Speakers
Content Strategy Forum 2011 featured 38 speakers who shocked and amazed. Meet them (and watch the videos).
Headline speakers
Gerry McGovern
CEO of Customer Carewords, author, consultant, and web content pioneer.
“The customer isn’t just king anymore. The customer is dictator.”
Karen McGrane
Senior Partner at Bond Art + Science, lecturer, content strategist, and Renaissance woman.
“The hardest UX job in the world is trying to change the culture within an entrenched, traditional business.”
Single-track speakers
Margot Bloomstein
Principal of Appropriate, Inc., brand and content strategist, featured speaker at SXSWi and Web 2.0 Expo.
“When did a clear plan and concrete communication goals become nice-to-haves?”
Kristina Halvorson
CEO and founder of Brain Traffic, author, storyteller, and content strategy evangelist.
“Stop pretending content is somebody else’s problem. Take up the torch for content strategy.”
Richard Ingram
Partner at ingserv, diagrammer extraordinaire, and content strategy advocate.
“Practitioners of web content strategy come from a multitude of different backgrounds.”
Erin Kissane
Writer, content strategist, and former lead editor at A List Apart. Author, The Elements of Content Strategy.
“Content isn’t free. If it’s good, it’s very expensive to make.”
Melissa Rach
Vice President of content strategy at Brain Traffic, methodology maestro, information architect, and communications strategist.
“Today, content is one of the most important business assets in the world.”
Eric Reiss
CEO of FatDUX, EuroIA conference chair, author, designer and information architect.
“Eliminate anything that only exists to satisfy the internal politics of the site owner.”
Des Traynor
User experience design lead at Intercom, lecturer, writer, developer, and strategist.
“You know what they call a content driven site without any good content? A load of bollox.”
Lisa Welchman
Web governance pioneer, Founding Partner at WelchmanPierpoint, agent of change, and web therapist.
“Websites fall into disrepair when organizations’ management practices don’t fit the 21st century.”
Breakout speakers
Rick Allen
Principal of ePublish Media, content strategist for universities, analytics specialist.
“Without context, our data is meaningless.”
Relly Annett-Baker
Writer, content strategist, co-founder of Supernice Studio.
“The web-maker-happeners are important to content strategy.”
Martin Belam
Lead UXer at The Guardian, editor for FUMSI, and co-organiser of London IA.
“News orgs. have to deliver a higher level of customer service than ever before.”
Anne Caborn
Content development specialist, co-founder of CDA, trainer and lecturer.
“Content doesn’t just happen.”
Ove Dalen
Consultant at Netlife Research, content advocate, and author.
“Put your website on a diet.”
Sophie Dennis
Creative Director of Cayenne, web designer, and strategist.
“The design process is all about refining, improving, polishing and adjusting.”
Daniel Eizans
Digital strategist at Team Detroit, content strategist, and writer.
“Content without context is useless.”
Benjamin Fischer
Head of new media technologies at ARTE Strasbourg, design and communication professional.
“Businesses must experiment with new forms of interactive narration and communication.”
Cleve Gibbon
CTO of Cognifide, content management expert, and marketer.
“Launching a website is easy. Delivering a content publishing platform is not.”
Marko Hurst
Content Strategy Director at HUGE, measurement expert, and author.
“The practice of web analytics is both art & science, just heavily weighted in science.”
Lise Janody
Founder of Dot-Connection, content strategist for large, multi-language websites.
“Effective localisation requires balance and compromise.”
Cory-Ann Joseph
Content strategist at iQ Content, marketing specialist, and poker player.
“Effective UX design requires deeper involvement with the organisation than just the website.”
Kate Kenyon
E-commerce content expert, content strategist for Expedia, and gardener.
“Your CMS should work for your content strategy, not against it.”
Elizabeth McGuane
Lead content strategist at LBi London, writer, and editor.
“The lone wolf content strategist is in the past. Let’s teach, learn & design as a team.”
Lisa Moore
Principal of Writebyte, content and editorial strategist, chair of the UK Content Strategy Association.
“Content strategists need to come to grips with the agile approach.”
Charlie Peverett
Content strategist at iCrossing, online journalist, and editor.
“Measure content’s success in terms of how happy you make your users.”
Diana Railton
Founder of DRCC, specialist in corporate communications and content strategy.
“Never before have organisations needed to plan and manage their content so carefully.”
John Ryan
Melburnian content strategist, Director of Sitegeist, former managing editor of lonelyplanet.com.
“How can businesses take advantage of the shift to rich-media?”
Corinne Schmid
Marketer at OpenText, enterprise CMS expert, and blogger.
“Integrating game dynamics into your website, application, or campaign can drive participation.”
Tyler Tate
User experience lead at TwigKit, search expert, CSS maestro.
“Learning is at the heart of user experience.”
Catherine Toole
CEO of Sticky Content, web content specialist, trainer for Econsultancy and Nielsen Norman Group.
“Use a small content project with clear ROI to build a business case for content strategy.”
Noz Urbina
Senior Consultant at Mekon, XML expert, and management consultant.
“Product and marketing content are often at odds.”
Irene Walker
Content strategist at August Sun Projects, lover of communication and design.
“Accessibility is a vital component of good content.”
Workshop speakers
John Alderman
Creative director at the The Barbarian Group, author of New York Times “Notable Book” and communication specialist
“What happens when sharing, especially on the internet’s massive scale, is also stealing?”
Ida Hakola
Founding partner of Vapa Media, Finland's first content strategy agency, digital strategist, and writer.
“Companies should aim to be one of the good guys, by communicating openly online.”
Ilona Hiila
Founding partner of Vapa Media, Finland's first content strategy agency, digital strategist, and writer.
“If we want better web content, we need to create better technologies.”
Colleen Jones
Principal of Content Science, interactive industry veteran, author of Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content.
“Manipulation happens when you focus too much on form and not enough on substance.”
Martha Rotter
Freelance digital strategist, lecturer at National College Ireland and former Microsoft Technical Evangelist.
“In publishing, there is only the concept of the deadline, which is gospel. You stay until it’s published.”
