Thursday, May 17, 2007

Looking Forward to Speaking at Web Content 2007 - June 18 and 19


Content is king at Web Content 2007 - June 18 and 19 in Chicago

Content really is king at the Web Content 2007 Conference. Just take a look at the courtly procession of keynote speakers.

On Day One, you’ll have the opportunity to hear the crown-head of content, Ann Rockley of The Rockley Group, give her best advice on Using Web Content To Build the Customer Relationship. It’s no secret that giving your customers personalized attention keeps them happy and increases referrals. But how do you do that on the Web? By organizing and controlling content to develop a reciprocal relationship. It’s like any relationship. You know they love you because they keep coming back. They know you love them because you give them things that want and need. Tim O’Reilly (Mr. Web 2.0 himself) just made that point rather plainly at last month’s Web 2.0 Expo. “It’s about network effects and (building) services that get better the more people use them.” But you need lots of content control, i.e., content management to do that. Don’t worry. Ann will tell you how.

For lunch on Day One how about a radical change—not from the baked chicken, but from the typical lunchtime speaker? You’ll hear the rebellion in Howard Tullman’s voice when he delivers his topic, Managing Radical Change in Turbulent Times. But we hate change! Don’t let that stop you or you might get trapped in what Howard calls this “time of radical obsolescence.” That should scare you enough to stay for dessert and another glass of tea while Howard tells you exactly how to manage all this change so you stay off the list of 21 Biggest Technology Flops.

On Day Two enter the unconventional realm of Jason Fried’s (37 Signals) discussion on web-based collaboration. TIME Magazine called 37 Signals one of the Net’s rising stars. Using software as a service is becoming a popular way to “buy” software your organization needs without spending lots of up-front cash or paying for upgrades. But did you know it’s also a hot way to manage projects? Everyone on the team can log on and see what’s happing, what they are supposed to be doing, and what was due yesterday. Don’t miss Jason’s discussion, Unconventional Collaboration.

And don’t even think about leaving the conference early and missing Salim Ismail. He’s from Yahoo! So you are gonna want to hear what he has to say about—well anything really—but his closing keynote is about How Web 2.0 is changing the way we manage content on the web. He should know, he heads up Brickhouse. Yahoo!’s program for rapid product development. If you don’t believe us, check out his bio. Everyone knows about Web 2.0, but not everyone knows what Salim knows. And he’s happy to tell us all about how he sees the future of content on the web.