Content Matters

This year's Buying & Selling eContent conference was a good networking opportunity in a beautiful locale, as always.  But, as Steve points out, there was little provocative discussion this year.  In my post-conference survey, where it asks for the three best speakers, I listed them as John Blossom, Patrick Spain and David Meerman Scott.  While all three always have something interesting to say, they are also the voices that I read and speak to somewhat regularly.  For me, there were no "aha" moments at this year's BSeC. 

That said, this is primarily a networking conference and the conversations, both in the formal sessions and at the informal venues, were compelling and interesting.  I commend Dick Kaser for his efforts to reshape the conference around these conversations, which were a big improvement over past years.

The Tuesday lineup at BSeC looks strong.

The morning starts with a roundtable, moderated by Marydee Ojala, part II of the "New Media Models in Practice" session.  It features E&Y's Mike Stelzer, Jim McGinty  of Cambridge Information Group and consultant Cindy Hill.

Rafat Ali will follow with this morning's Think Piece.  Rafat follows some faster-moving market segments and I expect (hope) his piece to be controversial and thought provoking.

Tolman Geffs of Jordan Edmiston and Bobbie Goering, librarian at energy provider Exelon will follow with a discussion of the impact of mergers. 

The obligatory discussion of content piracy wraps up the morning, but with a slightly different spin.  Corilee Christou of Cygnus Business Media will talk about "Piracy as a Business Model - What's to be learned from the Pirates".

After lunch, the conference concludes with a keynote from David Meerman Scott, on his "New Rules of Marketing and PR".

For more coverage of BSeC, check the following blogs:
John Blossom's ContentBlogger
Rafat Ali's PaidContent

Steve Goldstein on the AlacraBlog

Live Blogging from BSeC
No wireless in the conference center (stifles a bit of the user-generated content capability), so posts will be sporadic the next two days.

Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group President Clare Hart kicked off the conference with the opening keynote.  Clare focused on three key areas:
1. Major changes in the industry
2. What buyers and sellers need to do to adapt
3. What the Dow Jones Enterprise Group is doing

Clare enumerated keys for success in Web 2.0: innovation, simplicity, continuous evolution and accessibility.  She used the term prosumer to frame people who were both producers and consumers of content.  Key for success in the web 2.0 world will be engaging with these prosumers in a way that is easy to use, fast and accessible via both desktop and mobile platforms.

On the Dow Jones front, Clare spoke of efforts to move towards a web 2.0 world, but today those remain fairly limited, for example, making more content available on a mobile platform.

She closed her keynote by posing three challenges to the attendees:
1. Come away from the conference with three ways to transform your organization into a web 2.0 organization.
2. Consider the best ways to engage with prosumers and build communities (whether social or technological)
3. Brainstorm with colleagues (and even competitors) about new business models for your industry.

Today kicks off the annual Buying & Selling eContent conference at the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale.

Today's events open with a keynote by Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group CEO Clare Hart.

Later this morning, Michele Manafy hosts a discussion on new media models (being 2007, can we finally drop that "new media" term and just talk about online strategy?).  Panelists include Hoovers CEO Paul Pellman, Jonathan Hoy of LexisNexis, PennWell SVP Tom Cintorino and Daniel Harrison, Senior Research Associate for Consumer Reports.

The morning wraps up with a think piece from John Blossom of Shore Communications.

After lunch, there will be a series of "Knowledge Cafes", David Gurteen's approach to discussions groups.  I will be facilitating the Vertical Search cafe, so hopefully I will see you there.  Other cafes will be led by Hal Espo, Joe Bremner, Jane Dysart, Martin White, Bill Noorlander, Corey Ferengul and Nikolai Kopelev.

The afternoon wraps up with a keynote by Highbeam CEO Patrick Spain, entitled "Back to the Future: Will All Content Be Free (Again)?"

This Sunday kicks off the annual Buying and Selling eContent (BSeC) Conference at Camelback in Scottsdale.

BSeC is always a great opportunity to catch up with familiar faces in the content industry.  The gorgeous setting makes for a great atmosphere. 

This year's conference has a great lineup, with keynotes by Clare Hart, Patrick Spain and David Meerman Scott.  Speakers and panelists include Hoovers President Paul Pellman, Rafat Ali, Jordan Edmiston MD Tolman Geffs and the inimitable John Blossom.  Full speakers' bios are available at the BSeC wiki.

And, of course, there's the customary Monday evening cocktail party at Mummy Mountain, which always draws a strong crowd.

I'll be leading a "Knowledge Cafe" discussion group Monday afternoon focusing on how to leverage vertical search to drive revenues, so please join in if you plan to be there.

I hope to see you in Scottsdale.