You there! What week is it? No, silly little Dickensian orphan, Christmas was two months ago, this is BookMachine week. Between Monday 23 and Friday 27 February, BookMachine is running a series of events across the world, with publishing folk gathering in Brighton, London, New York, Barcelona and Oxford to hear from a variety of industry speakers. Topics under discussion include the fate of illustrated books in the age of digital, the problems posed by shrinking retail space, the impact of self-publishing and the effect that social media is having on publishing.

In the latter instance, the medium is the message – on Friday afternoon, City University is sponsoring a BookMachine Twitter chat, ideal for those who can’t make it along to any of the real-world events or suddenly think of the perfect witty retort just as they’re leaving and want to seek retribution. The focus, as at the events, will largely be what digital means for images in publishing. The hashtag to use to take part is #BookMachine, which is where you’ll find the questions under discussion too. It kicks off at 3pm GMT/4pm CET/10am EST. The week’s discussions will then be rounded up here on the site for anyone who can’t even muster the energy to look at Twitter come Friday afternoon.