May 7 - Chicago Women in Publishing annual conference

Medium Matters: Shaping Content for Print & Web

As part of this daylong conference, I will be talking about how to translate a message from print to Web, team roles and responsibilities, communication issues, and the basic workflow involved.
Learn more and register

May 17 - "Content Matters," a morning seminar about content management

My talk:

What content management is, and why it matters
Your CEO doesn't wake up in the middle of the night wondering about your organization's content and why it's not being managed more effectively….or does she?

Why does a site need content management? If your site will be more than an expensive brochure, if it will be an essential tool for your business, it needs content management.

The risks of not managing your content

• your Web investment will be wasted
• your site's content will become stale and outdated
• your customers will continue to be dissatisfied, potential customers lost and employees in the dark

Why “easy page updates” are not true content management.

How to sell content management: Your website needs to be your organization's always-accessible public face and presence. If your content isn't managed, it cannot be that.

Get more details, and register!

April 26 - Association Forum Speed Learning

How Your Website Can Help Your Organization Be More Successful

Every organization has a website, but all too often that site is just an online brochure. The Web is a channel for communication, transaction and interaction; focusing on those goals, and developing a plan for each of them, will transform your site into a tool that helps your organization succeed.

• You will learn to make your website more strategic
• Your website will become more compelling to visitors
• You will learn how to ensure that the information on your website is found by the right people

See complete details and register.

April 11 - CM Pros Spring 2005 Summit

I will be leading a roundtable discussion:

Content strategy: What about the content in content management?

All too often, content management systems (CMSs) are chosen by technical people without a true understanding of how content works -- or doesn't work -- within the organization. Web content is often neglected and understaffed, ignoring the potential of the Web to become a critical channel in the strategic communication mix. Unstructured content, reuse, taxonomy, information architecture, workflow -- there are many terms in use that are related to content but that might not be understood by writers, editors or business subject matter experts who could contribute to the organization's online efforts. During this discussion, we will come to a common understanding of the gaps between how communicators talk and work, and common content management models. With understanding, we will be able to collaboratively develop a greater sense of ownership of our organization's content and the ways it is managed online.

Complete details on the summit.

April 11 - Gilbane Conference on Content Management Technologies

CM-1. Planning for a Content Management System
A content management system is a critical investment, especially since businesses need to integrate content management with other core business applications. This session will help you get started by providing guidance on how to determine the scope & purpose of a CMS, what types of CMSs are available, the trade-offs between building and buying, which organizations should be involved in choosing and owning a CMS, and how you should develop a list of requirements, questions, and a list of potential vendors.

• Hilary Marsh, President, The Content Company
  Content Strategy - The Essential Precursor to CMS


• Seth Earley, President, Earley & Assoc.,
  Top Ten Tips for an Effective Content Strategy

See full program