You’ve seen the bestselling books of 2025, the most circulated books of 2025, as well as the bestselling Canadian books of 2025 and the most circulated Canadian books of 2025. Now we bring you… drumroll, please… the most-viewed Tech Forum videos of the year!

Tech Forum is BookNet’s educational series and central professional development hub. Through Tech Forum, we provide educational opportunities for the publishing industry that focus on technology, data-driven approaches, and collaboration in the book industry.

If you’re new to Tech Forum, you may want to start by browsing our website, which features a repository of all the professional development and educational content we’ve created and shared throughout the years — including access to slides and transcripts for most sessions — as well as the list of our upcoming webinars.

Now, without further ado. Here is the list of the 10 Tech Forum sessions that were the most popular in 2025.

Jump right in

How to make accessible ebooks: A workshop for beginners

Everyone’s talking about accessibility these days and it can be daunting if you don’t know where to start. Let this workshop be your starting place.

Non-technical? No problem. This workshop is for everyone who wants to learn how to make accessible, ready-for-the-market ebooks, regardless of their department or previous experience with ebooks. Join us to get a plain language explainer of all the pieces of the ebook accessibility puzzle.

The year of testing dangerously: The EPUB 3.3 story

A new version of EPUB 3 is coming, but it's nothing to fear. For the first time, EPUB is going through the W3C's rigorous "recommendation track." This includes "horizontal review" to ensure robust accessibility, internationalization, security and privacy, and technical architecture. There's also a requirement to test every statement in the spec, to prove that there are interoperable implementation.

What does all this mean for ebook creators? Wendy Reid and Dave Cramer talk about what's changed since EPUB 3.2, the testing process, the surprising things they've learned about EPUB, and what comes next.

On the rise: Book subjects on the move in the Canadian market

This webinar explores emerging trends in the types of books Canadians are buying. Using the most up-to-date data, we find out if Romantasy titles are still flying off the shelves at a feverish pace, whether Taylor Swift can sell books as well as she sells concert tickets, and how other sociocultural and demographic shifts are reflected in book-buying behaviour. BookNet Canada’s SalesData & LibraryData team, Lily Dwyer and Kalpna Patel, dig deep into the data to show you which subjects are on the move.

Elements of Indigenous Style: Insights and applications for the book industry

From acquisitions and editorial to marketing and sales teams, every team member plays a role in accurately, respectfully, and ethically championing Indigenous and traditionally underrepresented voices. This session, led by Warren Cariou, Lead Editor of the second edition of Gregory Younging’s Elements of Indigenous Style, is for book industry professionals eager to learn and apply Indigenous teachings to their work.

Using Elements of Indigenous Style as a foundation, this session delves into its mind-opening content, which goes beyond the scope of a traditional style guide. The book advocates for the indigenization of publishing and addresses topics such as culturally appropriate publishing practices; understanding identity and community affiliation; Two-Spirit, trans, and Indigiqueer contexts; practices to support Indigenous linguistic and cultural sovereignty; and emerging issues in the digital environment. Warren provides actionable recommendations and best practices for publishers working on literary projects by or about Indigenous authors, which can be applied more broadly to other underrepresented communities.

Kaitlin Littlechild from the Indigenous Editors Association brings her expertise to the discussion as the moderator.

Improving your metadata: Common issues and how to fix them

At BookNet, metadata is at the core of much of what we do. With so much flowing in and out of our products and services, we’ve seen it all. In this session, eight BookNetters will walk you through some of the most common issues we see in publishers’ metadata. They'll explain what metadata standards are recommended for each case and show you how to fix common problems. Why does it matter? Accurate, high-quality metadata ensures your books are seen and succeed in today’s competitive marketplace. Join us as we help you optimize your metadata and unlock its full potential!

AI in publishing: Your questions answered

George Walkley, a publishing veteran and leading authority on AI applications, joins us for a follow-up to his presentation "Applying AI to publishing: A balanced and ethical approach". George gives a brief overview of developments since that presentation and answers attendees' pressing questions about AI’s impact and potential applications in the book industry.

Book industry state of the nation 2025

BookNet Canada’s President and CEO Lauren Stewart shares an in-depth presentation of the most recent data on Canadian book buyers, readers, and consumers.

Information doesn't want to be free

There are three iron laws of information age creativity, freedom, and business, woven deep into the fabric of the Internet's design, the functioning of markets, and the global system of regulation and trade agreements. You can't attain any kind of sustained commercial, creative success without understanding these laws—but more importantly, the future of freedom itself depends on getting them right.

EUDR and ONIX: A supply chain lunch & learn

In this event, Graham Bell (EDItEUR) will discuss the impact of the upcoming EU Deforestation Regulations, the responsibilities it places on publishers, distributors, and retailers both within the European Union and outside it, and the need for data collection and record-keeping about the sources of raw materials used in the book industry. He’ll also describe how ONIX can be used to communicate some of the key metadata required for compliance with the regulations.

Unlocking the European market: Preparing to comply with the EAA

Starting June 28, 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) will require ebooks and many other services and products to meet specific accessibility standards to be sold in the European market. Experts Chris Saynor (EDItEUR) and Wendy Reid (Kobo) guide Canadian publishers through the essentials of this new legislation. In this session, they cover the role of metadata and ONIX in compliance, explore key accessibility standards and resources developed by the W3C, and share how Kobo is preparing to align with the EAA.

Looking for more? We'll continue to offer our live online presentations throughout the year and our trove of video content is available whenever you’re in the mood to learn. You can find it all on our website, sign up for our newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and register for upcoming webinars.