K1: Opening Keynote Presentations

Tuesday, November 29: 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

K2: Opening Keynote Panel - Industry Analysts Discuss Current Trends & the Future

Tuesday, November 29: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

C1: Take Control of Your Customer Experience

Tuesday, November 29: 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

In the opening session of our Customer Experience track we hear from executives from Adobe and Brightspot on what it takes to build and maintain customer experiences. Both companies have digital experience platforms and work with major brands. Join this session to hear how they advise customers on managing a digital experience business.

C2: Brands, Customers, and Partners

Tuesday, November 29: 2:40 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.

Campbell Soup and National Instruments have very different customer dialogs and journeys. But one thing both brands have in common is crafting modern customer experiences using iterative testing, measurement, and analysis to build and grow reach, and engage more deeply with customers – something all digital marketers should relate to.

C3: Narrative and Content Development Strategies

Tuesday, November 29: 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Your brand or product marketing strategy needs a coherent, consistent, and compelling narrative to succeed. You also need a plan to develop and deliver supporting and engaging content across multiple channels. And of course you won’t know if your success is due to your efforts, or the phase of the moon, unless there is a way to measure.

C4: Here Come the Bots: How Innovations in Artificial Intelligence Will Shape the Future of Content and Commerce

Wednesday, November 30: 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

Today’s online transactions are still largely web-based despite the proliferation of smartphones and mobile apps. And these transactions are often part of a fragmented purchasing experience, where a customer must move from interacting with engaging rich content to completing a series of cumbersome steps for transaction-related information like payment and delivery details. 

One solution to this experience breakdown is to enable what is becoming known as conversational commerce, where the transaction part of purchase is integrated seamlessly with the customer’s current online environment. Several tech giants like Facebook and Amazon, as well as a number of start-ups, are investing in enabling chat bots within messaging apps that make it possible for users to make purchases within the platform, rather than having to go to an external web page. 

This session will explore what the rise of conversational commerce will mean for content management and content and commerce integration.

C5: Engaging with Global Audiences: Who’s Leading Today with Contemporary Language Practices and Technologies?

Wednesday, November 30: 9:40 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.

Engaging with customers in their language and through their cultural lens is a fundamental requirement for delivering great experiences and developing the kinds of relationships that engender loyalty and advocacy. Sound a little "blah blah blah"? Let’s get real, and look at language like an executive. How does content in the language of the customer really hit the top line? Who’s making progress, how, and why? Don DePalma and Mary Laplante present their firms’ latest research on language impact on global business success. They are joined by managers from global organizations who fill out the story by sharing their practical experiences with delivering top-line results today. This is a can’t-miss session for global content and experience managers who want insight into what’s driving successful language practices today. 

C6: Engaging Global Audiences: What’s on the Horizon for Language Practices, Capabilities, and Technologies?

Wednesday, November 30: 11:40 a.m. - 12:40 p.m.

In this forward-looking session, we ask knowledgeable experts about the future of translation and localization technology infrastructures, the practices they’ll support, and the capabilities that will be required. We expect a wide-ranging discussion on the “how” of language management going forward. Topics are likely to include global campaign management, multilingual SEO, machine translation, mobile app localization, data and analytics in a multilingual environment, and always-on localization. Plus whatever’s top-of-mind for attendees who are peering into the future of global communication and engagement.

C7: How to Successfully Map Business and Technology Requirements

Wednesday, November 30: 11:40 a.m. - 12:40 p.m.

Making sure technology and practices match business requirements is often neglected completely or partially because it is a lot of work and adds cost. This neglect is never a good thing, but with big and complex projects it can be career-ending. Our speakers in this session have lots of experience managing large and complex projects and have some great experience and advice to share.

C8: Unique Mobile Marketing Challenges

Wednesday, November 30: 11:40 a.m. - 12:40 p.m.

Mobile marketing may be where the money is heading but the majority of marketers are still mystified by the metrics. What are the multichannel usage patterns? How should conversion be attributed / split. And what about the mess around advertising? Ad blocking? In-app ads? We are still learning and this is one of those sessions where almost everyone will learn something they didn’t know.

C9: Content Marketing Expert Panel

Wednesday, November 30: 2:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.

Our panel of content marketing experts will share and debate their perspectives on the latest strategies, practices, and tips. What works, what doesn’t, and how do you know. Join us in this interactive session and share your own ideas or questions.

C10: Operational Strategies for Customer Experience

Wednesday, November 30: 2:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.

By now everyone should know that building a superior customer experience is a complex and long term effort that involves far more than buying technology, or expecting your marketing organization to do it all on their own. This session looks at critical operational issues that need to be addressed for success.

C11: Real Time Personalization & Challenges

Wednesday, November 30: 2:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.

Most people will agree that some personalization provides a better digital experience, but personalization is typically difficult to implement, and even more challenging to get right. This session includes presentations from a personalization technology vendor and an agency that look at what’s easy, what’s hard, and what strategies make the difference.

C12: Digital Executives Discuss Making Multichannel Content Marketing Work at a B2B Enterprise

Wednesday, November 30: 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

A panel of digital marketing managers discusses multichannel content marketing best practices and tips & techniques specifically for B2B organizations. Join us in this interactive session and share your own ideas or questions.

C13: Managing Your Ongoing Digital Presence

Wednesday, November 30: 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

So you’ve got your new digital presence launched with carefully created / curated content, everything looks great, there are no obvious bugs, and customers love the experience. Good start. Now how are you going to keep this experience fresh and compelling on an ongoing basis? This session focuses on two complementary strategies for doing so.

C14: Video Marketing Strategies

Wednesday, November 30: 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

If you read the trade press you would think video has already taken over the world. But for most organizations it is still new, intimidating, and deployed either informally or with the help of a service provider. This session includes a presentation on the basics of video for content marketing, and a presentation on increasing the effectiveness of existing video with personalization.

E1: Intranet Success Stories From the Field

Tuesday, November 29: 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

This session focuses on two great case studies providing examples and inspiration for those in the process of reworking their own intranets. The speakers will share hands on examples of mobile friendly user experiences as well as how gamification and the right design contributes to driving adoption and changing behaviors.

E2: Trends in Digital Workplace Collaboration Tools, and Techniques

Tuesday, November 29: 2:40 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.

The tools available to enhance the digital workplace are developing rapidly which is also changing the scope of the intranet concept in most organizations. The employee experiences can benefit greatly both from the new opportunities in the 0ffice 365 stack and also non Microsoft products. In this session the speakers will explore predominant current trends and together we will explore what this means for those who are looking to invest in their platforms or make better use of the tools they already have. 

E3: Collaborating for Innovation and a Better Customer Experience

Tuesday, November 29: 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Social tools and collaboration spaces are often very useful and valuable to the groups who use them. The challenge however is to make sure that the great insights and information gathered and created can really benefit the work of everyone who should have access to it. Ultimately the work of few should be able to spread and benefit the entire organizations performance and customer satisfaction. The two presenters in this session have explored this in different ways and will share their insights. 

E4: Intranet Adoption and Success

Wednesday, November 30: 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

Intranet adoption is the constant challenge of any intranet team whether they are looking to implement new functionalities or change the way that people interact and cooperate. This session prepares you to define an adoption program based on facts from extensive research and the experiences of both large and smaller corporations. 

E5: Managing Knowledge in a Modern Digital Workplace

Wednesday, November 30: 9:40 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.

What does it take to make knowledge findable and accessible and what does it look like when it really works? Managing knowledge and making sure that it supports the right people at the right time are essential. This session will demonstrate how knowledge management can improve customer experience and discuss how this can be achieved in different kinds of organizations too.

T1: Tag Team: Hot Topics in Marketing Technology & Strategy

Tuesday, November 29: 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

In this session we have teamed up Gerry Murray and Scott Brinker to cover a few topics that are, or should be (or not!), front of mind for Chief Marketing Technologists and Chief Marketing Officers. Whether you have one of these titles or advise someone who does, you won’t want to miss this session.    

T2: Marketing Technology Expectations and Decisions

Tuesday, November 29: 2:40 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.

Picking the right technology, whether a full stack, platform, or application, for your digital experience initiative can be confusing and is usually stressful. Matching your requirements with product capabilities is hard enough, but you also need to manage your user expectations. Best to be well-informed.

T3: What's All This Talk About Headless CMSs?

Tuesday, November 29: 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

This is not a new debate, but understanding the issues involved is more important than ever given the not just multi- but many-channel world of today. The general tradeoffs are the same: flexibility in delivery versus ease of management, and various cost tradeoffs. But the applications and technologies have evolved. Either a coupled, de-coupled, or loosely-coupled approach could make sense depending on your needs and resources.

T4: Single Source Content Management, and Taxonomy Development/Management: Big Projects with Benefits

Wednesday, November 30: 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

Single source content management / publishing, and taxonomy development / management can each provide huge payback. They also have in common that they usually require a significant effort. This session includes a presentation on each type of initiative from organizations who made the effort and who will share the benefits and a few of the challenges.

T5: Optimizing with Deep Linking, Hummingbird, and Rankbrain

Wednesday, November 30: 9:40 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.

One of the challenges of optimization is that web and mobile app channels require different kinds of care and feeding. In this session we have a presentation on a strategy for each; you’ll learn about the latest in app deep linking, as well as how to optimize your site for Google’s Hummingbird and RankBrain.

T6: Blockchain to Bots: A Look at Use Cases

Wednesday, November 30: 11:40 a.m. - 12:40 p.m.

New technologies need use cases. First in theory to attract commercial investment, and second in practice to prove their worth. This session includes discussions on the potential of Blockchain for digital asset management, and the use of bots in an intranet application.

T7: Out Front with Real-Time Data & Analytics

Wednesday, November 30: 2:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.

Today’s expectations, and demand, for real time interactions would have seemed delusional a few years ago, and even now some consumers will find it difficult to comprehend the amount of data flying around at internet speed. There are challenges though, analyzing ad tech data at the same speed for example if you’re a marketer.

P1: Leveraging New Distribution Channels

Tuesday, November 29: 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Large publishers have ceded some content delivery and customer control to platforms (Facebook, Google et al) diluting their own brands; experimenting to see whether the vast reach and targeting of Facebook, for example, would return the numbers to justify loss of control. Smaller publishers have similar calculations to make and are also experimenting. Our first presentation shares an imaginative way to maintain direct access on mobile platforms. Next up, some tactical help for publishers of all sizes on how to get started with platform distribution.

P2: Content Management for Publishers – Making it Work

Tuesday, November 29: 2:40 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.

In this session America’s Test Kitchen describes how they built a content management system based on HTML5, NoSQL databases, and semantic graphs to meet their multichannel requirements. MIT Press then shares their experience and advice on running a content management operation on a, presumably not unlimited, budget.

P3: Data & Analytics for Publishers

Tuesday, November 29: 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

How do you keep your digital products in sync with how your customers use them over time? Analytics of course, but what process do you use to expose and help interpret the relevant data? NPR describes how their product teams and analysts work together to surface insights that guide product decisions. From initial due diligence around goals and hypotheses, to presenting that data to clients, we will walk you through a repeatable process to make sure you are getting the right data you need to direct the success of your products.

P4: Innovating Through Transformation

Wednesday, November 30: 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

How are media companies transforming their business from one reliant on content consumption to one in which content mixes with tools and / or community for greater engagement and new revenue? This session's case studies from The Economist and Pennwell will delve in-depth into their innovation journeys. The changes ripple across every facet of the business; hear first-hand the challenges, solutions and results.

P5: Innovation Town Hall

Wednesday, November 30: 9:40 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.

What are your challenges innovating within your organization and what advice would your peers have for you? Join us for an interactive, town-hall style session where the audience gets to drive the discussion, and everyone benefits from the sharing of frank and informative insights.

DT1: Machine Learning & Content Marketing: Using Data to Turn Stale Content into Marketing Gold

Tuesday, November 29: 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Creating captivating content is hard! It doesn't make sense to spend time and energy on content no one is interested in. With the help of data and machine learning, brands and enterprises can make their content marketing and business communications more effective and engaging. This session will explore how data-driven decisions can help give your content a boost while still preserving the human touch that makes content marketing effective.

DT2: How to Create a Smart Virtual Workspace for Your Team

Tuesday, November 29: 2:40 p.m. - 3:50 p.m.

A Gallup study of 1.4 million employees found that companies with high levels of engagement are twice as successful – with 22% higher productivity, 65% lower turnover, and 41% fewer defects. How do team leads ensure ongoing employee engagement as their companies grow and change? This fast-moving presentation will share real life examples of smart branded intranets used by F500 and high-growth Silicon Valley companies that continue to engage their employees by reducing information overload and removing cultural barriers. Attendees will learn about a methodology for designing and managing a corporate intranet deployment; how to pick software tools that fit their organization; setting up an information architecture to reduce content sprawl;and tips to speed on-boarding, boost engagement, and bring the benefits of social into their organization.

DT3: The Pros & Cons of Programmatic in the Face of Ad Fraud

Tuesday, November 29: 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

It is estimated that the programmatic display advertising marketplace in the U.S. will total $22 billion this year. These kinds of media buys will account for more than two thirds of the entire U.S. display marketplace. The popularity of programmatic makes it all the more important for marketers to understand what the technology can and cannot do--especially in an online marketplace plagued with ad fraud. This session will clarify the misconceptions and mysteries that surround programmatic, and tell you how it can work as part of your marketing strategy.

DT4: Enterprises Struggle with Web Translations – Is There a Way Out?

Wednesday, November 30: 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

A recent Forrester report shows that 92% percent of companies face challenges as they translate web content into different languages. Lack of integration between CMS and translation services or systems leads to manual processes; fragmented content repositories stymie process standardization and organizational silos lead to a hodgepodge of local solutions. During this session we’ll discuss the findings of the report, discuss the proposed way out of this chaos and want to engage with you to get your feedback and hear about your own experiences. Join us for a lively discussion!

DT5: Mobile Translation for Agile, Global Businesses

Wednesday, November 30: 9:40 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.

Digitization is transforming the enterprise information ecosystem, accelerating the delivery of products and services. Translation is no exception, as content is now created constantly and around the clock and needs turnaround in minutes versus hours or days. Mobile-powered human translation delivers speed and flexibility and is poised to grow, meeting the 21st-century translation requirements. In this presentation, Carl Yao demos Stepes, a mobile translation platform for instant, live human translation services anywhere and at anytime. 

DT6: The New Digital Workplace and 5 Steps to Building an Engaging Intranet

Wednesday, November 30: 11:40 a.m. - 12:40 p.m.

An engaged and informed workforce is fundamental to staying ahead of the curve. But simply connecting people isn't enough. A digital workplace is the sum of all your investments – in your technology and your people. And modern intranets have emerged as the mission critical tool that ties it all together. Join Mike Hicks, VP Marketing of Igloo Software to discover five actionable ways to re-wire your workplace with the help of a modern intranet.

Workshop A: Building a Business Case for a Modern Intranet

Thursday, December 1: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

The intranet is often the only business application that touches all employees in an organization but getting the funds for improvements or upgrades is difficult. There are several different reasons for this ranging from unclear ownership and differing views on what an intranet is, to very different levels of understanding of what the digital workplace can and should be. In addition, it is an internal system so improvements can wait unless there is a truly burning platform. Even then it is usually hard to get budget beyond the shoestring. 

The work you need to do to change this needs to address a set of universal intranet challenges and make sure that you document them in a format that can travel well.

You will probably (or hopefully) not encounter all the challenges that this workshop explores but with the examples from the session under your belt you will be better equipped for the ones you do: 

Sara will provide examples and inspiration from working with intranet business cases in other organizations and together we will discuss the challenges of the participants and make sure everyone can leave one step closer to a successful and meaningful digital workplace project. 

Target audience:Intranet/digital workplace teams looking to fund a new digital workplace platform or an upgrade of their existing one. 

Sara has extensive experience helping teams doing the necessary research and building business case material to enable technical investments as well as organizational. The key is to locate the right data, user insights, benchmarks and visions to support the business case.

Workshop B: An Anatomy of a Digital Audit

Thursday, December 1: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Marketing management has never been so exciting -- or daunting. The proliferation of digital tactics and lightweight technology has cleared the path for us to take genuine ownership of our operations, and be less reliant on other areas of the organization to do our jobs. 

While this new reality is empowering, it also comes with challenges. Indeed, today’s senior marketing manager is not only tasked with traditional responsibilities such as brand shepherding and lead generation, but also line items such as data analysis, technology portfolio optimization, and vendor relations. 

To survive and thrive in this environment, it’s become increasingly important for us to measure performance using a systems-oriented approach. In this workshop, attendees will learn how to assess their digital marketing operations in entirety, and identify opportunities for improvement and costs savings. 

The session will explain a comprehensive 30-point methodology for conducting an assessment, with specific focus on the following four areas of the marketing operation: 

While the core of this workshop will rely on referencing an actual case study, it will also be interactive, with attendee company assessments worked into the session. 

Workshop C: The Right Way to Select Digital Content Technology

Thursday, December 1: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

If you are a website or intranet manager or architect, this year may well find you looking to implement new tools or refresh dated platforms. However, you face a wide and growing array of vendors willing to address your problems. Which ones offer the best fit for your particular circumstances?

This fast-paced workshop led by Real Story Group founder Tony Byrne will help you understand the broad but converging marketplaces for Web CMS technologies. Tony will sort out the key players and business models, and offer you a roadmap for deciding which types of technologies and vendors provide the best long-term fit for your needs. The workshop will answer several key questions:

Workshop D: Mapping Customer Journeys and Managing Content: How to Align Practices for Great Customer Experience

Thursday, December 1: 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Journey-driven engagement and content management go hand-in-hand. Once you understand the journey that your customer wants to take, you need to deliver the content that will advance him or her along the path. Many organizations are investing in developing journey maps – but they have yet to connect their maps to their content in ways that enable those journeys to be really effective and satisfying for customers, yet manageable and efficient for marketers and content managers. 

Instructor Cathy McKnight leads this practical workshop that will show you how to overlay your journey maps onto your content management infrastructure and evolve your CMS as a true hub of engagement. Cathy starts the workshop with a brief journey mapping exercise, using a scenario developed in real time by attendees. After a brief review of the technology landscape for experience management solutions, attendees will learn the how to leverage their CMS and other marketing technology solutions to support the customer on his or her journey. 

As a result of attending this workshop, you will understand the basics of the customer journey mapping process, and you’ll be in a position to speak knowledgeably with colleagues, managers, technology partners, and service providers about your organization’s infrastructure requirements for executing journey mapping strategies and tactics.

Workshop E: Designing Taxonomies and Metadata for CMS Implementation

Thursday, December 1: 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

A content management system (including WCM, ECM, and DAM systems) supports the categorizing or classification of content through the use of taxonomies or metadata, which can greatly enhance the ease of content retrieval. But simply importing an off-the-shelf taxonomy or metadata schema is not sufficient. Taxonomies and metadata need to be designed to best represent the unique content set and the particular users.

The workshop will begin with an introduction on basic principles and best practices in taxonomy design for hierarchical and faceted taxonomies, including term wording, hierarchical relationship rules, and the creation of synonyms/alternate labels, using real life examples. The workshop will then also cover these issues:

A recent blog post by the instructor introduces some of these issues:http://accidental-taxonomist.blogspot.com/2016/05/taxonomy-design-for-content-management.html

Workshop F: Taking The Fast Track of Digital Globalization to Deliver Digital Experiences Globally

Thursday, December 1: 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Digital content and platforms are global in nature as they allow you to reach out to any audience in any part of the world. However this does not mean that they enable you to create a global experience by default. As competition is never far away in this digital age you need to engage with customers quickly and deliver on local expectations effectively. In other words globalizing organizations must initiate or accelerate their digital evolution to delight ever more demanding and diverse customers across geographies.

Setting the stage is therefore critical to make the right moves at the right time. With international customers and cost leadership in mind you can leverage a number of globalization enablers to pave the way towards excellence and growth and articulate them around digital pillars including simplicity, automation and customer centricity. This session will take you on a journey to: