a quote, sending through print-ready files, web offset, sheetfed and digital printing, embellishing, binding and finishing, warehousing and mailing, along with paper production and the two global forest certification systems - FSC and PEFC.

A guided tour of McPherson’s printing factory showcased the stunning fusion of science, art, speed and precision, all fundamental to the printing process.

Having seen the printing plates for our very own Australian Master Tax Guide being made, great sheets of paper becoming books by flying seamlessly through machinery, being folded, bound and trimmed, and finally towers of paper bales which contribute to the 5,000 tonnes of paper recycled every year, I will never look at a book in the same way again.

As what can most accurately be described as an eager publishing novice, I can only imagine my unrequested exclamations - “Wow!” and “Isn’t that interesting?!” and “Did you know that?” - tried the patience of my colleagues.

But then again, perhaps that’s why I’ve been asked to write this blog.

With notes in hand and an understanding of what it takes to make a book, I am now part of the long, respected tradition of CCH publishing.

A huge thank you to everyone who supported my CEO Sleepout for Vinnies last week, both for your dollars and your well wishes. 

The event itself was highly moving and highly successful. 

Moving, in that we heard from a number of current and former Vinnies “clients”, the homeless, about their stories of hard luck and in some cases, redemption, and successful in that we broke all fundraising records and targets. 

Nationally the tally so far is up over $2.6M, with over $950K coming from Sydney CEOs for Vinnies in NSW. 

And personally, thanks to all of your support (and a very generous last minute contribution from the CCH Australia Community Investment Program), I raised over $19K (so far), putting me in the top 10 on the leaderboard. 

So thank you all again so much for your support of Vinnies and of me personally. 

And, FYI, while it wasn’t terribly cold, I only managed about 3 hours of sleep on the concrete slab!

Best,
- Dave

David A Lampert
Chief Executive Officer
Wolters Kluwer Asia Pacific

In a couple of days’ time, I’ll be joining over 600 CEOs across Australia and sleeping outside for a night at the St Vincent de Paul CEO Sleepout, an event designed to raise money and consciousness around the issue of homelessness in Australia.

Surprisingly, even in such a prosperous country as Australia, there are over 100,000 homeless people, the majority of them women and children. 

Money raised in the CEO Sleepout helps Vinnies provide not only food and shelter but also critical social services and job skills that help folks get back on their feet.

I slept rough for Vinnies last year and raised over $8,000 from over 75 contributors, and have set myself a goal to surpass $12,000 in 2010. 

Thanks to the generous support of many I am already over $9,500 as of today, so I’m getting close to my goal. 

Of course I am soon to leave Australia for another position with the company in New York, so this will be my last CEO Sleepout here in Sydney.

I am pleased and proud that representing WK Asia Pac and CCH Australia at the Vinnies CEO Sleepout will be one of my last official acts in my role here.

If you’d like to learn more about the CEO Sleepout, and Vinnies, you can go to http://www.ceosleepout.org.au.

If you’d like to contribute, type lampert where it says “Search CEOs” and have your credit card handy. 

Every little bit helps!

If you have already contributed, thank you so much for your support. 

Your contribution will make a huge difference to those less fortunate.

 Thanks again for everyone’s support.

Best,
- Dave

David A Lampert
Chief Executive Officer
Wolters Kluwer Asia Pacific

Last month was a whirlwind tour de force for the Major Accounts team: with CCH Connect afternoon soirees on 28 and 29 April, held in Sydney and then in Melbourne.

The purpose of CCH Connect was not only a chance for CCH to showcase our recent innovations, but also to provide our customers with an opportunity to share their experiences with us and each other.

It was also a great opportunity for our clients to meet the brains of the organisation: the editors who were present, Tracker Project Manager Chris Taylor, Content Roadmap Project Manager, Shaun Weston and iSolutions Director, David Gustavsson and many others.

Attendance was high in both cities. The necessary factors for a successful soiree were present - the cold weather provided the necessary element to enjoy Devonshire tea, the excitement about “what next” from CCH and most significantly, the warmth and interest that I observe extending from our clients to my colleagues.

Sentiments aside, the day certainly provided “WOW!” moments during the iSolutions segment.

One customer in Sydney said, “I certainly liked how the screens went BOING! How did they do that?”

And another in Melbourne said, “Will IntelliConnect have the SWOOSH effect? That makes the interface so interesting!”

I certainly felt like a popular debutante with a calling card at the end of the event: with numerous requests from my clients to set up roundtable discussions with the iSolutions team, requests of “don’t forget to put my name down for Fair Work Act Partner” and “don’t forget me about Henry Review”.

Note to self: customers have asked that margaritas be included in the next soiree!

What is happening to the development of the law? We have seen more and more law making – indeed an explosion of law making in the past 20-30 years. Yet litigation is in decline.

For many reasons new laws are not being tested or explained by the courts. The trend towards principles based legislation – it makes for a shorter Act – only compounds this. 

Case management models encourage parties to settle.  So regulators and other government agencies can often provide the only authoritative view. Yet at law school we are taught that the “law” is the law of cases and precedent.

CCH grappled with these questions at a recent internal editorial workshop that brought together some of the best thinkers in the country – Professors David Weisbrot and John Wade, and Steve Mark, NSW Legal Services Commissioner. Here we began to understand the pyramids of conflict and where lawyers and judges fit in, if at all.

John Wade led us away from the lamp post into the darkness – to look for the hidden law. Is it in the customer call centre rather than the Federal Court that most consumer disputes are resolved? 

David Weisbrot explained that soft skills can be as important as (if not more important than) technical skills in recruiting practitioners and appointing partners.

Steve Mark told us that complaints against lawyers are overwhelmingly about their relationships with their clients not about their knowledge of the law. Where do they teach how to be a good manager at law school?

So writing about the law in the future will take CCH to different worlds – to statistics, trends, best practices, rules of thumb, more one page summaries and checklists.

CCH will continue to look under the lamp post but will also look into the darkness.

Will this help you understand better what is really happening in the legal and regulatory environment. We hope so. Please tell us what you think.