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Microsoft InfoPath eForms

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Context Media Enterprise content integration    Vignette Content Management Enterprise Web

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Why our conferences are different

We have been analyzing content technologies since before we started publishing the Gilbane Report 10 years ago, when we began advising all members of the content technology community on what content technology was, how it could be used for enterprise business applications, and how content and computing would evolve.

Because we are strictly neutral with regard to vendors, analysts, enterprises, and consultants, we have been able to maintain a constant dialog with each group, all of whom are our customers, and all of whom we have learned from. Our conference content is carefully designed by us to ensure the focus is on what you need to know to successfully plan and implement content technology solutions. Conference content is not based on the latest buzzword, specific product releases, the need to sell analyst reports, or a need to supplement an exhibit floor.

Our conferences are designed to foster interaction between all stakeholders in the content technology community, with the ultimate goal of increasing the successful implementation and deployment of content technology.

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The Gilbane Conference on Content Management

 

Gilbane Content Management Conference - LA

The Gilbane Conference on Content Management - Los Angeles
Managing rich content and complex product data

March 24-26, 2004
After you register save Thursday night for the party at Universal Studios Hollywood sponsored by Microsoft! See our Special Events page for more info.

The Gilbane Conferences on Content Management cover content management technologies and enterprise solutions and provide educational information for IT managers, system architects, and technically oriented business and project managers. Our conferences focus on both content technology and successful case studies. All our events include tracks on content technology that is strategic to all industries and IT infrastructures, as well as sessions that provide an in-depth look at application specific solutions.

Our Los Angeles event this year will look closely at technology and solutions for managing two types of rich content: data rich content, for example, information associated with complex products found in aerospace and defense, electronics, pharmaceutical and biotech, etc., and media rich content, such as digital assets used in training, brand marketing, and media applications.

What you will take away from the conference

Attendees benefit from an unbiased, deep, and up-to-date understanding of content management technologies, vendors, trends, and best practices, from the most experienced and respected experts in the field. Our speakers have implemented every kind of content management system across all industries, and have written the books and reports that others depend on. They can help you get started, make vendor choices, benchmark your progress, and make strategic decisions. Project managers and implementers will learn from other's experiences, IT strategists, and system architects will be able to make informed decisions, and business managers will understand what can be accomplished with content technology today.

The dramatic and continuing proliferation of content management technologies guarantees that it will remain a challenge to keep up with the product technology, market landscape, best practices, and newly uncovered business benefits of content management. The only way to keep ahead of the competitive curve and gain the benefits of content management without undue risk is to learn from the experiences of current, expert, and objective practitioners. At our conference you will hear from technology experts and enterprises that have already successfully deployed content technology.

Join us in LA and learn how content technology works!

Who should attend:

  • IT Strategists, Managers, Staff
  • Content Management Project Managers
  • Content Management System Designers
  • Intranet, Internet, Extranet, Portal Managers
  • Product Data Managers
  • Information Architects / Knowledge Managers
  • Technical documentation managers
  • Webmasters, Developers, and Administrators
  • Business, Market, and Technology Analysts
  • Enterprise Architects
  • Consultants and Integrators
  • Marketing and Product Executives
  • Brand Managers

Program

Pre-conference Tutorials

Tutorial A: Web Content Management Systems: Principles, Products & Practices
Tony Byrne, Founder & Principal, CMSWatch

Join us for a one-day workshop that can help you and your team define a clear Web Content Management roadmap. CMSWatch founder Tony Byrne leads an intensive, fast-paced, introduction to Web Content Management principles, practices, and products. Learn:

  • A common, de-jargoned vocabulary of key CMS terms,
  • How to develop a business case for a CMS
  • Where Web Content Management fits amid other technologies like Knowledge Management (KM), Digital Asset Management (DAM), and others
  • The 8 key steps to effective Content Production
  • The 8 key steps to effective Content Delivery
  • The 7 categories of CM products, including features and typical price ranges
  • Specific features of sample packages in each category
  • How to evaluate and select suitable technologies for an organization
  • The 8 most common CMS pitfalls, and best practices for avoiding them

The seminar enables attendees to help their organization define its CMS needs and identify suitable technologies to improve Web content production and publishing systems. In a combined seminar / demo / group-exercise format that takes a vendor-neutral approach, attendees will learn how to apply best practices in Web Content Management.

Tutorial B: Key XML Technologies and Trends in Content Management
Bill Trippe, Senior Editor, The Gilbane Report

Both XML and Content Management continue to grow in use and importance. XML has become a key component in virtually all enterprise applications, especially those that are now tied to the Internet. At the same time, content management has expanded from its original scope of managing web content to managing compound and simple documents, digital assets, electronic forms, and the business processes that surround this content. With this expanded scope has come a blizzard of XML initiatives and technologies. These include broad technical standards such as XSLT and XSL-FO, vertical industry initiatives, and technologies for XML creation, management, storage, and transformation. XML is seemingly everywhere at once. But what are the key XML technologies and standards for content management? What is being used today successfully? This tutorial provides an in-depth look at XML and how it is used in content management, and will include important background and current status of key technologies, case studies of successful content management projects using XML, and a discussion of important trends and new technologies.

Tutorial C: Taxonomy & Metadata Strategies for Effective Content Management
Joseph Busch & Ron Daniel, Principals, Taxonomy Strategies

All the pundits agree on the important role of a taxonomy for a CMS implementation, and of user testing. But what is a taxonomy, how do you get one, and how does it really make a difference? How do you organize user tests and use the results in a CMS implementation? This tutorial covers the basics of metadata and taxonomies, then goes on to provide answers to hard questions about enterprise content architecture strategies. What does every content manager need to know about taxonomies, metadata and required fields? How can a taxonomy and metadata model drive successful search, workflow, content re-use, and the automation of content production processes? What are the critical elements of a business case for a content architecture? What are the critical do's and don'ts of designing a metadata and taxonomy model? The tutorial concludes by looking at how to test a taxonomy's effectiveness with users.

  • CMS Taxonomy 101 - The basics of Web Content Management Systems, how metadata drives those functions, what taxonomies are, and how they show up in a CMS
  • Applied Metadata and Taxonomies - A deeper look at specific Web CMS tasks, and the role of metadata and taxonomies in enabling them. Particular attention is paid to how the metadata can be created in cost-effective manners.
  • Operational Taxonomies - Taxonomies must change over time. How can you set up the technical and business processes for this often-overlooked fact?

Keynote Panels

Expert Panel on Technologies & Trends
Moderator: Frank Gilbane, Editor & Publisher, The Gilbane Report
Panelists: Joshua Duhl, Research Director, IDC
; Alan Pelz-Sharpe, VP North America, Ovum; Hadley Reynolds, Vice President & Research Director, Delphi Group, A Perot Systems Company; Robert Markham, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research

Our opening plenary panel looks at the big issues affecting content management strategies, including trends in the market, technology, and best practices. Frank Gilbane will moderate a keynote panel of content management thought leaders debating content management vs. enterprise content management, the role of database platforms, application servers, portals, open source, information integration, Web services, and other infrastructure technologies critical to content management strategies. We'll also look at upcoming technologies, market consolidation and the tough issues facing both vendors and users, and make predictions about the next 12-18 months. This panel is designed for anyone with a stake in content management whether project manager, business manager, IT strategist, consultant, integrator, market or financial analyst, or vendor, and will provide an informed context for what you will hear in the rest of the conference and see in the exhibition.

Experienced Panel on Implementation Strategies
Moderator: Sebastian Holst, Senior Editor, The Gilbane Report
Speakers: Jerry Ledbetter, VP of Digital Initiatives, Sony Pictures; Richard Eberhart, Executive Director, G-SAM

Where our first keynote panel focused on technology and trends, this panel of industry leaders will look at content management implementation strategies and best practices. We'll discuss how the technologies discussed on the first panel fit into actual IT and business strategic planning scenarios, and examine the characteristics associated with a successful content technology implementation.


Main Conference Sessions

Project Management Track
Chair: Bill Trippe, Senior Editor, The Gilbane Report

Our Project Management track focuses on the issues you face during the lifecycle of a content management project: from initial requirements definition, to vendor and tool selection, to content and metadata modeling, to rollout, to ongoing management and technology refreshment. The topics are relevant to both enterprise content management projects as well as departmental projects. Sessions will cover issues important to those just starting their first content management project, and to experienced veterans who need to keep up with the latest practices.

Planning for & Evaluating CMSs - How to Get Started
Moderator: Matthew Clapp, CMSProject.com
Speakers: Lisa Welchman, Principal, Welchman Consulting; Alan Pelz-Sharpe, VP North America, Ovum

A content management system is a critical investment, especially since businesses need to integrate content management with other core business applications. This session will help you get started by providing guidance on how to determine the scope & purpose of a CMS, what types of CMSs are available, the trade-offs between building and buying, which organizations should be involved in choosing and owning a CMS, and how you should develop a list of requirements, questions, and a list of potential vendors.

Content Integration - Integrating Information from Multiple Repositories
Moderator: Joshua Duhl, Research Director, IDC
Speakers: Tim Hess, CTO, ThomasTech; Shane Lennon, Vice President Marketing, Context Media

As an industry we are still in the early stages of integrating the vast amounts of content residing in a wide variety of data and content repositories throughout our organizations. This is no simple task, and new products, technologies, and strategies have emerged to provide some help. Some older technologies like EAI and point-to-point integrations can help, and XML hub-and-spoke transformation tools are necessary, but new approaches that can support "real-time" content sharing are also needed. This session will examine the current options. 

Content Models and Information Architectures
Speaker: Ann Rockley, President, The Rockley Group; Author, “Managing Enterprise Content”

It is tempting for businesses to look, at and even choose, content management technology first, and relegate the difficult task of analyzing and organizing the content that needs to be managed to an "implementation detail". Such a "detail" determines whether CMS deployment is a success or failure. Both enterprise information architectures and content models for specific business functions need to be developed if you expect efficient use and reuse of content. Learn what you need to do and how to get started in this session.

Electronic Forms & Content Management
Moderator: Bill Trippe, Senior Editor, The Gilbane Report
Speakers: Chuck Myers, Technology Strategist, Adobe; Micah Dubinko, Chief XML Architect, Cardiff Software; Amber Kinney, Product Manager, InfoPath, Microsoft

There is a wide range of electronic form solutions available today, ranging from simple scripts packaged with mass market web publishing software to very specialized industrial strength applications for forms-intensive industries coming from older document management systems. Electronic forms will be very big once they are easy to create, modify, and integrate into larger enterprise applications. Microsoft and Adobe are both targeting this space and looking for huge market share of this forgotten middle market, and ECM vendors are acquiring or partnering with electronic form software vendors to round out their offerings and protect their turf. There is a lot you need to pay attention to here. This session will help you understand the landscape of current capabilities and provide insight into what will be available soon.

Managing Content Strategies for Multi-channel Delivery
Moderator: Scott Abel, Content Management Strategist, thecontentwrangler.com
Speakers: Jean-Paul Chauvet, VP Sales & Marketing IXIASOFT; Ron Burchette, Project Manager, ISP Corp

Delivering content through multiple channels has been critical for many business applications since the early days of electronic documents. Today, achieving anticipated ROI often requires multi-channel delivery even though it can be difficult and costly to implement. Even combining a Web and print channel can be a major challenge. This session will help you understand why it is so hard, who is doing it today, and what the best practices are.

One Minute with a CMS Vendor
Moderator: Tony Byrne, Editor, CMSWatch; Author, “The CMS Report”
Speakers: Kevin Kohn, VP of Marketing, RedDot; Bret Freeman, Field Support Mgr., Vasont; Steven R. Kusmer, Chairman and CEO, Atomz; Bill Rogers, CEO, Ektron; Leif Pedersen, VP of Marketing and Market Strategy, Vignette; Santi Pierini, VP Marketing, Day Software

In this lively session a representative group of content management vendors will be asked a question by an expert CMS consultant and each given one minute to respond in turn before a buzzer goes off. If you prefer immediate, succinct answers to your questions over mining through piles of literature or sitting through presentations or demos this is the session for you.

Categorization and Taxonomy Strategies: How to Find and Re-use Existing Schemes
Moderator: Joseph Busch, Founder & Principal, Taxonomy Strategies
Speakers: Jayne Dutra, KM Process Owner, Team Lead for Web Information Architecture & Web Content Management, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, David Smith, Senior Technical Advisor, Knowledge Management, Halliburton

The temptation is there to create new systems to solve legacy problems. But every experienced manager knows that buying and adapting rather than building a system from scratch should be done whenever possible. Does this model apply to content tagging systems too? This session will lay out the case for re-using industry standards such as RosettaNet, government standards such as NAICS codes, as well as internal schemes such as ERP taxonomies. Case studies from large organizations that have recently developed large scale content tagging schemes to support different business purposes will be presented.

Open Source Content Management
Moderator: Dale Waldt, President aXtive Minds
Speakers: Michael Wechner, OSCOM; Nick Carr, Founder and General Manager, Allette Systems; Lisa Richards, Retrieval Systems Corporation

Everyone is talking about it. There are dozens of open source content management products and tools available today, and even an international association to promote them. Most companies who decide to build their own CMS use some open source technology, and many businesses that rely on a commercial content management product also use, or integrate with, some open source tools. In this session representatives from the open source and commercial vendor communities will each discuss their views on the pros and cons of an open source content management strategy.

Content Management & Portals - Making Sense of the Overlap
Speaker: Hadley Reynolds, Vice President & Research Director, Delphi Group, A Perot Systems Company

Enterprise portals have grown to be wildly popular over the last few years, so it may seem strange that there are no completely pure-play portal vendors left. They have all been acquired or have added additional functions like collaboration and content management to their portal offering. Companies now build portals using a variety of tools and infrastructure technologies. However, there is a special relation between content management and portals and many, perhaps most, existing corporate portals incorporate CM technology. This session will explore the questions and options business people should pay attention to when it comes time to build or renovate a portal, and what role a CMS can and should play in an enterprise portal implementation.

Content, Collaboration & Knowledge Management
Moderator: Joshua Duhl, Research Director, IDC
Speakers: Jared Spataro, Director, Collaboration Solutions, Open Text; Tom Deutsch, Director, Worldwide Product Marketing, FileNet

Sharing content and the knowledge it embodies with colleagues is something every business needs to make as simple and straightforward as possible to ensure valuable information of all types is not wasted or hidden away. But there are different product technologies and processes associated with content management collaboration and knowledge management that often overlap. This session will help you think through how these three important areas relate to each other so you can build the benefits of each into your information management strategy.

Content Management Resources: How to find Who, What, and Where
Speaker: Bob Doyle, Editor-in-Chief, CMS Review, CMS Forum, CMS Wiki, DMOZ CMS
Category

The rapid proliferation of content management systems makes it very difficult to find all the vendors that might have the right solution. This session will survey online product directories, including some that are searchable for CMSs with specific features and technologies, and offer side-by-side, head-to-head competitive comparisons. Enterprise project managers will learn how to use these online resources to narrow their product selection and how to find the right consultants to aid with implementation. Vendor marketing teams can insure that their products are being described correctly and positioned properly vis-a-vis the competition. Consultants will find places to advertise their skills on the web and some knowledge feeds to strengthen their websites. Analysts will discover active discussion groups commenting on the rapid evolution of the industry.


Content Technology Works(TM) Track
Chair: Sebastian Holst, Senior Editor, The Gilbane Report

This track is dedicated to exploring and examining best practices surrounding successful deployments of content technology. Speakers will be focusing on both the technological ingredients and their recipes for success. Effective problem definition, business case development, adoption strategies and identifying concrete and quantifiable success criteria will all get special attention.

Complex Content: Consumer Goods Case Studies
Moderator: Sebastian Holst, Senior Editor, The Gilbane Report
Speakers: Rob Morris, IT Director, Shimano; Alison Toon, Globalization Project Lead, Hewlett-Packard

Shimano and HP will present the application of content technology to their respective businesses. This session will explore how global consumer goods manufacturing, sales and marketing is being transformed by content technology. Issues relating to globalization, the integration of creative and manufacturing functions, media and entertainment tie-ins and licensing opportunities will be addressed.

Complex Content: Industry Application Case Studies
Moderator: Sebastian Holst, Senior Editor, The Gilbane Report
Speakers: Ben Martin, Ben Martin & Associates; Bob Behrens, Director of Technical Publications C-17, The Boeing Company

Boeing and Encana will present the application of content technology to their respective businesses. This session will revisit the roll of content technology in the development and deployment of heavy equipment including aerospace and energy exploration and production. These two industries place high value on equipment quality, employee training, safety and mean time to repair. Issues surrounding multilingual versions of content, diagnostic and educational material will be covered.

Rich Media: Industry Application Case Studies
Moderator: Sebastian Holst, Senior Editor, The Gilbane Report
Speakers: Howard Roth, Media Consultant, CMP Media; Jerry Ledbetter, VP of Digital Initiatives, Sony Pictures

In this session you will hear how Sony Pictures and CMP Media implemented content technologies to automate their operations and generate additional revenue. Content integration strategies, web services and centralized repository approaches will be contrasted as these two large enterprises discuss their specific approaches to enterprise content management.

Rich Media: Industry Application Case Studies
Moderator: Sebastian Holst, Senior Editor, The Gilbane Report
Speakers: Tina Steil, Director, Enabling Technologies, Meredith Corporation; Dave Stuttard, VP Application Solutions, Avnet

Read the Meredith Corporation case study!

Meredith Corporation is a 102 year old media and marketing company, involved in magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting and brand licensing. This case study will examine how they have organized their existing content and channeled their current production including over 41,000 editorial pages and over 300,000 published and unpublished images produced annually into an enterprise resource accessible to all Meredith staff through innovations in technology, methodology and publishing best practices. Avnet, Inc., is one of the world's largest B2B distributors of semiconductors, interconnect, passive and electromechanical components, enterprise network and computer equipment, and embedded subsystems from leading manufacturers.


Technology Track
Chair: Tony Byrne, Editor & Founder, CMSWatch

The Gartner Group recently said companies should upgrade their content management technical skills. Our Technology track delves more deeply into the complex technical issues surrounding content management design and implementation than any other conference would dare to go. We tackle some of the most difficult topics, like security, deployment, metadata handling, and super-distributed / super-scaled systems. The Technology track speaks to developers about to embark on their first CMS project as well as IT managers already overseeing major web publishing systems. Someone else may have picked your company's content management package, but you have to make it work. Here's where you'll find out how.

CMS Impacts on Systems, Networks, and Security
Speakers: Dale Waldt, President aXtive Minds

In considering content management system design, many enterprises examine the impact on developers and editors. But system and network administrators -- often brought into CMS projects belatedly -- are significantly affected too. Learn in advance how a content or asset management project is likely to place new demands your systems, networks, and security infrastructure, so you can plan early for success.

Content Delivery - The Devil is the Deployment
Panelists: Darren Guarnaccia, Director of Professional Services, RedDot Solutions; Miles Kelly, Sr. Marketing Manager, IT Solutions, Interwoven; Steven Gentner, CTO, CrownPeak Technologies

Synchronized content deployment -- of data, documents, and media -- from a management environment to a delivery environment is perhaps the technically most demanding task of any content management system. Given the plethora of options available, vendors take different approaches to the challenge. Join a moderated panel of 3 CMS vendors to learn about the pros and cons of alternative deployment options and solutions.

So You Want a Metadata-Driven Website?
Speakers: Brian Beuhling, Managing Director, Dakota Systems

Information Architects quite properly point out that solid metadata lies at the heart of any major content management system aspiring to reap the business benefits of greater content reuse and findability. But using metadata to drive navigation, content channels, search, and display can be deceptively tricky and complicated, and will confront the developer with some fundamental architectural choices. Learn different approaches to harvesting, storing, and using metadata for maximum return.

Using Web Services to Improve Content Management
Speakers: Travis Wissink, Independent Consultant

In theory, Web Services should solve thorny asset and content management interoperability problems. In practice, early results from the field are mixed. Not surprisingly, Web Services is not a universal panacea. Nevertheless, there is some low-hanging fruit for those who architect carefully.

What Constitutes XML Compliance?
Speaker: Betty Harvey, ECC Inc.

Nearly all CMS and DAM systems claim they are XML compliant, because they use or can output XML in some form or another. But different packages leverage XML in very different ways, and in some cases, CMS developers are cobbling together their own management toolsets on top of XML repositories. So what should a buyer really look for? An independent consultant and an end-user offer ideas and good practices about how to use XML within in content management systems.

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Gilbane Content Management Conference - LA

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