Schedule information courtesy of Blog Business Summit.
Reception Location
The Reception, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Monday night, is at the Marriott Waterfront, right across the street from the Bell Harbor, in Salon A of the Grand Pacific ballroom.
Sessions Locations
All sessions will be held in the Bay Auditorium with the exception of the Corante (webcast) session which will be held in the Pacific Board Room.
Session Topics and Schedule
Monday January 24, 2005
9:00am to 10:00am
Keynote Address: The Blog Advantage
Robert Scoble
Simply put, Blogs are eating the lunch of many traditionally architected sites. In terms of reach, influence, cost and convenience, the advantages are indisputable and significant. For those still building sites the “old” way, this hour will reveal why the future belongs to Bloggers. Robert Scoble, who FastCompany Magazine claims “may well be one of the most powerful people in Redmond” has helped shape Microsoft’s blogging strategy, and has advised Bill Gates on the market opportunities. Robert will reveal why this new architecture rules and how to take full advantage of it.
10:15am to 11:15am
Blog Business Models: What Strategies Make Money
Brian Alvey and Marc Canter
Business people worldwide are asking “where’s the ROI in blogging?” This session will show the tangible bottom line advantages to posting relevant information your customers can make use of. From revenue-generating sales sites to cost-reducing support portals, see how corporations are measuring the success of their efforts.
11:30am to 12:30pm
Building Traffic: Posting isn’t Enough!
Molly Holzschlag
You’ve got a fantastic blog. The design is beautiful, the content rich and relevant. But your stats are showing that only three people have visited since last July. What can you do? In this session, long-time blogger Molly E. Holzschlag will show you some of the best ways to build blog traffic quickly, increase interest in you and your product or service, and improve your bottom-line results. * The pros and cons of comment systems * How to use Trackback and Pingback to rapidly extend your blog’s reach * How content aggregation technologies can quickly get your blog content to a wider audience * How to improve blog ranking with both standard and blog-specific search engines * Tips and tricks to keep your visitors coming back for more
12:30pm to 2:00pm
Lunch
1:15pm to 2:00pm
True Voice Webcast
Stowe Boyd, Robert Scoble
Corante's Stowe Boyd will be hosting a True Voice webcast entitled "True Voice: The Business of Blogging" and will involve various panelists from the conference addressing the themes now surrounding the exploding use of blogs in the business context. The webcast will include conference attendees and people who will call in via telephone.
2:00pm to 3:00pm
The Entrepreneurial Blog: Monetizing Your Interests
Brian Alvey and Glenn Fleishman
Knowledgeable bloggers have discovered that it’s possible to make money (and in some cases BIG money) from posting frequently about the topics they obsess about. What are the ways to take advantage of this entrepreneurial model? Two of the pioneers in this space will show you how they have been able to manage multiple blogs for profit and the practical realities of the game.
3:15pm to 4:15pm
Picking a Platform: Blogging Engines Compared
Molly Holzschlag and DL Byron
There's more to a Blog engine than just price. Once you've made your choice, transitioning can be a challenge—so you'll want to pick the optimal platform. If you have chosen, it's not too late to move to a more robust environment. This session will cover all the major issues in selecting and migrating to the best system. Molly and Byron will cover: * Insuring scalability * Spam prevention * Workgroup options * Feature sets * Pinging, publicity, and broadcast features * Extendability, plug-ins and upgrades * Being “orphaned”, and how to prevent it.
4:30pm to 5:30pm
True Voice: The Art and Science of Blog Writing
Stowe Boyd and Halley Suitt
Writing is the pivotal element in becoming a well-regarded and influential blogger, but good writing is much more than grammar and word choice. Discovering your “true voice” — a writing style that connects directly with others and reveals your character, passion, and perspective, as well as telling a story — can be challenging. And, of course, it is more than artistry: there is a science to making sure that Google likes your headlines, and tactics to mix up the kinds of posts you make so that others will come back frequently. This session will help you refine your writing to engage in a richer dialog with your community of readers. * First read, then write: being engaged in dialog * Write about what you care about: be passionate * Why not to use Journalistic style * Blog entry archetypes: what are the different kinds of entries, and what are they good for?
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Blog Business Summit Reception
Mariott Waterfront
Mingle with your fellow bloggers and share some beverages and munchies. We’ll be holding the party at the swank Marriott Waterfront across the street from the conference center. The reception is free for all conference attendees.
Tuesday January 25, 2005
9:00am to 10:00am
Good Blog Design: Speed, Accessibility, Transparency, and Clarity
DL Byron and D. Keith Robinson
Good content is a requirement, but there’s a lot more to a good blog than just the posts. Standard templates are fine, but there are a myriad of reasons why you’ll want to customize and enhance with a unique layout. Proper blog design can insure your branding, position, and message are optimally projected. Beautiful, cross-device, navigable, and fast loading sites that search engines love are a must. This session will cover what top bloggers do to get the best of all possible worlds.
10:15am to 11:15am
Corporate Blogging: Strategy and Policy
Lenn Pryor and Matthew Oliphant
Before you flip the switch and encourage employees to blog about the business, it’s critical that you set the stage for responsible posting. Resolving ownership issues. It’s equally important as an employee writing about your employer to be aware of potential “land mine” issues that could affect your job security. This panel of experts will cover the most critical policy areas, and how to deal with them. * Integrating blogs and confidentiality agreements * Accuracy mandates * Do disclaimers help? * SEC and “quiet period” restrictions. * Reconciling personal opinions against implied corporate representation * Competitor linking and dialog—how open do you want to be? * Screening and editing posts..
11:30am to 12:30pm
Marketing Strategies and Tactics: PR and Beyond
Buzz Bruggeman and Pete Blackshaw
Millions have chosen the Web as their default news source, and the number grows every day. With the growing adoption of RSS readers, the trend is accelerating toward blogs as the essential Web resource. How can you leverage this movement as you plan your marketing and PR campaigns? This session will teach how to leverage the self-publishing efforts of employees, executives, partners, and customers to your organizations advantage. * The death of the press release * Using blogs to get media placements * Community building techniques * Positioning yourself or your company as an “authority” in your chosen field. * Presenting an “authentic voice”.
12:30pm to 2:00pm
Lunch
1:30pm to 1:55pm
Lunchtime Demo: Blog-Based Project Management Using Basecamp
Jason Fried
Basecamp is a simple blog-based project-management application that's billed as a "client extranet tool for creative-services firms," but its user base is much broader than that. It's also used by accounting firms, banks, public schools, and wedding planners. With Basecamp, project communication and schedules are centralized, automatically organized, archived by date and topic, and accessible from any computer with a web browser.
2:00pm to 3:00pm
Dealing with Bloggers: Partnering and Defense Strategies
Robert Scoble, Buzz Bruggeman, Anil Dash
PR professionals worldwide are learning (sometimes the hard way) that bloggers are a serious force to be reckoned with, and essential to have on your side. Organizations like Dr. Pepper, Kryptonite, and CBS News tried to ignore the negative messages being put forth by bloggers and discovered that proper action was mandatory. In this session, the best leverage and damage control techniques will be revealed. * How to get the bloggers to deliver the right positive message(s) * Prioritizing the bloggers * The power of linking to your critics * Saying you’re sorry—what the Lawyers don’t know
3:15pm to 4:15pm
Enhancing Internal Communications with Blogs, Wikis, and More
Nick Finck, Biz Stone, and Mary Hodder
With so many virtual teams today, along with what some are calling the “collapse of email”. Organizations are looking for new and innovative ways for teams to communicate. For many, the integrated communication and information-sharing system that inexpensive Blogs and Wikis provide are just what the doctor ordered. In this session, attendees will learn: * What tools provide what benefits * Real-world examples of organizations leveraging these applications * How to overcome organizational resistance to new systems * How self-organizing communities can benefit your company.
4:30pm to 5:30pm
Media Blogging: Podcasting and Beyond
Lenn Pryor, Chris Pirillo, and Jake Ludington
The 17 billion dollar a year radio advertising market is growing at a healthy 10% a year because drivetime listeners are an increasingly valuable resource. Imagine being able to capture the attention of a targeted slice of this audience for little to no cost. That’s just one of the reasons Podcasting is getting so much attention these days. This session will teach how to get your content into audio format immediately, and the considerations for video broadcasting. * Receiving video and audio feeds * Recording your own podcasts * Serving audio and video content * The future: Blogging for TV * Revenue models for audio blogging
