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.
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.
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.
Just wanted to quickly remind everyone that our webinar on Managing Multilingual Marketing Content for Global Brands is tomorrow at 12:30 PM EST (there is also an earlier showing for those on the other side of the Atlantic). You can register for it here (there is also an option for those that can't make either time slot).
Key Topics Discussed:
Be sure to register ahead of time, and hope to "see" you there!
I am delighted that I’ve just completed my first solo paper here as an analyst: Looking Outside the CMS Box for Enterprise Website Governance. I say solo, but I ought to start by saying I’m grateful for having had a great deal of support from Mary Laplante as my reform from vendor to analyst continues.
This paper has allowed me to pick at a subject that I’ve long had in the back of my mind, both in terms of CMS product strategy and of what we, as content management professionals, need to be cognizant of as we get swept up in engaging web experiences – that of corporate content governance.
When I write and talk about web engagement or the web experience, I often refer to the first impression – that your website meets all of your audience, prospects, customers or citizens. They don’t all see your shiny headquarters building, meet the friendly receptionist or see that you have todays copy of The Times on the coffee table – but they do see your website.
Mistakes such as a misspelling, an outdated page or a brand inconsistency all reflect badly on your attention to detail. This tarnishes the professionalism of your services, the reliability of your products, and attention you will pay to meeting consumer needs.
Of course, when those lapses are related to compliance issues (such as regulatory requirements and accessibility standards), they can be even more damaging, often resulting in financial penalties and a serious impact on your reputation.
I see this governance as the foundation for any content driven business application, but in this paper we focus on website governance and aim to answer the following questions:
The paper is now available for download from our Beacon library page and from Magus, who sponsored it.
Magus are also presenting business seminars on website governance and compliance on October 12 in Washington, DC, and October 14 in New York. My colleague Scott Liewehr will be presenting at those events, drawing on the analysis in the Beacon as part of that seminar program. You can learn more about those events and register on the Magus website.
We'll be posting the speakers over the next few days, but you can now see the program schedule as well as the conference session descriptions, and the pre-conference workshops. Also, registration is open.
Given that we're halfway through January, I figure it's high time I get around to writing my predictions for the Web Content Management industry in 2010. Let me correct that: these are my hopes for the WCM industry in 2010. I believe there's enough evidence to support the notion that my desires have a shot at coming to fruition, but I've come to grips with the fact that Nostradamus I am not.
I have a long list of both predictions and desires, but I'm focusing on my top 4 since they are all tied to a single theme, are the most likely to come to fruition, and are all driven by what we at Gilbane believe will be one of the four global, cross-industry Megatrends for 2010: Customer Experience. We believe that customer experience has been and will continue to be a significant basis for competitive advantage for all companies, as it defines their relationships with their customers. Experiences are personal, and thus, they must be tailored to the individual. Companies, now more than ever, need to identify (and prioritize!) their customer segments in order to individualize their experiences, and they must consider both stated and latent customer feedback as essential metrics. ALL interactions with customers then, whether in-person or via the web, must be 1) grounded in an understanding of the customer, and 2) empowered to adapt based on recent feedback. This valuation of customer experience is [finally] starting to raise the bar for the WCM industry...gone are the days when we can get away with merely providing a means of doing more with less. CIOs and CMOs alike are now recalling those long-promised ROI calculations which included increased sales, and they are holding the WCM vendors accountable. If they're not doing so already, I sure hope they start because the technology has finally caught up to the hype. So, with that said, here goes...
Hope #1: Audience Engagement Frameworks [The almost forgotten promise of WCM]
If you haven't heard of an Audience Engagement Framework, it's because I just coined the phrase last week. Hopefully it's at least partly self-explanatory. AEFs, in my opinion, are the future of marketing on the web. They will enable WCM to realize its full potential. AEFs include traditional WCM combined with web analytics, marketing automation, audience segmentation and dynamic content delivery. Analysts and thought leaders have been discussing the notion of Persuasive Content for a while -- the idea that content is tailored to suit the consumer / visitor. The only bit I would add to this is that in order to be persuasive, one must also be perceptive. Perceptive Content, another phrase I'm laying claim to, is that which is informed by visitor behavior via analytics (preferably in real-time), search, user-generated content, etc. AEFs includes both the perceptive and persuasive aspects of content, and a handful of innovative vendors have already released varying degrees of the framework in their products. I fully expect this trend to continue in 2010. And, while some vendors will implement it more wholistically than others, at least we're not talking about WYSIWYG editors being the biggest leap forward anymore. Or, at least, I'm not.
Hope #2: Search [Tightly integrated and much improved]
In 2009, we saw a mutual interest between the Search and WCM industries as Autonomy purchased Interwoven, Squiz bought Funnelback, and a number of WCM vendors such as Drupal and eZ Systems took major steps to integrate advanced search engines into their products. Many of the newly integrated products include features such as faceted search, auto-complete/suggest, content spotlighting, relevance ranking, and more. As I see it, this was more than just an attempt to improve the usability of their resulting websites in response to an ever-increasing shift towards search as the primary form of navigation. I believe, er, I hope, this trend is an intentional step towards improving a site's perceptive capabilities. Our ability to understand our audience's desires will most certainly be enhanced by attending to their searches, and our ability to manipulate the search results based on the visitor's (and her associated segment's) interaction with the website should only improve her [customer] experience which I've deemed so imperative above. If my guess is right, today's notion of search within a website will get a serious upgrade in the year(s) to come.
Hope #3: User-Generated Content [WCM gets even more social!]
User-Generated Content such as micro-blogs, social networking, tagging, commenting, etc. is everywhere. Many WCM Vendors have offered various UGC features in their products for a while now, but most have not implemented ways for companies to capitalize on the resulting content. As the industry continues to brainstorm ways to monetize the "social" trend, a handful of vendors such as Alterian and Sitecore have begun leveraging this content to improve audience engagement, thus again following suit with my theme from Hope #1. It won't take long for others to follow.
Hope #4: Globalization [Multi-lingual gets localized in the mainstream]
In the days of old, multi-lingual content capabilities were only promised by specialized vendors. However, as more and more companies are concerned with improving the experiences of their international customer base, a number of mainstream WCM vendors have begun to include these features in their products. With a few exceptions, the capabilities of most are relatively immature at this point, but 2010 should see an improved understanding of localization by mainstream vendors. The continued enhancement of such features should help to avoid what my colleagues have termed the Language Afterthought Syndrome, and the engaged conversation will be allowed to thrive worldwide.
Well, that's it. I'd love to know your thoughts. We'll be discussing many concepts related to the Audience Engagement Framework in the Customers & Engagement track at the upcoming Gilbane Conference in San Francisco, so mark your calendars for May 18-20! I also intend to write more on the subject and am just getting underway with some related research, so please stay tuned!
Follow me on Twitter: @sliewehr
Our July 2009 Multilingual Prodcut Content Report has been featured in the latest post by ZDNet's The DocuMentor blog:
ZDNet introduces Doc (The DocuMentor), sponsored by RICOH. Through his blog, Doc will educate you about Document Management. So who is Doc? Doc is something of an enigma. He was born to a Russian ballerina and a German electrical engineer who some believe was running covert operations for shadowy corporate interests. Doc grew up in various locations in the United States, although no one seems to know precisely where, least of all Doc. His early schooling was unremarkable except for the time he was caught trying to replace all the mimeograph machines with high-tech color copiers that had mysteriously disappeared from a shipment to Albania. At MIT, he made a name for himself by transforming a large printer into a robot that hunts and eats Roombas...
See what this quirky mystery man thinks about our report : 
See our new Best Practice Profile Series. They are free to download. The first three profiles include:
Follow us on Twitter