There was a strong sense of the Lewis Carroll surreal at mediaXchange, the NAA conference which closed in Orlando, Florida, last week (writes Peter Coleman).

Monday keynoter Rashid Tobaccowala had caught it at 'Alice in Wonderland' just prior to the show. And having paid $35 for Leicester Square cinema tickets on the way in, he was determined to get his money'sworth: "It's my dream, and I'll decide how it ends," he quoted the heroine.

But it seemed it might take more than the 'muchness' he espoused to deliver a dream ending. More seriously, he warned, "The industry is you; while you wait, people are taking away your fortune."

I had arrived in Orlando thinking the fortune had already been taken: Printed newspapers present a sorry sight to those accustomed to 100 per cent four colour on high brightness stocks. The conference - an amalgam of NAA's marketing and Nexpo events - had nothing about how papers might be printed better... unless it was by someone else.

A session discussed whether newspapers should be printer or 'printee', and over lunch Ulrich Wicke, KBA's Dallas-based web sales vice president, told me it was hard for him to propose an ROI on new equipment when eight or ten years was all people thought their print titles might last.

In that context, the claim (from NAA immediate past chairman George Irish) that newspaper margins were still higher than those of their top advertisers" seemed like misplaced pride.

So when exactly, had the quest for print quality been abandoned? About the time when some of the national groups went on the acquisition trail, perhaps… and found themselves overleveraged when advertising sales slumped.

Sharing a taxi to the airport, Mizell Stewart, editor of one of the E.W. Scripps dailies in Indiana, had told me how his group had resisted that temptation: Did that put them in a position to pick up a cheap title or two now? “Maybe, but perhaps there would be better ways to invest,” he told me.

There’s a line of thought that says one better investment at the moment would be in mobile publishing. If Alice were in her fantasy world today, there’s no doubt she’d have her phone with her… and that Facebook would automatically update her status with the location.

Next thing, she’d be served with ads for speciality teas and nearby vendors of outdoor play equipment.

Consultant Amy Webb had the story in a cluey presentation on the closing day: “Consumer expectations are changing, and it’s a given that you’ll have a functional mobile app offering more than just content,” she says. “Now’s a good time to pay attention.”

The mediaXchange timing was good, with plenty to which to pay attention: Apple’s iAd ‘interaction of emotion and interactivity’ – announced days before – would “change how others function,” Webb says, focussing on the need for intuitive advertising with rich interaction.

Already the mDialog mobile video platform was providing adaptive video streaming – geo-targeted and in real time, with the possibility of limiting repeats so consumers “don’t start to hate the brand”.

Some of the string of trends she identified – hyperlocal content, the ‘check-in’ culture, real time sharing, and the omnipotent Google – were represented not only in the three-day programme, but in a compact exhibition dominated by systems and mobile providers.

And the newspaper industry had Facebook – in the form of global online sales and operations director Grady Burnett – for lunch… or was it the other way around?

Either way, mediaXchange 2010 delivered a mass of good content for those charged with reshaping their businesses to meet the challenges of tomorrow. One speaker whose company had already faced up to the tough realities of a digital world was Kodak chief marketing officer Jeff Hayzlett, who drew a crowd of delegates anxious for an autographed book.

But back to Tobaccowala: While newspapers might think they were in the news business, Google had shown that it was in the news-monetisation business. And if the industry was "less pathetic than last year", it was he suggested, "not exactly cool".

His was one of many voices during the three-day conference urging a return to local focus, and for publishers to become "facilitators and reaggregators" of content. The internet had taken over the role of 'connection engine' once held by newspapers: "Take your skills to it," he urged. And what could be more local than mobile?

Tobaccowala left this cryptic observation:"Everything analogue has become digital; everything digital is becoming mobile; everything mobile is becoming analogue."

Many of the speakers had five or ten tips for the future; here’s a couple of handsfull from Tobaccowala:

• "go apeshit for the new media" while looking after the legacy business - "only the schizophrenic will survive";

• embrace technology, the "new magic", checking out RSS feeders, Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare... and get somebody two or three levels below you to be your mentor;

• embrace the verve - editors and business people – "church and state makes no difference if the land is underwater";

• act fast;

• keep learning;

• outreach to your people make your industry exciting;

• think about what curacy, combining and convenience really is;

• have a platform (device and search) strategy, and learn to partner;

• celebrate your software people, and tell them about the business issues - consider what the incentives are; and

• (from Alice) "what's your muchness?" ... you decide what it is.

See also:

Is ‘USA Today’ newspaper, US newspapers today?

iPad demands attention at Orlando’s mediaXchange

NAA/mediaXchange website