Content is king at Web Content 2007

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.

Two Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty-One Things To Do In Chicago

Plan to stay in Chicago for a few days after Web Content 2007 or arrive early and spend the weekend trying to see the more than 2000 special events planned while you are in town. Chicago is famous for blues and jazz, baseball and hotdogs, deep-dish pizza, modern architecture, and fireworks. It’s downright American. So enjoy your summer and spend some time seeing something besides the glow of your MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo Notebook.

To help you map out all that fun, log on to metromix.com, the Chicago Tribune’s internet entertainment guide. There you can search more than 9000 restaurants and 4000 bars and clubs—not to mention theaters, museums, music venues and festivals. Or if that seems a bit overwhelming, search by category and date to trim your options down to more like 1056 things to do while you are in town. Or how about if we just tell you some of the stuff that pops up.

First, about those fireworks. Look out your window toward the lake every Wednesday at 9:30pm and Saturday at 10:15pm and you’ll see an explosive display set off from Navy Pier just past the 150-foot-high Ferris wheel. Fireworks only last about 10 minutes, but they’re free. And if you head over to the Pier you can enjoy every kind of food and drink imaginable, ride that Ferris wheel, visit the Children’s Museum, or see a play at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. From there, miles of the Lake Michigan shoreline are waiting for you to walk, jog, bike, or just frolic. The beach is clean and not too crowded on a weekday. Bike rentals are available.

If you land in town the weekend before Web Content 2007, the Cubs are playing at Wrigley Field on both afternoons. Check out the roster, schedule, and ticket availability at the official Cubs web site. Also good to visit weekends or any time is the Lincoln Park Zoo. It’s not just for kids. It’s free (lot parking is 12 bucks, but you won’t have a car anyway), and it’s near the shoreline. This zoo has paths leading through several outdoor exhibits and into the protection of barns, a reptile house, and a lion house in case it rains.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the shopping in downtown Chicago. It’s er . . . magnificent. More than a mile of the finest designer and specialty shop line the streets just blocks from the conference venue. Shopping is so big here, four themed seasonal festivals are built around it. While you are in town Gardens of the Magnificent Mile gives you a chance to explore dramatic gardens and displays that flow along the shopping paradise.

If that all sounds a bit too nice, there’s always Body Slices at the Museum of Science and Industry, an exhibit of “anatomical selections prepared in the 1930’s and 40’s as teaching tools for medical students.” Combine that with CSI: The Experience also at the Museum, and you are set for some freaky fun. Other museums in the city, such as the Field Museum of Natural History and the John G Shedd Aquarium (both on the same grounds), are loaded with special exhibits, including the highly recommended Lizards and Komodo Dragon exhibit at the Shedd.

But maybe you just want to enjoy a show after the conference winds down. The Blue Man Group is always in town at the Briar Street Theater. There is also a Movies in the Parks film series. Event dates aren’t public yet, so bookmark the Chicago Parks District to see what’s going on the week you are in town. Buddy Guy’s Legends , the most famous blues bar in the country is in Chicago and just a cab’s ride away. Legend’s is the sort of place Mick Jagger and John Mayer have been known to drop in for a late-night session. The area around the place is admittedly “gritty.” But if you don’t mind, they won’t mind your khaki pants. Blues are presented seven nights a week. Grown ups only please.

And near by the conference is the Grant Park Sprit of Music (and Dance) Festival, the nations only free outdoor classical music series. It continues for 11 weeks at Millennium Park. So if you can’t seem to fit it in on this visit, you can always come back. No smoking allowed in the music pavilion, but you are encouraged to bring a picnic.

And did we forget to mention Jerry Springer, Chicago’s own? Check out Jerry Springer, the Opera at Bailiwick Arts Center. Oh, and opera, and the arts, and . . .just log on and find out for yourself.

Jason Fried Spills Some Beans

Jason Fried spilled the beans about his new product, Highrise, and the Chicago tech scene in Crain’s Smalltalk Tuesday, May 1. One of Crain’s 40 under 40 wunderkind in 2006, Jason built and is piloting 37 Signals, his software development firm. Metaphorically appropriate, Jason will continue spilling his beans over lunch at WebContent 2007. You can count on hearing unabashed opinions about project management, collaboration and meetings as well as how he thinks it should be done.

Salim Ismail is in the Brickhouse

We were not surprised to see the mention in Monday’s (4/30/07) Sun Times about Web Content 2007 Keynote speaker Salim Ismail. It seems that Salim is rarely sitting still and what he does is often newsworthy. His latest gig is running Yahoo!’s Brickhouse, effectively a Yahoo! skunk works for internally generated prospective new products. With only a few months of Yahoo! under his belt, it will be interesting to see what we might learn when we get together in June.

Conference Sponsors Pile In

No sooner had the Conference been announced than leading sponsors stepped forward to help insure the success of Web Content 2007. Recognizing both the need and value of a Midwest conference on Content Management, Sitecore, Serena, Hot Banana and FatWire offered to help underwrite some of the costs. Although “grateful” might be one response to the eager participation of these leading content management firms, the fact is that it’s smart money to be where the action is. Leading speakers, progressive sponsors, a welcoming and intimate venue and summer in Chicago are ingredients suggesting that the Web Content 2007 is one soup worth tasting.

Meet our sponsors:

• Sitecore provides web content management and portal software to organizations requiring enterprise-class functionality, integration and scalability.
• Serena is the world’s largest software company focused exclusively on helping companies solve the problems—and leverage the opportunities—created by change.
• Hot Banana is an award-winning Web Content Management System that helps marketers build and manage SEO-friendly Web sites that can be automated and optimized for maximum lead generation and conversion performance.
• FatWire Software helps organizations put content to work by deploying highly persuasive content-centric applications and Web sites.

Symposium Dedicated to Internet Web Content

Michael Silverman, CEO of Chicago Internet consultancy Duo Consulting, has initiated the organization of Web Content 2007, a symposium intended to feature both strategies and tactics for leveraging website internet content to achieve business objectives. According to Michael, “There are seminars on search engine optimization, email marketing, ecommerce, web design and more, but what really unites all these web components is content. Content is king and all these other things are just members of the royal court.”

After 2 years of successfully producing a regularly sold-out quarterly series of seminars called Content Counts, Duo Consulting joined together with The Content Wrangler, for this ambitous effort to bring together a powerful group of nationally recognized authorities on web design, development and technology for this inaugual symposium focused exclusively on content management. The 2-day conference is set for June 18 and 19, 2007 and will be held at the Conference Center in UBS Tower.

The purposefully intimate setting is intended to provide the 150 attendees an opportunity to get up close and personal with other business professionals with similar content management issues and recognized Internet and web content management authorities who work daily at the cutting edge.