Morning Keynote Presentation: Rebecca Lieb

The Decline of Advertising & the Creative Renaissance

Ever wonder why digital agencies are so rarely called "advertising" agencies? With increased consumer adoption of digital media and the subsequent decline of traditional media consumption, advertising models are shifting toward marketing models. This presents new challenges — and great opportunities — to digital marketers. Where are the opportunities to embrace, and the pitfalls to avoid? Where and how will you fit in this Brave New Digital World?

Afternoon Keynote Presentation: Ze Frank

What Conversation?

The web has ushered in a marvelously social era. Audiences can talk to brands, brands can talk to audiences: finally we can have that long, deep, heart to heart chat we've been meaning to have for years. But what do these conversations look like? Review technologies, comments and participatory platforms of all kinds have facilitated the audience voice, but in what ways can brands talk back? What is the actual value of participation if so much of it is below what is expected? And do we need to learn a new language each time a new social platform emerges? Ze Frank will attempt to avoid some of these difficult and important questions as he talks about his experiences creating online environments in which participants gather, create, collaborate and play, including zefrank.com, "the show with zefrank" and colorwars2008. It will be your job to keep him on track.

Navigating Legal Landmines in the Digital Field

James Quinn Shareholder, Larkin Hoffman Attorneys (Minneapolis, MN)

What you don't know can hurt. Really hurt. This session will examine some top-level issues getting the attention of regulators and plaintiffs' lawyers alike. Whether it's keywords as trademarks, confirmations as printed receipts, the use of customer feedback, ownership of content, or the security of data, a misstep can be costly. We'll also give you some insight into the legal trends we're seeing so that you can plan your interactive strategies while armed with a bit of foresight.

Navigating the Ad Exchange & Network Landscape

Campbell Foster Industry Marketing Manager, Google Content Network and Ad Exchange (New York, NY)

Ad networks. Ad exchanges. They're popping up like mushrooms after the rain. If you're a marketer, or part of an agency media team, you're dealing with some tough questions. Most pressing: what the heck's the difference between an exchange and a network Ð and what's in it for you?
Tackle the new media landscape with a little help from MIMA and Google. To connect with consumers with efficiency and scale, agencies and marketers need to design their media architecture in a way that harmonizes with the way people and publishers think. This session will address complex issues and offer practical, actionable insights for advertisers and agency media teams alike.

The Changing Face of Email

Jamie Schissler Strategy Director, Avenue A | Razorfish (San Francisco, CA)

What made your email program so successful yesterday may not cut it tomorrow. In this session you will learn about the evolving role of email and its impact in a multi-channel, socially-connected, multi-modal marketplace. You will hear about new methodologies for monetizing email, approaches and technologies for leveraging social advocates, and tools for reaching and optimizing the customer experience through email.

Search Marketing Within the Digital Marketing Ecosystem

Kevin Lee Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Didit (New York, NY)

Wondering when keyword-targeted PPC listings are search, and when they're contextual, as well as how to maximize profit from both? Want to know what to do when PPC keyword-targeted behavioral banner options show up in your search marketing login on Yahoo, Microsoft or Google? You've come to the right place.
This session will de-mystify search marketing once and for all. Learn the latest targeting methods you'll encounter over the next year or two. Finally, get the scoop on how you can take full advantage of the thousands of targeting options now available within pure-search inventory.

Starting from Scratch: Effectively Using Kittens for Optimization and Usability

Jason Carmel Senior Optimization Manager, ZAAZ (Seattle, WA)

Is a results-driven optimization program mutually exclusive from usability best practices? No way.
This session will explore how the well-ordered paths and hierarchies designed by user experience architects and the norm-shattering (and often unpredictable) results obtained by optimization test designers can not only co-exist, but may actually-gasp!-support each other.
Come with questions. You'll leave with a solid understanding of user-centered design and site-side optimization. Also, get tips on how to employ both approaches simultaneously. And yes, kittens are involved.

Creativity: Bridging Traditional to Digital

Adrian Ho and Christian Erickson Partners, Zeus Jones (Minneapolis, MN)

The evolution of marketing isn't just a physical shift from traditional to digital media, but a philosophical shift. The days of creating messaging are being replaced by efforts to create real value for customers.
This session will explore a new way to think about marketing, using tools for creating value vs. creating communications. You'll get practical advice and real-world examples for successfully blending traditional and digital marketing skills in the new value-focused landscape.

How to be a User Experience Team of One

Leah Buley Experience Designer, Adaptive Path (San Francisco, CA)

What's the best way to evolve design ideas quickly? One way is to get together with other designers and brainstorm. But even when you don't have a group of other design professionals at your disposal, it is still possible to achieve the benefits of team thinking by adapting the methods of larger user experience groups.
This session will discuss some lightweight techniques for generative problem solving and show how to put them to use as a team of one. You'll get simple, flexible tools that enable you to explore a variety of solutions quickly, enlist the support of non-designers, and speak about design decisions with confidence and authority.

Marketing Mix Challenge

Eric Boyles, global eMarketing Director, Medtronic (Minneapolis, MN)

Ron Corbisier, Chief Marketing Officer, Cadria (St. Paul, MN)

Patty Henderson, Interactive Director, Colle+McVoy Minneapolis, MN

Watch Team Client and Team Agency go head-to-head in presenting recommendations for how to cope in the post-Internet economy. Working from the same brief, each of the four panelists, representatives from Medtronic, Cadria, and Colle+McVoy, will have the opportunity to present their unique perspective pitch on how to allocate budget among broadcast, print and online.
You'll gather four different ways for tackling a project: Where's the biggest opportunity to make an impact? What will deliver the strongest results? After each panelist makes their case, participate in a facilitated roundtable discussion of the solutions presented.

Making a customer connection (in 140 characters or less)

Brian Kalma Director of Creative and Marketing, ZAPPOS.COM (Henderson, NV)

What do you get when you mix the "always on" availability of the web, with increased amounts of social networking on- and off the job? The new customer service model. Are you ready?

This session will examine the components necessary to succeed in today's (and tomorrow's) always-available, personalized and casual online environment. Not being afraid to talk to customers can't just happen overnight, however. Learn about building a culture based on customers, real corporate transparency and what happens if everyone -- from the CEO to the janitor -- gets to have a public voice.

Mobile...2009 and Beyond

Greg Crockart, VP Client Services, Buongiorno Marketing Services Inc. (Los Gatos, CA)

Brent Dusing, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Cellfire (San Jose, CA)

David Gale, Vice President of Business Development, Vibes Media (Chicago, IL)

Moderator: Kara Thornton, Web Product Manager, carol.com (Minneapolis, MN)

It's the most direct and personal marketing channel out there today: the ubiquitous mobile phone. Globally, more people have more mobile devices per person than personal computers. And they're not just using them to talk. They're using them to text friends, organize their lives and stay up-to-the-tweet on the world around them.
How are you keeping up? What is your plan for mobile marketing in 2009 and beyond? Join our panel of experts, from the bleeding edge of the industry. We're serving up insider insights, lively discussion and tips on how to stay on top in this ever-changing market.

Corporate Blogger: Angel or Demon?

Valeria Maltoni Director, Marketing Communications, SunGard Availability Services (Wayne, PA)
blogs at Conversation Agent

As a corporate blogger, you're faced with a unique challenge. You must simultaneously speak the voice (and the message) of the organization while also "fitting in" with a community of real people.
This session will offer smart tips on how to stay authentically human in an online environment that can be both highly rewarding and highly political. You'll learn how to brave the delicate balance, build a community, and most of all, to come across as smart without getting called into your boss's office.

iTV is Here, There & Everywhere

Mitch Oscar Executive Vice President, Televisual Applications, MPG, a division of Havas Global Marketing

YouTube. Hulu. Netflix. Looking back a hundred years from now, teenagers will likely struggle in history class to understand the concept of a television show that's not viewed on a computer. Perhaps, they'll struggle to understand the concept of a television itself. Instant, segmented online entertainment is the way of the future. And, as always, everywhere that audiences go, marketers are sure to follow.
Learn about the emerging digital platforms and interactive televisual advertising applications in the U.S., focusing on video on demand, addressability, digital video recorders and interactive program guides.

Alternate Reality Games: The Future of Marketing

Dan Grigsby (Apple Valley, MN) Unpossible.com

An alternate reality game "is anything that takes your life and converts it into an entertainment space" says Elan Lee, one of the genre's creator. For marketers, ARGs offer the opportunity to impart a long-lived message or product association within an activity that transforms a person's life into an adventure or mystery. ARG participants are off-the-couch, away-from-the-computer partners in a narrative intertwined with your products and brands. From television to film and music to consumer products and clothing lines, ARGs are driving conversations about things people market. Are ARGS the future of marketing? Are they valid for your brand? How do you plan for them in terms of strategy and budget? All will be revealed in this lively session.

Schematic & Microsoft: All Access Olympics

Jill Hewitt, Senior User Experience Designer, Schematic, New York, NY
Chris Bernard, User Experience Evangelist, Microsoft

2,200 hours of live, interactive video. 3,600 total hours of on-demand video. Up to 40 simultaneous live video streams. Multiple camera options. Millions of concurrent users. Live expert commentary and information overlays. Enhanced playback mode. Picture-in-picture functionality. Share and send to a friend. These are just some of the features that NBC required of its Silverlight-powered 2008 Summer Olympics video player--a player that had to perform perfectly under the intense media scrutiny that a world-class event like the Olympics was bound to generate. Microsoft and partner Schematic welcomed this high-profile opportunity to demonstrate to the world just what Silverlight can do.

Join Chris Bernard and Eric Schmidt from Microsoft, and Jill Hewitt from Schematic to learn about the challenges and triumphs, the aggressive timeline and scope, and design, features and technological know-how that was required to enable this Olympic feat.

PRI: A Public Radio Story in Three Acts

Ann Phi-Wendt, Director of PRI Interactive, Public Radio Intl., St. Paul, MN
Clinton Forry, Senior Manager, Interactive Content, Public Radio Intl., St. Paul, MN

Public Radio International will present a case study in repackaging traditional media content to serve new media audiences. PRI, like many other traditional media companies, is figuring out how to thrive in the digital, on-demand world. With content that's ideal for new media consumption, find out how they expanded their audiences beyond traditional broadcast through curation, segmentation and repackaging.

Caring Bridge: Non-profit Case Study

Sona Merhing Founder and Executive Director, Caring Bridge (Eagan, MN)

How did a modest Minnesota nonprofit become the highest traffic ranking charitable website in the world? CaringBridge is a powerful example of how the Internet is used to connect people when they need it most, by providing free websites for patients and caregivers to connect to their family and friends during a health event, treatment and recovery.ÊThis case study will discuss how the company's interactive service drives growth while providing true value to families.