It is time to mark your calendar for Gilbane Boston 2012. We will be back on Boston's waterfront adjacent to the new "innovation district", at the Intercontinental Boston Waterfront. The dates are November 27-29. As is our practice, we'll be leaving the information from our 2011 conference on the site until we have updated details for 2012.
Looking to make the most of your experience at Gilbane Boston 2011? Want to be current on the latest content trends and technologies? Download our recent papers, some of which you may have missed.
Smart Approaches to Managing Mobile Learning Content. Just published! Why a content strategy rather than a project mentality is the only way to take full advantage of the business performance benefits and productivity gains that are possible with mobile learning. Listen to the webinar.
Magazines at a Digital Crossroads: eCommerce and New Models for the Future. Makes the case for a growing need for contemporary eCommerce platforms to support publishers as they experiment, win, iterate, and drive their businesses into the future. Listen to the webinar.
Content, Audience, and Targeted Messaging: The Virtuous Circle of Customer Engagement. Presenting marketing messages and advertisements that are relevant at the right moment to create the tipping point from engagement to conversion.
A Fresh Look at Web Content Management: Mastering the Core Capabilities of Contemporary Platforms. The core aspects of today’s WCM systems for anyone evaluating, or reevaluating, the WCM needs of their organizations. Listen to the webinar.
Addressing Digital Product Development Risks: Best Practics for Creating Strategic Outsourcing Relationships. Digital products fail for all kinds of reasons. Poor development does not have to be one of them.
Understanding Best Practices for Profiling, Personalizing, and Targeting Next-Generation Engagment. Develop a new appreciation for the power and value of contemporary personalization, and gain an understanding of how to realize its benefits within your organization.
Global Digital Engagement: Leveragng Opportunities to Increase Impact and Reduce Complexity. How to remove the mystery and anxiety of delivering high-value interactions that lead to engagement by improving the dynamics of each.
We've been adding content about mobile app development and publishing for a couple of years. We will be adding a full track threaded through the entire conference to our next event, but this year's Gilbane Boston has quite a few sessions covering aspects of mobile development and content management relevant to Web, marketing/business, IT strategists, and developers.
In fact, we have a sort of a stealth mobile track - stealth, because the sessions are spread out across other tracks. To make it easier to plan schedules for those of you specifically interested in doing more with smartphones and tablets, below are five sessions that are the most directly relevant to mobile. There are other sessions that also cover mobile topics, so be sure to check the overall conference at-a-glance schedule and session descriptions.
Stealth Mobile Track:
T1: Mobile Development: App, Mobile Web, or Hybrid?
Wednesday, November 30, 1:30 - 2:30
You know mobile is becoming the dominant channel, but of course it is actually multiple channels - multiple devices with multiple APIs, form factors, interfaces and capabilities. Do you optimize for each device? Do you try and build a mobile web application? Do you mix it up with a little bit of both? This session will help you understand the pros and cons of different approaches.
Moderator: Jon Marks, Co-founder, Kaldor Product Development Group
Jon Marks, Co-founder, Kaldor Product Development Group
Introduction
Ashley Streb,
Vice President, Technology, Brightcove
Hybrid Position
Stefan Andreasen,
CTO Kapow
Browser Position
Philip Ramsey
, Manager, Technical Design, BNA
App Position
P2. iPad Publishing and UI Design
Wednesday, November 30, 2:40 - 4:00
With smartphones and tablets exploding in usage, publishers are racing to deliver content to new types of users who are expecting rich, interactive experiences. Yet publishers are often dependent on third parties who can create these apps for them. This session delves into how some of the standard publishing apps work, and how developers create some of the more advanced features that users are demanding.
Moderator: Ned May, Vice President & Lead Analyst, Outsell
Jim Nasr
, CEO, Armedia
Best Practices for Developing Content Rich Applications for the iPad
Michael Mahoney,
Senior User Experience Specialist, Microlink
Information as Design
T3. Is HTML5 the Future - If so, When?
Wednesday, November 30, 4:00 - 5:00
HTML5 enjoys widespread partial support. That is, the major browsers support some HTML5 functionality, and Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, and Apple support it politically. HTML5 promises lots of important new capabilities, but it is an ongoing development is scheduled to become a W3C recommendation in 2014. Many organizations are already using HTML5 for app development, but should they? Is it too soon?
Moderator: Richard Rubin, Principal Consultant, Professional Services, Innodata Isogen
Lubor Ptacek
, VP, Strategic Marketing & GM, Microsoft Solutions Group, Open Text
Phillip Hyun,
CTO, EndPlay
E5. Thinking Beyond the Website - Mobile and Other Channels Deserve Your Attention Too
Thursday, December 1, 9:40 - 10:40
As phones and other mobile devices get "smarter", so must marketers get smarter about their multi-channel strategies. It used to be acceptable for brands to focus on their desktop browser experience, and then, at some point, dumb them down by removing flash, videos, and all the other extras so that prospective customers could view the website on their phones. But this strategy is no longer viable. The Splinternet Age brings not only smart phones, but also tablets, mobile applications, social sites, and wifi-ready televisions just to name a few. As more and more consumers seek to experience your brand through these mediums, having a strong multi-channel strategy is essential.
Moderator: Scott Liewehr, Senior Consultant, Web Content Management, Outsell's Gilbane Services
Arje Cahn
, CTO, Hippo
Tom Wentworth,
CMO, Ektron
New Reality - Mobile First
Michael Assad
, Co-founder & CEO, Agility
Content Management for Digital Marketing: Thinking Beyond the Website
The day before the main conference we also have a pre-conference workshop covering important issues for mobile customer engagement:
Workshop B: Integrating Website and Mobile Strategy for Consistent Customer Engagement
Wednesday, November 29, 9:00 - 12:00
You’ve heard all the talk about web engagement management. You’ve read about web and content optimization for contextual consumption. You may even have preached to others about the rise of mobile-, social-, and personal-ization. We suppose you could even be doing some of these successfully, but we doubt it. These are just a few a few of the sexiest, most contemporary practices that everyone likes to talk about but no one is really doing… but they should. In this workshop, renowned author and digital marketing expert Robert Rose teams up with industry analyst and web content management expert Scott Liewehr to teach you how to realize true web engagement across web and mobile channels for your organization. Robert and Scott will teach attendees how to integrate content optimization into the marketing process by pragmatically focusing on three of the primary aspects of web engagement: testing, targeting and contextual design. The workshop walk attendees through a step-by-step approach to each practice, focusing on both the marketing process implications as well as the implementation and operationalization aspects. Web engagement management is more process than technology, so while you may not be able to buy it in a box, you can learn an awful lot about how to implement it in three entertaining, fun-filled and educational hours. Attendees will also receive Robert's brand new book, co-authored with Joe Pulizzi: Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide for Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand.
Instructors: Scott Liewehr, Lead Analyst WCM, Outsell Gilbane, and Rob Rose, Chief Troublemaker, Big Blue Moose
Register for the conference, workshop, or both (speaking of mobile ... note a Conference Plus registration includes the Workshop also includes a new Kindle Fire tablet.
We are going to have fun with the keynotes this year with our new rapid-fire format. You won't want to miss any of it so be sure to get their early enough for a good seat. Also, please remember that after seven years at the Westin at Copley Place we have moved to a roomier spot at the Westin Waterfront at 425 Summer Street. You could easily lose 45 minutes by showing up at the wrong hotel!
K1. Opening Keynotes: Big Ideas - Bold Statements
Wednesday, November 30, 8:30 - 10:00 & 11:00 - 12:00
Our keynotes are designed to inspire, provoke, and provide perspective on the big issues, trends, and shifting foundation of technologies, digital strategies, and channels for communication and engagement. Our keynote sessions this year will use a rapid-fire format. Each speaker will focus on describing a single big idea or making a bold statement that will help us think a little differently about our use or expectations of content and content technologies. Presentations are limited to 10-15 minutes with 5 minutes for Q&A. Use of slides will be minimal.
Moderator: Frank Gilbane
Christos M. Cotsakos, Ph.D.
Founding Chairman, CEO & President, EndPlay
Christer Johnson
Partner, North American BAO Advanced Analytics Leader, IBM Global Business Services
Georgiana Cohen
Manager, Web Content and Strategy, Tufts University & Co-founder, Meet Content
Maureen Chew
Chief Applications Officer, Information Technology Division, Commonwealth of MA
Stephen Powers
Principal Analyst & Research Director, Forrester Research
Tony Byrne
Founder, Real Story Group & CMS Watch
Scott Liewehr
Lead Analyst, Web Content Management, Outsell Gilbane Services & President, Content Management Professionals Assoc.
The program for our annual Boston event is about 98% complete. We have a great keynote line-up with more to come, 30 additional conference sessions, 6 pre-conference workshops, and 12 product labs. Other useful links are sponsors & exhibitors, speakers, registration, and hotel. Note that we moved from the Westin Copley to the Waterfront Westin this year to be in the new Boston Innovation District and fast-growing Seaport / Fort Point Channel neighborhoods.
Update - We have received a phenomenal number of proposals – almost 50% more than last year. We have also had a huge number of requests for extensions, so we have extended the deadline for speaking proposals through next week – until May 28th. Don’t delay though, as our program committee is already pouring over the proposals we have.
Proposal Deadline: May 16th 28th, 2011
The Gilbane conference is all about helping organizations apply content, web and mobile technologies to communicate with their ecosystem of customers, employees, suppliers, partners, and the rest of the world in the most effective and efficient way possible.
This means understanding what technologies can and can't do, what practices in applying them succeed or fail, and how to plan for changes in market and technology evolution. We bring together a diverse audience of technologists, marketers, strategists, business managers and analysts to learn, share, and debate best practices and strategies. Our conference is organized into four tracks so attendees in marketing, technology, a business unit, or an internal function will be able to plan a customized agenda.
To submit a proposal for a presentation or panel to contribute your expertise and experience, please see the topics below listed for the four tracks, then follow the instructions and guidelines for submitting proposals using our proposal submission form. Send any questions to speaking@gilbaneboston.com.
You can also learn more by visiting the conference website at http://gilbaneboston.com, where you can also see information from our 2010 conference.
Customers & Engagement track
Topics to be covered include: Web content management, content strategies, analytics, web design and UI, social media, digital and cross channel marketing, rich media, global reach, multilingual practices, personalization, information architecture, designing for mobile devices, e-commerce, search engine optimization. Read more
Colleagues & Collaboration track
Topics to be covered include: Collaborative authoring, intranets, knowledge management, search, wikis, micro-blogging and blogging, managing social and user-generated content, integrating social software into enterprise applications, SharePoint, portals, social software platforms, enterprise 2.0 strategies. Read more
Content Technologies track
Topics to be covered include: Multi-lingual technologies and applications, smartphone, iPad and tablet app development, XML, standards, integration, content migration, search, open source, SaaS, semantic technologies, social software, SharePoint, and relevant consumer technologies. Read more
Cross-channel Publishing track
Topics to be covered include: Multi-channel publishing, multi-lingual publishing, mobile app and digital product development and marketing strategies for the iPad, and other tablets and ebook readers, mobile content management, digital rights, digital asset management, DITA, documentation, structured content, and XML. Read more
http://gilbaneboston.com/speaker_guidelines.html
http://gilbaneboston.com/speaker-submission-form.html
Follow the conference on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gilbaneboston. Tag: gilbaneboston
Questions?: speaking@gilbaneboston.com
Sneak peek at the conference community site to be announced next week.
Our latest on content globalization practices, Multilingual Marketing Content: Growing International Business with Global Content Value Chains, which infomed the presentations for the webinar Scott mentions below, was made available as a free download at http://gilbane.com/Research-Reports.html last week. We believe this report is the first study ever of global companies’ practices for managing multilingual content for marketing. The report is also available from study sponsors Across Systems, ADAM Software, Lionbridge, and SDL. Check it out! Also see our content globalization blog.
I am pleased to say that my third paper for Outsell’s Gilbane Group was published yesterday, in which I return to thinking about cloud computing and the benefits it offers for deploying web experience and engagement technologies.
Titled Taking Online Engagement to the Cloud this short beacon paper looks to provide a guide to digital marketers, senior IT folks and business analysts faced with the decision to deploy these technologies outside the server room. In it we set out to answer the following questions:
As with all of our papers, once you register you can download it for free from the Beacon area of our website. While you are there, I suggest taking a look at our Whitepapers section, scrolling down a little to the Engage Me! paper by Mary Laplante. I think it's a great introduction to our research on the business practice of web engagement and web experience.
I hope you enjoy the paper and I'd very much like to hear your feedback - either here or you can find me on Twitter (@iantruscott)
The paper was sponsored by FatWire and we are looking forward to joining them on a webinar to explore this subject further - follow us on Twitter for an announcement on that.
I hadn't planned this post on trends but ended-up creating a list for a colleague who was helping a client, and I was definitely overdue to post something. These are in no particular order, and there is a lot more to say about each of them. There are other trends of course, but these are especially relevant to our coverage of content technologies and to Outsell/Gilbane clients.
Last week I was pleased to have my second paper published here at Gilbane "Content and the Next-Generation PortalExperience" that you can now register for and download (for free) from the Beacon area of our website.
For many organizations, access to back office services is becoming an essential part of the experience they need to provide their website visitors.Their external websites form the front line of customer service and their Intranets play a vital role in employee engagement as the expectations rise for both audiences on what they can do over the web. In the paper I discuss how a portal infrastructure can be a natural fit for providing this blend of relevant services and content and there is an opportunity for organizations to shift their portal infrastructure from internal workhorse to a contemporary services interface.
The downside, as many organizations have discovered is that a portal implementation can come at the cost of the primary fuel of web engagement - good quality, fresh, relevant content. In the paper I look at the reasons for behind that and suggest a possible solution of adding a contemporary web content management system.
Like any enterprise integration, the fusing together of a portal platform and a WCM has it's own risks, principally that the resulting solution does nothing to improve the lot of the content author as it has the potential to expose these business users to multiple interfaces and complex processes. In the paper I go on to take a look at how to avoid and mitigate these risks, with the advice on some key attributes organizations need to look for when selecting the WCM system.
I hope you enjoy the paper and I'd very much like to hear your feedback - either here or you can find me on Twitter (@iantruscott)
The paper is now available from the Beacon area of our website and from e-Spirit, who sponsored the paper. You can also register for a webinar that e-Spirit will be hosting on 10th February 2011 during which I will be talking through the main points of the paper.
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