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Program

AJAX - Creating a Rich User Experience
Moderator: Om Malik, Senior Editor, Business 2.0
Bill Scott, Ajax Evangelist & Design Manager, Yahoo!
Scott Isaacs, Architect, Windows Live
Jeff Whatcott, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Enterprise & Developer Business Unit Adobe Systems, Incorporated
AJAX is enabling the creation of applications with better functionality, usability, and an overall better user experience. This panel will discuss how desktop-like applications can be delivered via the browser with Ajax, the efficiency of developing such applications, and the importance of the GUI. They will also share their thoughts on highly successful applications and the shortcomings of using Ajax.

Web 2.0 and Users
Speaker: Stephen Benedict, Principal Product Manager, AIM Service, AOL
Learn how to connect with 63 million users on the AIM platform using plug-ins, mashups, and widgets.

Web Usability - What Makes a Design Seem Intuitive?
Speaker: Jared Spool, Usability Expert & Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
Here is your opportunity to learn the design, information architecture, and usability insights used by today’s most successful web sites. Everyone wants an intuitive interface: the users, the designers, and the content publishers. But building them is hard. User Interface Engineering's recent research has given insight into why it's hard and how to get past major obstacles.

To build an "intuitive" interface, a designer has to do two things: (1) Take complete advantage of what the user already knows, so that what they see is completely familiar to them and (2) make the act of learning anything new completely imperceptible to the user. It turns out that, if the interface requires the user to realize they are learning something, the "intuitive" label disappears instantly.

In this talk, Jared will show:

1. How to teach users concepts without them even realizing it.
2. How some designers have managed to make simple concepts complex.
3. Examples of popular web sites that have made complex topics intuitive.

The 90-minute seminar will include an extended Q&A where you'll have the opportunity to ask Jared about your specific design challenges.

Mobile Web Trends
Moderator: Mike Rowehl, Co-Founder, Mobile Monday
Kelly Goto, Principal, gotomedia
Pamela Mead, Director of User Experience, Yahoo! Mobile
Kanishka Agarwal, VP New Products, Telephia
Seamus McAteer, Chief Product Architect & Senior Analyst, MMetrics
As the mobile web grows in popularity, the implications to users and the overall user experience has become a hot button issue. Learn about the latest and greatest in the mobile web industry with respect to mobile content and services, current global trends, usability and accessibility, and how the mobile heavy weights are addressing the surrounding user issues.

Search Engine Optimization Strategies
Moderator: Andreas Mueller, Chief Strategist, Bloofusion
Dave Williams, Chief Strategist & Co-Founder, 360i
Chris Boggs, Avenue A | Razorfish, Search Strategist
Jessie Stricchiola, Founder, Alchemist Media
This panel will address three critical issues in search optimization today:

1. SEO is much more than just ranking well. Some of the side benefits of the intense research can be competitive intelligence. What are some tangible ways of exploiting these and other benefits?
2. Today everyone "does" SEO. Web designers, ISPs, and PR agencies all seem to offer SEO solutions as part of their palette. How do you pick a "real" SEO? What questions should you ask?
3. The future of the SEO industry is unbounded. But as more vendors and clients looking for rankings are crowding into this space, what does that mean for survival? Will joining the "top 10 club" become an unaffordable luxury? Which trends can be predicted that might alleviate the congestion?

New Ad Platforms
Moderator: Bambi Francisco, Internet Editor, MarketWatch
Gokul Rajaram, Director, Google AdSense
James Speer, VP Marketing and Products, IAC Advertising Solutions
Pradeep Javangula, CTO, Tumri
Given that advertising is getting more and more customized to content in terms of categories, brands, price etc. How do you reconcile the competing interests of the different constituents in terms of what is presented to the user - publishers, advertisers, networks and users each having their own motives in terms of usefulness/efficacy of advertising? Is there a happy medium? For instance: retailers explicitly not wanting to show up on a site, but the publishers and users visiting a given site expressing their intent to see those ads?

Search Engine Marketing Strategies
Moderator: Massimo Burgio, Search Specialist, Global Search Interactive
Dana Todd, President & Board of Directors, SEMPO
Gord Hotchkiss, CEO & President, Enquiro
Jamie O'Donnell, Cofounder, SEO-PR
Bill Wise, Chief Executive Officer, Did-it
This panel will address three critical issues in search marketing today:

1. What is search marketing today, how complex a paid search campaign can get when focusing on a positive ROI, and what are the challenges of running paid search campaigns when targeting international markets?
2. How online public relations and blogs can positively contribute to a successful integrated search marketing campaign?
3. What is the future of search marketing? How do users search for relevant information in a multi-platform, redefined Web 2.0?