DIGITAL VELOCITY 2008: Real Experts, Real Applications, Real Time
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8:00 – 8:45 am

BREAKFAST & NETWORKING

8:45 – 9:00 am

WELCOME & INTRODUCTION
Gordon Hughes, President & CEO, American Business Media 
Michael Lavitt, Senior Content Producer, Aviation Week & Chair of ABM Digital Media Council

9:00 – 9:45 am

KEYNOTE ADDRESS - "THE REINVENTION OF PUBLISHING"
Shawn Colo, Co-Founder and Head of M&A, Demand Media

Traditional publishers and new media companies are moving at light speed to reinvent themselves in an effort to address the changing needs of their online users and the market environment. How, as businesses, can media companies make the necessary changes to meet those needs and still improve the bottom line? With over a dozen years of media investing experience, Shawn Colo will share his knowledge of the Internet Media business and discuss the opportunities for new technological development, new audience creation and market growth.

9:50 – 11:00 am

THE ECONOMICS OF THE DIGITAL WORKFORCE

A four part discussion that covers: training, hiring, compensation and organization, including:
• How to assess and provide current staff with the necessary skills needed for new digital skills requirement. 
• Where do you find new digital talent for the positions in all publishing disciplines? 
• Besides compensation, how do you attract digital talent to consider jobs more mainstream media and possibly less “sexy” than the pure-play websites? 
• Research data and real-world examples of compensation packages. 
• Once you’ve hired digital talent and you’ve trained your legacy staff, how should the new media company be organized?  
• Examples and case study of business media company making significant organizational shifts.

Moderator:     
Laura Anger, VP Human Resources, Crain Communications 
Panelists:
R.J. Bannister, Principal, Towers Perrin
Cara Erickson, Managing Partner, New Coordinates  
Brian Jensen, VP Talent Acquisition, McGraw-Hill 
Toni Nevitt, President, eMedia Advantage

Coffee & Networking Break

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES: WHO DOES WHAT?

Creating web-based media involves a variety of skill sets, technologies, and coordination that go beyond what’s routinely required to produce print products. Yet, those incremental skills typically aren’t supported, the technology investments aren’t fully understood or financed, and it seems no one person is in charge of owning the overall product and business development effort.  Find out how four leading B-to-B media players in the print and online space have altered their approach to managing the process of producing online content and revenues. You’ll learn: 
 
• What organization models are proving most effective 
• Who really does what in the content production and business development process 
• What incremental investments in training and technology are really required to extending print brands successfully online 
• And what investments are likely to produce the best returns. 

Moderator: 
Wyatt Kash, Editor in Chief, Government Computer News
Panelists:  
Alec Dann, General Manager, Magazines Online, Hanley Wood
Howard Roth, VP of E-Media, The Bonnier Group
Michael Grover, Director, Online Media, CMP Medica

M&A OUTLOOK AND VALUATIONS LUNCHEON PRESENTATION
Retooling the Media & Information World
Speaker: Michael Marchesano, Managing Director, The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. 

ENGAGING YOUR COMMUNITY IN A WEB 2.0 WORLD

Content producers are facing a whole new set of challenges in a world where the customers are increasingly in control.  How do we engage an audience that has a multitude of sources to choose from?  How has the advent of user generated content changed our content development strategy?    How do we retain control over content that can be easily repurposed by the user?  How do we protect our intellectual property and extend our brand at the same time?  This interactive session comprised of a panel of experts will cover the following: 

• Who owns all this content and the rights that need to be considered.
• What is really driving user engagement and business results, and what's just hype.
• How to re-think the paradigm of content control and let your audience comment, rate and engage with your publication.
• How to take advantage of Web 2.0 content delivery tools such as blogs, mashups, and RSS feeds.
• The impact social media is having on intellectual property.
• The steps being taken to ensure users have the freedom to create new content sources, while the rights of the IP owners are respected.
• Tools available to protect and extend the reach of your IP.

Moderator:
Mike Lavitt, Senior Content Producer, Aviation Week & Chair of ABM Digital Media Council
Panelists:
Dorian Benkoil, Senior Consultant, Teeming Media
Ed Colleran, Senior Director, Copyright Clearance Center
Paul Hyland, Executive Producer, Education Week
Greg Merkle, VP Creative Director, Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group

DRIVING TRAFFIC AND GETTING CONVERSIONS

What do you know about the people coming to your site?  Do you know what they are they looking for and where have them come from?  This session will tell you how to convert new users into regular visitors and what the fastest path to money is beginning with your website.  From free/open sites to selling subscriptions for content access, get the latest information on the business models, tactics, and case studies that will show you how to take your site to next level.      
 
Moderator: Peter Longo, Chief Sales Officer,, Inform Technologies
Panelists:      
JoAnne Wheatley, VP Audience Development, Nielsen Business Media 
Jeff DeBalko, CIO, Reed Business Information 
Martha Connors, VP/General Manager of ComputerWorld/CXO Online Media

CLOSING COMMENTS & PREVIEW OF DAY TWO

8:00 – 8:30 am

BREAKFAST & NETWORKING

8:30 – 8:45 am

WELCOME & DAY ONE RECAP
Michael Lavitt, Senior Content Producer, Aviation Week & Chair of ABM Digital Media Council
Chris Kevorkian, VP, Business Development, Business.com and Vice-Chair of ABM Digital Media Council

8:45 – 9:30 am

USING ANALYTICS TO CREATE INSIGHT AND DRIVE GROWTH
  
Most analytics tools provide a seemingly endless amount of data. The challenge is knowing what to do with this data. How to look at the data and pull out meaningful information that can lead to action. This Web Analytics session will discuss how KPIs can be used to decide what actions to take based on your goals. What you should be looking and do if you want to increase page views, or if you want to increase visitor time spend on your site. We'll also discuss the change in advertiser expectations and what site analytics data they are expecting to receive when they advertise on your site.

Moderator:    
Rose Southard, IT Director, Putman Media
Panelist:        
David Newcorn, VP eMedia, Summit Publishing
Aaron Kahlow, Managing Partner, Business Online
Potoula Chresomales, VP of Marketing & Product Management, McGraw-Hill Construction

9:35 – 10:45 am

SELLING DIGITAL MEDIA - A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO REVENUE

Is the answer relationship or consultative sales? Outside or inside sales? Training or replacing sales staff? Is there a best sales model for today's transformational all-media publishing companies? Experts from small, large, and Internet publishers will share usable and successful sales models, while exploring and exposing the unexepected but critical components of a winning customer-driven sales organization.
 
Moderator: 
Tom Cintorino, SVP Digital Media, PennWell Corporation      
Panelists:   
Jim Chrzan, VP Sales, Packaging World
David Kent, CEO, Rigzone
Brian Quinn, Vice President, Multimedia Sales, Wall Street Journal Digital

10:50 – 11:10 am

COFFEE & NETWORKING BREAK

11:15 am - 12:20 pm

BEST PRACTICES IN IMPLEMENTING NEW TECHNOLOGIES

The hand-off from editors and product managers to technology developers is often uncomfortable, mysterious, and error-prone.  Most notably, projects are often forced to compete for resources against other corporate technology development imperatives.  This panel will focus on what happens to projects after product managers envision them, and will cover best practices for prioritizing resource allocations and managing technology teams to deliver on business goals.  Among the issues to be explored are:

• Centralized vs. decentralized web development and interaction between corporate IT functions and web technology functions, in order to avoid redundancy and maintain agility
• Managing outside vendors, who may or may not understand the business requirements well
• Long-term development roadmaps:  systems and business strategies for justifying discrete development activities, allocating resources to them, and queuing competing projects with various owners, all of whom may want immediate attention
• Leadership strategies to ensure that the work of development teams conforms to business goals
• Development of business requirements documents that are complete and accurate prior to the engagement of technology developers, without creating a process that is unduly onerous.

Special Bonus:
• Favorite technologies for 2008 (cool new stuff in process or recently launched)

Moderator:     
Terry Baldwin, VP/CIO, Diversified Business Communications
Panelists:        
Zorana Bojanovic, Managing Director, Online Development & Technology, Watt Pubishing
Hernan Cortes, VP - PMO, Hanley Wood
Mitch Rouda, President, Mitch Rouda e-Media Consulting
Prescott Shibles, VP New Media, Penton Media

12:25 – 1:45 pm

LUNCH - INTERACTIVE ROUNDTABLES

1:50 – 3:00 pm

SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS STORIES: PUBLISHERS ARE TURNING ONLINE COMMUNITIES INTO POWER TOOLS

Using social media platforms like wikis, Second Life and Facebook seemed like far-fetched ideas for B2B publishers to consider not long ago, but with today's professionals embracing social media inside and outside the firewall, they are fast becoming essential and powerful ingredients in developing a successful online B2B publishing profile. With the introduction of Google's OpenSocial API, the doorway has been opened even further for publishers to introduce social media into their own platforms and to relate to their audiences in the social media venues that they value most. This panel will explore how leading social media platforms are helping B2B publishers amplify their editorial and events capabilities and in the process of doing so, creating new opportunities for advertising and premium revenues.
 
Moderator:   
John Blossom, President, Shore Communications
Panelists:
John Jainschigg, Executive Director, CMP Metaverse, CMP
Howard Ratner, CTO, Nature Publishing
Jim Sexton, Senior Vice President, Editorial Director, SPC Digital

3:05 – 4:15 pm

THROUGH THE MARKETERS' LENS...2008 TO 2010

The new 2007 ABM Forrester study shows that marketers are not supporting industry specific digital media to the same extent that their customers, business decision makers, rely on industry specific digital media for information.  This panel looks at the “Forrester Gap” from the marketer’s perspective.  What are the issues?  What will marketers require, expect, and demand from b2b media partners in order for them to maximize their use and support of industry specific digital solutions?  What priorities are marketers addressing internally to ready them for digital spending?  
 
The panel of leading marketer and agency executives will share relevant experience while discussing strategic and tactical issues important to marketers in the near to mid-term up to three years out.

Moderator: Ellis Booker, Editor, BtoB
Panelists:  
Barbara Basney, Director Global Advertising, Xerox 
John Favalo, Managing Partner, Group B2B, Eric Mower & Associates
Marc Green, Marketing Communications Manager, National Starch and Chemical Company
Sue Harrison, Executive Vice President, Davis Harrison Dion

4:15 – 4:30

CLOSING & WRAP-UP