Digital experience designers are familiar with the approach of responsive design even if they haven’t used it. If they have used it they know it is not quite as easy as it first sounds, and the popularity of responsive design courses suggests there is a still a lot of learning going on. But even if you don’t need to understand the code, if you are a marketing manager you need to know what you can expect responsive design to accomplish and what level of effort it entails.
C2. Responsive Design and the Future of Digital Experiences
Tuesday, December, 3: 2:40 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.
Responsive design has been around since the early days of the browser wars, but as mobile channels grew it became both more important and more complex. Gone are the days when new digital channels, form factors, and other device characteristics can be anticipated and digital strategies need to reflect this new reality. This session will provide multiple perspectives on what responsive design can do, what its limitations are, and what its future challenges are.
Moderator: Tom Anderson, President, Anderson Digital
Speakers: Scott Noonan, Chief Technology Officer, Boston Interactive In Koo Kim, Senior Manager, MOBEX, NorthPoint Digital Scrap the Big Launch, Fly a Kite: How to Create and Maintain Control of Smarter Mobile Apps with Real-Time UI Updates, A/B Testing, and Personalization Christopher S Carter, General Manager, aLanguageBank Are You Prepared to Create Content for the Internet of Things?
We’re big believers in the potential for learning from colleagues in other industries. There are many shared challenges crossing vertical boundaries not always obvious because of different vocabularies, and often a gem can be found in the variety of solutions, or an idea can be sparked by a slightly different lens on the problem. The publishing industry’s influence on computing and digital experiences goes way back and is especially applicable horizontally – markup languages, style sheets, electronic type – and of course multi-channel publishing. This is why we have usually included a publishing track in our conferences. This session looks at how a couple of publishers have dealt with some thorny multichannel publishing issues.
P2. Multi-channel Publishing and Content Reuse
Tuesday, December, 3: 2:40 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.
In this session two publishing organizations report on projects that involve moving publications and existing content from print to multi-channel digital. Business Insurance, part of Crain Communications, implemented a digital publishing strategy that supports interactive digital content and content reuse across print, Web, iOS, and Android, all based on HTML5. Wolters Kluwer Health now creates textbooks with versions for print, multiple eBook formats, and integration with Learning Management Systems and other advanced learning tools. As part of their multi year initiative they report on a recent project where they implemented round tripping between XML and author-editable Word documents, and discusses the technical and organizational problems they solved.
Moderator: Tom Brown, VP, Multichannel Solutions, HP
Speakers: Dave White, Chief Technology Officer, Quark Software Inc. Case Study: Transforming Print Content into Mobile and Web Apps Ken Golkin, Technical Project Manager, Wolters Kluwer Health
and Niels Nielsen, Managing Director, Avalon Consulting, LLC Long Cycle Reuse in Textbook Publishing: Cracking the XML–>Word–>XML Round Trip Nut
There are many answers to this question, but the right answer for you will depend on what other components make up your digital experience management system, how they integrate with other enterprise systems, the types of content and apps and mobile platforms you need, existing developer expertise and tools, and so on. CMS and DXM vendors have to work through the possibilities with their customers and partners so are a valuable resource for helping you think through some of the options.
T5. How Should Your CMS Fit into Your Mobile Strategy?
Wednesday, December, 4: 9:40 a.m. – 10:40 a.m.
As analysts will tell you, web content management systems are now, or should be one of the core components of a larger digital experience management strategy. There are lots of questions about what this means in practice, but this session focuses specifically on how your content management system(s) can or should support your mobile presence. Should your CMS manage all mobile content? Should that include apps as well? Is mobile content delivery by the CMS active or passive? Where does the delivery layer reside? Is data incorporated by the mobile app or by the CMS? Should you create a separate system just for managing mobile content? Should your WCM mind its business and stick to the Web? Should your other CMSs stay with whatever enterprise applications they support?
Moderator: Marc Strohlein, Principal, Agile Business Logic
Speakers: Ian Truscott, VP Product Marketing, Content Management Technologies Division, SDL Loni Stark, Director of Product, Industry Marketing, Adobe
While not everybody agrees that web content management should be the hub of digital experience management implementations, there should be no doubt it is an essential core component. Certainly the WebCM / CustomerXM / DigitalXM, etc. vendors that started in web content management have an opinion, though there are many nuances in their positioning which are important to understand. Even more interesting is what they have all learned in the past few years while incorporating or integrating other technologies to help their customers build modern digital experiences for customers and employees. Vendor visions and expertise are at least as important as those of analysts, consultants, integrators, agencies, and even your peers.
C7. Building Next Generation Web Content Management & Delivery Digital Experiences – A Panel Discussion
Wednesday, December, 4: 2:00 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.
You probably need to attend every session in the conference to even learn all the questions to ask before embarking on a next generation digital experience strategy and design. In this session a panel of competing vendors will discuss what they see as the critical components and challenges based on their customer’s experiences and feedback, and on their own vision of what is possible. Vendors have lots of valuable experience and information and this is your chance to hear from knowledgeable representatives minus the PowerPoint pitch.
Moderator: Melissa Webster, Program VP, Content & Digital Media Technologies, IDC Panelists: Arjé Cahn, CTO, Hippo Robert Bredlau, COO, e-Spirit Ron Person, Sr. Consultant, Business Optimization Services, Sitecore Russ Danner, Vice President, Products, Crafter Software Loni Stark, Director of Product, Solution & Industry Marketing, Adobe
There are many reasons to be excited about the Internet of Things, a content channel is not usually considered one of them. In fact, the mere suggestion of a need to support one more digital channel is enough to cause many execs to consider a career change, never mind n additional channels, and n is the future.
Many internet things don’t and won’t need to prepare content for direct human consumption, but many will – cars and watches and glasses are just the beginning. The variety of form factors, display technologies, and application requirements will present challenges in user experience design, content strategies, content management and data integration. The session we are spotlighting today will focus on the user experience design challenges, of which there are many.
T7. Have You Talked To Your Refrigerator Today? Content and User Experience Design for the Internet of Smart Things
Wednesday, December, 4: 2:00 p.m. – 3:20 p.m. – The Westin Boston Waterfront
The web is dead. Or is it evolving into the Internet of things? If so, how can we harness the emergence of smart and app-enabled devices, appliances, homes, cars and offices into the digital gene pool? Four senior executives in experience planning and strategy, technology, creative and user experience will provide a point of view on the Internet of smart things and answer key questions, including the following, using real world examples:
How can your smart washing machine, refrigerator and dishwasher be mated with intelligent apps, CRM, and dynamic content management systems to create real-time marketing and ecommerce experiences?
What happens to content strategy and management as app-enabled “playthings” become essential to your work and family life?
What do we do as video baby monitors become digital caretaking, developmental tracking, medical monitoring, and product ordering parent-bots?
What is the optimal customer experience for using voice to simultaneously integrate and operate your car, your mechanic, your GPS, your iPod, your radio, your tablet and your smartphone?
What best practices are needed for creative designers, content strategists, marketers, and user experience designers to create engaging Internet of smart things experiences?
Moderator: Doug Bolin, Associate Director, User Experience Design, Digitas
Panelists: Michael Vessella, Vice President, Director, Experience Design, Digitas Michael Daitch, Vice President, Group Creative Director, Digitas Adam Buhler, Vice President, Creative Technology / Labs / Mobile, Digitas
Many of you will have already seen the program for the upcoming Gilbane Conference, which is organized into four tracks. But with 38 conference sessions and workshops, 90 107 speakers, and the variety of overlapping and related topics associated with content, marketing, and digital experience, it can be challenge choosing which sessions to attend. So in addition to our formal tracks, which are the best place to start, below we have created some informal suggestions for “virtual tracks” based on specific topics. These are meant to help you create your own custom program, but you will still need to check the conference schedule to make sure individual sessions don’t conflict.
Note that the Keynote sessions are not included below since they touch on a wide range of topics and are designed for all attendees.
Formal tracks
See the conference program for details on our formal tracks: Keynotes Track C: Content, Marketing, and the Customer Experience Track E: Content, Collaboration, and Employee Engagement Track T: Re-imagining the Future: Technology and the Postdigital Experience Track P: Digital Strategies for Publishing and Media.
The Economist has been running a conference largely focused on Big Data for three years. I wasn’t able to make it this year, but the program looks like it is still an excellent event for executives to get their hands around the strategic value, and the reality, of existing big data initiatives from a trusted source. Last month’s conference, The Economist’s Ideas Economy: Information Forum 2013, included an 11 minute introduction to a panel on what large companies are currently doing and on how boardrooms are looking at big data today that is almost perfect for circulating to c-suites. The presenter is Paul Barth, managing partner at NewVantage Partners.
We have our own set of speaker guidelines that are specific to our event that we ask all speakers to read. But last week there were two Harvard Business Review posts that provide some of the best advice you can find anywhere on giving a great presentation or moderating an engaging panel. These are must reads for anyone who cares about presentation or moderating skills, and strongly recommended for Gilbane Conference speakers. Even if you are already a speaking pro, each post is likely to give you at least one new idea. See:
Please review the conference and track topics below and submit your speaking proposal.
Conference description
Businesses and organizations of all kinds are struggling to keep up with the dramatic changes and challenges caused by current and near-term future potential of digital technologies. These challenges are enterprise-wide because everybody from customers to employees to partners expects an integrated and compelling digital experience that just works.
Accomplishing an engaging digital experience requires creating and managing compelling content, but also includes measuring how effective the content is, building interfaces that are consistent yet appropriate for multiple mobile channels, and integrating with e-commerce and enterprise systems. None of this should be news, but putting all the technologies and practices together is still largely uncharted or experimental territory for enterprises. Well-informed decisions on digital experience strategies require proactive dialog with experienced peers and industry experts.
At Gilbane conferences we bring together industry experts, content managers, marketers, marketing technologists, technology and executive strategists to share experiences and debate what the most effective approaches and technologies are, and how to implement them. Our theme this year is Manage – Measure – Mobilize, and we have tracks focused on the customer digital experience, employee digital experience, future technologies for digital experiences, and a track on digital strategies for publishers and information providers where we expand our theme to include Monetize.
Main conference tracks
Track C: Content, Marketing, and the Customer Experience
Designed for marketers, marketing technologists, growth hackers, content managers, strategists and technologists focused on customers and digital marketing.
Topics include:
Web content management
Customer experience management & engagement
Digital and postdigital marketing
Inbound & content marketing
Marketing automation
Measuring and analytics: Web, mobile, social, big data
Growth hacking strategies
Mobile challenges & channel priorities
Marketing technologist best practices
Responsive design
Localization & multilingual content management
Content strategies
Cross-channel marketing
E-commerce integration
Search engine strategies
Track E: Content, Collaboration, and Employee Engagement
Designed for content, information, technical, and business managers focused on enterprise social, collaboration, intranet, portal, knowledge, and backend content applications.
Topics include:
Collaboration and the social enterprise
Collaboration tools & social platforms
Enterprise social metrics
Community building & knowledge sharing
Content management & intranet strategies
Enterprise mobile strategies
Content and information integration
Enterprise search and information access
Semantic technologies
Taxonomies, metadata, tagging
Track T: Re-imagining the Future: Technology and the Postdigital Experience
Designed for technology strategists, IT, and executives focused on the future of content and either internal or external digital experiences.
Topics include:
Hybrid cloud content management
Natural language technologies
Haptic and gesture interfaces
Big data platforms and tools
Big data analytics
Visualization
The future of the open web and walled gardens
New mobile operating systems
Beyond desktops
Distributed data, distributed apps – mixing up code and data
Internet of things and digital experiences
Wearable content
Track P: Digital Strategies for Publishing and Media
Designed for publishing and information product managers, marketers, technologists, and business or channel managers focused on the transition to digital products.
Topics include:
Designing for digital products
Business models and monetization
Mixing owned, earned, and bought content
Ad technologies and strategies
App development strategies
HTML5 or no?
Multi-channel publishing
Ebook readers vs tablets
Tablets vs smartphones
Mobile publishing workflows
Matching content to platforms and devices
Submit your speaking proposal. [red]The deadline is June 30th 2013![/red]
