Web Strategy Summit Conference

The Web Strategy Summit is a new event with a unique focus: creating business value by using the web, mobile, social media and related technologies. This is a subject that touches on a number of disciplines, from marketing to IT to customer service to design.

The conference takes place on May 5th at the Delta Bow Valley Hotel

Keynotes

• Analytics 2.0: The Art of Customer Centricity & Failing Faster. - Avinash Kaushik, Google
  We live in perhaps the most data rich environments in the world yet decision making on the web is incredibly “faith based”. In his keynote Avinash presents his Analytics 2.0 framework and outlines how it can power true customer centricity by answer both the “What” and the “Why” questions. He also shares why for one of the greatest gift from the web is your ability to “fail faster”, thus creating a much more customer centric and a much more profitable web experiences.
• Crowdsouring for Inspiration - Patrick Lor, co-founder, iStockPhoto
  Once dubbed by competitors as “crappy images for crappy people”, crowdsourced stock photography is now well on its way to dominating the stock photo industry. With a powerful mix of community and technology, amateur photography was one of the first industries to create millions of dollars of value for both workers and customers. Patrick explains how iStockphoto worked hand-in-hand with a community to harness their inspiration and imagination into a world-class product.
• The Future of the Social Web - Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Research
  Although social networks have caught the attention of brands and consumers, today’s social landscape is a primitive series of unconnected islands. Expect new technologies to emerge that connect all systems and communities together -that allow communities to spread and share from one another. This simple technology changes the web landscape as consumers rely on their peers to make decisions, any web experience can now be personalized, and social networks become as powerful as CRM systems. Marketers must be ready for the drastic changes to come as power shifts to micro-celebrities, communities, and social networks -not traditional marketing.

Sessions

• Designing the Viral App - Christina Wodtke, LinkedIn
  In this short session, I’ll focus on the critical comments of defaults, sharing mechanisms, updates, notifications and even SEO as holistic elements of a viral system that is currently driving the popularity of social networks and social media successes everywhere. I’ll talk about the underpinnings needed to devise a successful social system as well, touching on identity, reputation and relationships in digital communities.
• Measuring Success When Profits Are Not the Bottom Line - Emira Mears, Raised Eyebrow
  Drawing on case studies from our non-profit and government sector clients, in this presentation Emira will look at different ways to help your clients (or your own organization) set up measures of success for online communications plans that use alternative metrics and evaluation tools. The examples used will help participant set up their own frameworks for determining a solid return on investment for your own online communications projects.
• How to Get Started with Social Media: A Focus on the Process - Chris Wightman, City of Ottawa
  Many organizations face large obstacles to introducing social media, including technology capacity and knowledge, privacy, accessibility, and language considerations; and the single largest challenge: resistance to cultural change. The City of Ottawa’s e-Media team will share the how they created a business case for social media, the social media strategies they’ve used and successes they’ve achieved.
• Going Beyond Web Analytics to Dig into the Minds of Your Users - Dianne Howie
  Logitech’s Harmony Remote Control division has collected so much data through web analytics that it is often hard to know what to focus on. This session will draw examples from three years of work on Logitech’s Harmony remote web-based setup application, and the Harmony remotes themselves, to show the value of adding a variety of qualitative research methods to your quantitative analysis. In this session we’ll share some of the cost effective and quick things that Logitech has done to get into their users’ mindset.
• Getting a Little Respect: The Maturing Role of the Corporate Internet Strategist - Dan Evans, Evans Hunt
  The lack of strategic oversight for the Web at the senior‐most level in many organizations often means misaligned goals and missed business opportunities. Dan will present highlights from current research that examines the scope, structure, influence and challenges of in‐house Internet executives.
• Using Iterative Navigation Testing to Guide Strategy for Content Rich Sites - Karyn Zuidinga, Analytic Design Group
  For information-rich sites—-which encompasses most intranets, government sites, public agency sites, and large companies—-the information architecture is the expression and foundation of that site’s web strategy. This talk will explore iterative navigation testing, a tool we designed to guide strategy for content-rich sites and sell changes to senior management.
• Rethinking Sharepoint - Toby Spendiff, nForm
  Thousands of businesses rely on Sharepoint every day to manage information and collaborate. And yet their users struggle with the interface, customization requirements, and Sharepoint’s viral nature. For two years Toby has worked on rethinking the Sharepoint experience so that it works more effectively for business and their employees. He’ll talk about the results of his work and share ideas for more effective business collaboration in this session.