Content Management Matters ™

On a whole, the art of Web design has begun to be better understood as a necessity in the world of ecommerce and content management. After all, content is only as good as its design and vice versa. Once viewed as something that made your site look pretty but had little significance to the bottom line, web design is now considered an integral part of a site's success.

West coast CMSers, it's time to get yo' summit on. The Gilbane Group and Lighthouse Seminars have announced that the 2008 CM Pros U.S. Spring Summit will take place on June 17, in conjunction with the fourth Annual Gilbane San Francisco Conference which is June 18-20 at the Westin Market Hotel in San Francisco. The summit will offer attendees an in-depth forum for discussing the business and technical side of managing and delivering dynamic content.

For those attending the upcoming Gilbane conference who are more on the geeky side of the spectrum, get stoked: Udi Manber, a Google Vice President of Engineering, will start off the annual San Francisco conference on June 18th at 8:30am with a discussion on Google's search quality and continued innovation.

While Google's success is generally thought of as being a result of their use of link activity and PageRank to supplement keyword search, this is in fact just one of many signals that help provide users with most relevant results. Udi Manber will share valuable info on improving search that should be relevant to everyone in the tech industry.

"Udi Manber is the engineering vice president in charge of this ongoing, and necessarily secret effort (on improving searches). What Udi is able to share about improving search will be interesting to all, but especially valuable to knowledge workers whose need for quality search is critical," said Gilbane Group CEO Frank Gilbane.

The Gilbane Conference, now in its fourth year, has gained a reputation as a forum for bringing together vendor-neutral industry pros that share and debate the latest information technology experiences, research, trends and insights. Topics to be covered in depth will include enterprise search, text analytics and content globalization and location.

Details on the Google keynote session as well as other keynotes and conference breakout sessions can be found here.

The circus is coming to town! Join mediabistro.com, the largest online destination for media people today for jobs, classes, community and news, at their two-day summit on digital platforms and trends that are changing media.

The future of Web design is coming. In two weeks. Are you ready?

I speak of course about the conference Future of Web Design scheduled for April 17 and 18 in London. The conference features internationally-renowned design experts and alluring workshops such as Creating Sexy Style Sheets and Elastic Thinking: adaptable design in a world of uncertainty.

FOWB boasts the opportunity to learn from the best to become the best. A very tall order, indeed.

On day one, you will be whisked through the day chock-full of dynamic speakers who will extol on such topics as:

• Finding Inspiration For Design
• User Experience vs Brand Experience
• Designing the User Experience Curve
• Getting your designs approved: 12 Simple Rules
• Print is the new web
• From Design to Deployment
• Unconventional ways to promote your site
• Evolving the User Experience

On day two, you will delve into the aforementioned workshops. By the time the after party rolls around, it will be hard to determine the experts from the attendees!

Only full conference passes and the conference-in-a-box, a handy-dandy pack that contains all of the great content that you'd experience from the conference without the hassle of traveling, are still available for registrants so hurry!

I have fond memories of Web Content 2007, for that is when CMSWire.com and I first met. And it's been history in the making ever since. But alas, another year has come and gone and Web Content 2008 is just around the corner.

Web Content 2008 promises to bring together nationally recognized technology, content, and marketing authorities involved with creating, organizing, maintaining and delivering web content all the while sharing best practices, new approaches, lessons learned and provide real-world examples.

The EMC World Las Vegas 2008 is happening May 19-22 at Mandalay Bay. Billed as the ultimate educational forum, EMC World Las Vegas will provide top notch access to EMC's entire portfolio of software, platforms, solutions and services -- and plenty of drinking and gambling too, if that's your thing.

Often when I take inventory of a site's navigation and organization, I look at the analytics of the site. However, I don't concern myself so much with demographics or page views -- I am most interested in what things people are searching for. This is a great way to learn what's missing from your architecture, layout and design, as well as to gain a better perspective of what your customers are really seeking.

But there are tricks and tips to help you best utilize the search function on your site. This spring, treat yourself to a workshop that will help you understand the ins and outs of site search analytics.

Heads up North American CMSers, CMS Watch will be front and center at the AIIM International Exposition & Conference, the granddaddy of all content and information events in North America.

CMS Watch will be leading a conference session designed to help IT professionals discover how to turn content into a powerful business tool.

The Internet Strategy Forum and the Society for Information Management(SIM) are hosting an event with a name that's sure to get your attention: I Hate My CMS ? The Perils and Promise of Modern Content Management Systems. Sounds like a good Grumble Fest eh?

Happening Tuesday, February 26, 2008 (8-AM EST) at the Penn Plaza in New York City, this event is for anyone who has ever used or thought about using a Content Management System for their website.

"... while CMSes are among the most vital systems in digital businesses, they are also among the most cursed due to their limitations and idiosyncrasies."

Well said.

It's never too early to start planning your conference schedule. Especially when the conferences are designed to help you do your job better. Even better when the conference is in Las Vegas.

The Gartner Emerging Trends Symposium/ITxpo 2008 is scheduled for April 6-10 and will attempt to answer What's Next For Consumerization and Web 2.0?

Gilbane San Francisco 2008, the annual West Coast shindig for Web CMS and myriad other geekage, is currently accepting proposals for panels and presentations. Your stable of appropriate topics may include:

• Web CMS
• Enterprise wikis, collaboration, blogging (erg)
• Content globalization and localization
• "Enterprise 2.0," enterprise search, or semantic technologies
• Enterprise CMS
• Digital rights management
• Publishing technology

(Guys, please don't make this a Twitter-fest.)

Your deadline is January 15, 2008. Hurry and submit a proposal.

The conference will take place at Westin Market Hotel, San Francisco, from June 17-19. Marketh thy calendars.

Gotta love conference season. Catch Content Convergence and Integration 2008 this March 12-14 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The three-day event covers mobile, digital asset management, forward-looking XML, and plen'y of social media stuff. Days are segmented as follows: Day one for content, day two for technology, and day three for user relationships.

On the hunt for a value add with minimal commitment? Check out these webinars for NTEN.

The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) is an organization comprised of IT professionals working to empower non-profits to utilize new technology. Members learn how to “strategically use technology so that they, in turn, make the world a better, just, and equitable place.”

Those involved also get a plethora of opportunities to network, from discussion groups to webinars. Salivating yet?

As NTEN's Member Appreciation Month comes to a close, the org is hosting three webinars in three days. They focus on topics like online giving, fundraising and implementing Internet strategies. More details below.

No matter how you feel about measuring your site's stats, whether you think it to be an unfortunate driver of style over substance or as the gold standard of usability, the truth is that user experience (UX) metrics are factored into most marketing and design strategies.

Yet, there hasn't always been a clear method of how to best interpret and use UX metrics. Until now.