Pioneers

The first-ever content strategy conference was run by CS Forum in Paris last year. It is now an annual event, working to unique principles while building on detailed feedback.

Different people, with different backgrounds, naturally view content strategy in different ways. Finding out what they take away from a conference is just as important as providing it.

As web governance expert Lisa Welshman observed at CS Forum 2011: ‘There were serious talks about the future of content strategy as a discipline. In the halls, however, I had talks with people who were still debating the validity of content strategy as a profession.’

This is very useful. Great conferences have many outputs. Conversations, applications, publications….

Across the world

I was amazed how far people had travelled. As Jonathan told us, delegates came from 20 countries and five continents. Many I spoke to had crossed the world just to attend it.

The 39 speakers represented 11 countries. The record went to John Ryan from Australia.

Cutting edge

The two-day schedule covered a wide range of cutting-edge topics and issues.

A single track on day one brought together some of the world’s best-known content experts, with keynotes by Gerry McGovern and Karen McGrane. It ended with four five-minute, lightning talks – notoriously hard to deliver.

You can see all the day-one talks on video.

On the second day there were three streams to choose from. Hard at times because each presentation had so much to offer. It wound up with a panel led by Kristina Halvorson. And then, of course, another party.

Many of the slides from day two are on Slideshare but you have to search for them. Some have been listed.

Here are the slides from my talk, ‘How content strategy supports communications strategy’:

Fast reviewers

Two amazingly fast and detailed reviewers were Martin Belam from the Guardian and James Perrin from Koozai.

Martin, writing under ‘currybet’, published several blog posts within minutes of talks finishing. All his notes are in this pdf.

James’s summary of all the day-one talks and the ones he went to on day two are an excellent record.

Other posts I enjoyed are:

• Content Strategy Forum 2011 in review by Rick Yagodich
• Hearing voices: CS Forum 2011 by Melissa Rach

What next?

Jonathan and his co-organisers, Randall Snare and Destry Wion, and all their helpers, earned huge thanks for making CS Forum 2011 so amazing.

Next year, we can already look forward to these content strategy conferences:

•  Content Strategy Forum 2012 in Cape Town in October
•  Content Strategy Applied 2012 at eBay in London, 1-2 March
•  Confab, the largest of all, in Minneapolis, 14-16 May

What I’d love to see is content strategy featured in more digital and corporate communications conferences. The J Boye Aarhus Web and Intranet conference this November sets a great example.

Published on: 21 October 2011