CS Forum 2011

[Kenneth Yau]

Hi,

Now the volcanic ash has settled on the Content Strategy Forum in
Paris, I wanted to pick the brains of the group about next year's
event.

Organising something like CS Forum and making it successful doesn't
happen by itself, so much kudos to Destry and Stuart for the massive
amount of skill and work they put into it.

Given the amount of work involved, I was hoping to get a feel for
people's thoughts on next year's CS Forum. There's a very tentative
idea of organising this in London so I think it makes sense to have a
discussion now before anyone is committed to a location. Please feel
free to respond with any comments on any aspect of this. I'm being
deliberately vague in my request for your general thoughts about what
you'd like to see at the next CS Forum.

Cheers,

Ken

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[Randall Snare]

Hi Ken,

Good idea (yay planning).  Seeing as the questions we heard over and over at the conference were "how can I make a case for CS at my company/for my clients?" and on the heels of Fiona's blog post, I think next year's conference should focus on how CS has actually worked.  Whereas this year, the focus was "Hey, we exist!"; next year's should be, "Look at the difference/money/overall happiness we've created."  Still quite broad.  I'll leave it up to you Londoners to start the whittlin'.

Regards,
Randall

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[Diana Railton]

Excellent idea to have next year's CS Forum in London, or another part of
the UK.

Completely agree with Randall's suggestion about the focus.

Regards
Diana

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[Rachel Lovinger]

I think real Randall's suggestion is a great idea, but I also heard a lot of talk about wanting to go deeper into the practice. So maybe one track on case studies and one on various practice issues (and one more? Trends?).

Some of us who were stranded were talking about doing one of these in Tokyo - but I think that might take a bit longer than a year to arrange. So 2011 in London sounds great. Based on the reception to the talks that Karen, Jeff, and Clare participated in before CS Forum, it should be a very welcome event.

Let's not invite the volcano next year, though. :)

- Rachel

On Apr 30, 2010 9:49 AM, "Diana Railton" <diana....@drcc.co.uk> wrote:

Excellent idea to have next year's CS Forum in London, or another part of
the UK.

Completely agree with Randall's suggestion about the focus.

Regards
Diana

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[Rachel Lovinger]

Ignore the word "real" in that first sentence. I don't know what that was supposed to be. Typing on a Nexus One.

- R

On Apr 30, 2010 2:16 PM, "Rachel Lovinger" <rachel....@gmail.com> wrote:

I think real Randall's suggestion is a great idea, but I also heard a lot of talk about wanting to go deeper into the practice. So maybe one track on case studies and one on various practice issues (and one more? Trends?).

Some of us who were stranded were talking about doing one of these in Tokyo - but I think that might take a bit longer than a year to arrange. So 2011 in London sounds great. Based on the reception to the talks that Karen, Jeff, and Clare participated in before CS Forum, it should be a very welcome event.

Let's not invite the volcano next year, though. :)

- Rachel

>
> On Apr 30, 2010 9:49 AM, "Diana Railton" <diana....@drcc.co.uk> wrote:
>

> Excellent idea t...

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[Rahel Bailie]

Great ideas - I would be amenable to organizing a Forum in Vancouver - perhaps alternating with another "destination" location. It would have to be an event that wouldn't pull from European attendees, but would provide a venue for those unable to work the European event into their schedules/budgets/approvals.

Rahel

===
Rahel Anne Bailie, Content Strategist / CM Consultant
Intentional Design Inc. www.intentionaldesign.ca
Content strategies for business impact      Tel. 604.837.0034 (PT, GMT -8)
Social apps (skype, twitter, etc): rahelab
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rahelannebailie

[Brian E. Kirby]

An idea I've toyed with for the CS-NYC group that I'll throw out to the list at large: why not get a small group of relatively unharried CSers (or folks looking to break into the field) and create a case study?

There are plenty of small business websites out there, and someone might know someone who knows someone that has a site that needs a loving CS touch. So pitch them a free (or cheap) CS makeover; in exchange, they allow you to document the process and create an open case study that can be used by the community at large as a tool to prove CS's usefulness.

It'd probably also be good for a couple Forum presentations, since you'd not only be able to show the before and after states, but also how you went back a few months later to enact the "maintenance" phase of the lifecycle.

-Brian

[Destry Wion]

As I read the responses so far about the idea of CS Forum 11, I'm
struck by all the positive enthusiasm, but at the same time some
important considerations seem to be overlooked at this stage (what Ken
is probably really looking for) -- the name that will be behind it and
the bank roll to pull it off!

CS Forum 10 worked because two reasonably large chapters of STC worked
together, pooling human and monetary resources (albeit humble at that)
to get the ball rolling. If you don't have initial capital to make a
myriad of down payments on things you absolutely need to make down
payments on (and likely way in advance to ensure your target times/
locations are secured) you're just mumbling and fumbling.

I talked with Jonathan Kahn about this, and he seems to really
understand the depth and scope of what's at stake.

Seriously, CS Forum 10 set a precedence, a bar level. Anything going
forward has to be at least that much in terms of size, quality and
entertainment. Otherwise you're probably talking about a "grassroots"
effort and that's not going to be the same thing...it's not going to
be a "CS Forum XX"! So that's you're production scope.

Next question is, will this be another non-profit effort (like CS
Forum 10 was), or do you go commercial on this one? Again, CS Forum 10
worked because the resources were already there. The STC chapters were
already conditioned to running annual events, albeit smaller in the
past. We were not just a bunch of people that thought over a weekend
that it would be a cool idea to put on a big conference. We had
written procedures and guidelines from STC and our local histories/
efforts to help keep things in perspective. Sure, we broke the mold a
bit, broke new ground (very exciting), but it was hardly grassroots or
orchestrated off the cuff. Whether this is non-profit again, or
commercial, you HAVE to have dedicated people on a committee who
sticks to it through thick and thin once the effort becomes committed.
(A draft committee roster with associated responsibilities would not
be a bad idea if you're serious about this. When people look at that
they tend to go..."Oh!")

Allow me to comment on the non-profit side of things. For 12 months I
worked steadily helping to organize CS Forum 10, within my own
responsibilities and then some. There are weeks, many weeks in a row,
where I worked on average 3/4 time, outwardly, behind the scenes with
the committee, and within my own shell. If I told my wife I was going
to do this again for another twelve months on a volunteer basis, she'd
likely kick me out of the house. Sure, we are all into this because we
love it, and want to see it grow, but there is a practical side with
regard to our time/effort too.

Likewise, compensation for speakers. CS Forum 10 made it clear up
front that we had a very constrained budget and that our program was
being built around speakers willing to come on their own dimes to
participate and present. This was an issue for us at times in
developing the CS Forum 10 program, and I expect it will be
increasingly so as the field strengthens and conferences opportunities
pop up for more speakers at different corners of the globe.

Likewise, you need to have more than just the conference to be
memorable. The best conferences are the ones that have interesting/fun
side events/attractions/activities too. We had a dinner boat cruise on
the Seine, and it was fun. You have to think outside the box here.
Provide entertainment as much the learning! (I'm really impressed with
what I see the IxDA folks do with their annual conferences!)

When considering the need for dedicated people, financial capital, and
a name (or a few) behind it all for promotional reasons, I would say
that "commercial" may be the realistic way forward for organized
events on this scale so that people carrying the donkeys load
(organizers and speakers alike) get something out of it for their
time. Of course this opens up a whole bunch of new considerations with
regard to budgets and potential profit rollovers into each successive
event, as you can imagine.

Another thing I would like to point out, and this is less about the
business side and more about my own perspective. Having a theme on CS
for STC France's annual conference was originally my idea. The project
grew quickly, chapters merged in the effort, and the branding evolved
into "CS Forum 2010." We did this intentionally to get the "STC" label
off of it and promote more cross-interest participation. It worked!
One of the aims I brought to the table when pitching the theme idea
was that it would be good for Europe to have a conference like this.
North America was getting plenty of CS exposure, and will continue to
do so, no doubt. Europe, on the other hand, needed a real boost, and
it's my opinion that to keep the momentum going here (and indeed I
have stake here), Europe needs an annual CS event. Whether this
retains the label "CS Forum XX", lets that go in favor of "CS Europe
11" (etc.), or maybe merges with something already existing like
EuroIA's events, I don't know, but I do believe there should be an
annual CS event in Europe and it could change hands/city each year.
While Vancouver, Tokyo, and so forth would be great cities, I don't
think Europe should let the ball go now that the game is on. There's
no reason more of these events can't take place so that it's feasible
for more attendees to where they live.

(Maybe it's time for a real Content Strategy organization/association
with chapters?)

While I love the idea of Brussels (or take your pick of cool European
cities), the real weight should go where there is a potential ground
committee who can realistically pull off all the logistical tasks and
planning, and believe me, there's a lot! It's not a one-person show.

Sponsors! You need them. Whether it's non-profit or commercial effort,
you need to get sponsors, and the sooner you do that, the better. If
you take the commercial path, getting one or two heavy-hitters behind
it (the names and bank roll) might be good to get you on your way.
After that you need that committee roster put together (well, you need
that anyway, ASAP) so people can get busy planning, reserving and
doing!

It's a lot of work, and there's so much to consider--to much for this
post--but if you have the capital to pull it off and the dedicated
people, it can also be very fun and rewarding!

Hopefully that helps put things in perspective a bit. Maybe I'm not
telling you anything new. I would be very happy to help on the
committee with the next Forum in some capacity or another.

Cheers!

[Clare O'Brien]

I've been thinking about the appropriate response to write here for the last
day or so since Ken put forward the idea for input.

Destry - you beat me to it. In fact before switching on and reading your
post, I'd been regarding my garden this morning (chores undone!) and
pondering the two sides of this extremely important and valuable coin:

1) We have a clear need to maintain the momentum with a European-based CS
Forum into the foreseeable future. I have been astonished by the appetite
not only of practitioners (existing, nascent and wannabes) but of
organisations which are finally beginning to identify the root problem with
many of their content crises (and entire digital service / communication
strategies) and have seen where the solutions lies. This is Gold!

2) The logistics are what were really aching my brain this morning. Event
organisation as Destry has so clearly sketched for us is a big deal thing.
The production, logistics, sales and marketing of an event the size of CS
Forum 10 is a team-sized job. The financing and underwriting of it all, high
on the non-trivial scale. I don't need to go on - we know the edges of this
particular challenge.

The reason I haven't responded until now is because I am hugely excited by
the prospect of a CS Forum 11 and especially one which sets out to deal with
the 'business of content'. We can't let this go and Ken is absolutely on the
money to set this ball in motion now...

BUT how... ?

We need a body/a committee to focus all this thinking and quickly. Clearly
there are many interested parties - some with and some without the practical
expertise and experience to move this forward.

The UK/Europe Content Strategy Group has a meeting scheduled for 12th May.
Right now it's being planned as a CS Forum 10 feedback and reflection
session for those people who were unable to be in Paris.

How feasible is it to invite some of the STC CS Forum 10 organisers to that
meeting and, more efficiently, to a pre-meeting to share and state ambition
for CS Forum 11 in a logistical context?

Is it possible to get Destry, Stuart, CJ & Robert or at least
representatives here in London on 12th with key CS Group volunteers to
understand, shape and develop this idea??

Can we pursue this line of thinking?

In haste - I'm now off to a PTA meeting (don't ask) and my seedlings will
have to wait for this evening.

Let's hear it for CS Forum 11

Clare

[Destry Wion]

Clare (and All),

Speaking only for myself (and not the rest of the CS Forum 10
committee members), and as much as I would be willing to come over for
that meeting, it's not feasible for me to do so. I'm happy to put some
notes together or address questions in advance if there are any.

For what it's worth, the csforum10 committee never had a F2F meeting,
always via Skype (though the multi-people calls were often disastrous
for technical reasons). What we did do, however, to keep things in
focus was put a private wiki into affect for planning, recording and
centralizing resources. We organized it as we went. I suspect if I'm
involved with the committee in any way, a lot of my synchronous
interaction will be via Skype.

At any rate, while it's never to early to think about the committee, I
think the biggest issue at the moment is the name and capital
underneath the effort. In that respect, the extent of the committee at
the outset might just be a couple stalwart souls who draft up some
pitch letters to target potential sponsors and see where you get with
that (certainly use the momentum of CS Forum 10 in that campaign).
Without the capital, I can't see there being much we can do.

On a different note, it's been asked of me if this is something STC
France would do again. Theoretically, we could be involved with
another collaborative effort with other European STC chapters
(something I think should happen for the sake of said chapters), it's
very unlikely the focus would be on just CS again, not in the way it
was for CS Forum 10. I can imagine if the collaborative effort was big
enough--e.g., if all STC Europe chapters worked together on a Europe-
wide conference--then there could be a CS track in that conference.
But, and this is a big BUT (no pun intended), the European chapters of
STC haven't even begun to consider a collaborative conference effort
like I'm suggesting here, and even if they started talking about it
tomorrow and that talk was promising (itself questionable), it could
take two years (you know, government speed) to get organized enough to
begin thinking about it seriously. No, some other entity in Europe
besides STC will have to pick up the CS ball and run with it if
there's going to be an "11" in Europe. At least that's my vista.

-dw

> How feasible is it to invite some of the STC CS Forum 10 organisers to that
> meeting and, more efficiently, to a pre-meeting to share and state ambition
> for CS Forum 11 in a logistical context?
>
> Is it possible to get Destry, Stuart, CJ & Robert or at least
> representatives here in London on 12th with key CS Group volunteers to
> understand, shape and develop this idea??
>
> Can we pursue this line of thinking?

[Relly Annett-Baker]

Perhaps we could approach a company like Carsonified who put on major tech conferences, like Chirp at Twitter and Future of Web Apps, here in the UK. They would look for someone to head up the conference and advise on speakers, topics, workshops etc but they have experience and access to sponsors, venues and so on?

I know the people there pretty well as I've done workshops and talks for them in the past (and again this year, now I come to think of it) so they know there is a market for a content conference. If anyone thinks this is a good idea I could sound them out?

Relly Annett-Baker

[Clare O'Brien]

Well this was one of my thoughts as well, that we get a professional organiser involved. It’s got to be one of the principle questions... we (CDA) have strong contacts with one of our clients - an international conference organiser and I’m happy to take counsel from them as well as Relly talking with Carsonified... we can swap notes.

 

But sitting behind any 3^rd party commercial player needs to be a watertight industry steering committee – that’s us.

 

Clare

 

From: content...@googlegroups.com [mailto:content...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Relly Annett-Baker
Sent: 01 May 2010 11:42
To: content...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: CS Forum 2011

 

Perhaps we could approach a company like Carsonified who put on major tech conferences, like Chirp at Twitter and Future of Web Apps, here in the UK. They would look for someone to head up the conference and advise on speakers, topics, workshops etc but they have experience and access to sponsors, venues and so on?

[Jonathan Kahn]

Thanks to Destry for such an open and wide-ranging summary of the
effort that went into CS Forum Paris. It's a great help to the whole
group to hear this stuff. Keep it coming!

I think Relly and Clare's suggestion of sounding out conference
organisers makes sense at this point. If established players can be
convinced to take on CS Forum 11, that would be ideal.

As an alternative, a few of us have discussed the idea of starting a
small company (2 or 3 of us) to run the London conference, committing
serious time (and some money) to it, and approaching sponsors from the
beginning. My initial thoughts for worthy sponsors are the mega-
agencies of Europe, like LBi and Publicis and its subsidiaries.
Companies who aren't really in the CS game yet, but realise that they
need to be pronto. Helps if they have a major presence in Europe.

Just an idea at this stage, please critique and suggest alternatives.

I also think more discussion of desired format and audience would be
helpful at this stage. E.g. more ideas on tracks, the type of attendee
we could appeal to (web designers, journalists, tech people?) Should
it be a 2-day conference, should it grow past the 200-attendee mark?
What about workshops?

Jonathan

[Rahel Bailie]

At the risk of derailing the discussion, there are already content strategy conferences going on - they just haven't called themselves that. London's X-Pubs conference, for example, has done content strategy for a few years now. Gilbane is another example, in the US, that has become very focused on content strategy though they don't call it that. So let's not re-invent the wheel when we might coordinate or collaborate on existing efforts.

Some of these have professional organizers; others are grass-roots. I've managed a commercial conference, with a team of 1.5, and there were some harried times. I've also managed an STC regional conference, with a team of 10. Both were rewarding but yes, stressful at times.

There may not be a one-size-fits-all solution. It may vary from market to market.

===
Rahel Anne Bailie, Content Strategist / CM Consultant
Intentional Design Inc. www.intentionaldesign.ca
Content strategies for business impact      Tel. 604.837.0034 (PT, GMT -8)
Social apps (skype, twitter, etc): rahelab
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rahelannebailie

[Lisa Moore]

There are a number of issues under discussion here – resourcing,
funding, local/regional vs global, and as Rahel points out, potential
wheel reinvention :)

First, let me say how much I enjoyed CS Forum 2010 and kudos to Destry
and everyone involved. I’ve been a content strategist for 10 years now
and involved in digital content even longer. On a personal level, I
found the conference tremendously inspiring (especially Kristina’s
keynote) and was pleased to be part of something I believe will come
to be viewed as a milestone event for our discipline. It happened at
exactly the right time, tapping in to the current zeitgeist that finds
many digital agencies in particular and businesses in general
recognizing the need to apply strategic thinking to their content, in
whatever form that might take.

All that said, as Randall pointed out, the conference did have a “hey,
we exist” vibe to it – but don’t get me wrong, I think we needed that
right now. Going forward, however, I think we need to apply some of
that strategic thinking we all practice for our clients to our own
field. And that means understanding how best we can serve this field
with future conferences that bring our message to the uninitiated, not
the converts. Of course, this is already happening to a degree with CS
tracks at events such as SXSW, the IA Summit and UX London – and
others, as Rahel points out, that address CS, even if they don’t
necessarily call it that.

My personal belief is that another event on an international scale may
not make the most sense going forward. It may not do the CS field any
harm, but I would hate to see it detract from what I believe should be
one of our primary goals as practitioners – and that is to ensure
content strategy is a de facto component of each and every company’s
overall business strategy. And the best way to do that may be to host
local/regional conferences dedicated to content strategy where
decision makers from businesses and agencies in your area can get
involved, without having to renew their passports.

I realize this thinking is implied in many of the earlier posts, so
forgive me for being repetitive. But like everyone who attended CS
2010, I am keen to keep the momentum going, but I think we need to
work even harder now to make sure that momentum is pointed in the
right direction. I think Destry's comment regarding the creation of a
content strategy organization with chapters is well worth considering.
New discussion thread, anyone?

--Lisa

[Alok Chowdhury]

Hi,

I think we're putting the cart before the horse. The reason a conference is being created is to promote and educate others about CS.  After reading everyone's comments, I think the first step is to create a content strategy association. Develop your goals and vision as an association before creating a conference.... Someone needs to represent CS to the world....

Cheers 

Alok

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

---

[Destry Wion]

For what it's worth, I want to mention EuroIA again. That event is in
a different European city each year (I believe) and put on by the
folks at FatDUX (Eric Reiss et al.). It's a well-followed conference,
and they had been keeping tabs on the development of CS Forum 10 over
the months. Sylvie Daumal, who was a speaker in CS Forum 10, is a
member on the EuroIA committee, so that's a strong connection already.
The open call for presentations for EuroIA10 (also in Paris this year,
in September) will be this coming week (should see their 2010 site
online soon too) and it would be very good in the grand scheme of
things (particularly in Europe) if CS folks submitted talks to that.
It could become a valuable annual channel for promoting CS in Europe.
Who knows, maybe they'll change the name to EuroUX so all the customer
experience processes are cultivated equally. :)

[Rahel Bailie]

Do we really want to start an association in this age where associations are, in general, declining? Just the thought of belonging to yet another association gives me a sinking feeling.

===
Rahel Anne Bailie, Content Strategist / CM Consultant
Intentional Design Inc. www.intentionaldesign.ca
Content strategies for business impact      Tel. 604.837.0034 (PT, GMT -8)
Social apps (skype, twitter, etc): rahelab
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rahelannebailie

[noreen compton]

I agree. It takes a lot of work to set up an association and there are many that are similar in scope that we could work with.

--
Noreen Compton
Content Strategist & Copywriter
614-571-7878

“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.”
- Rita Mae Brown

[Rachel McAlpine]

Hi all

This makes sense. Many organisations do get going organically, but once you're talking money and commitment on this scale, a little formality will clarify and protect.

Cheers

Rachel

-----------------------

Rachel McAlpine

www.contented.com

+64 4 384 7106

PO Box 19184, Wellington 6149, New Zealand