Today's online experience is a far cry from the static content on which the web was built. The modern web is a complex beast, and the parts of a website are often scattered across the Internet. Rich, interactive, real-time applications are built quickly from third-party components and frameworks that simply didn't exist a year ago, combining cloud and RIA technologies. At the middle of all this is the browser, which has grown far beyond its modest roots as a rendering technology and is now a first-class Web citizen responsible for much of the application. With all of these moving parts, it's hard to separate the noise from the truly disruptive. This session, led by Alistair Croll of Bitcurrent, will look at the web as a platform, with a focus on the disruptive technologies that will change your web strategy in coming years.

Read Alistair Croll's Bio

Web 2.0 holds much promise for enriching the online experience and improving the customer relationship. But it could stop dead if your platform fails to support the new offerings. The warning signs exist already: even the current web offerings are sometimes too much to handle for many organizations, which suffer from spotty availability, slow response time and inconsistency. This session focuses on the level of complexity involved in developing Web 2.0 applications, from the design phase, through testing to deployment. The complexity is increasing exponentially as web applications become much more composite. More sites rely on bigger building blocks from 3rd parties, which in turn are relying on other building blocks, all delivered straight to the end-user's browser, in real time. And to handle Web 2.0 features, such as rich applications technologies or collaboration utilities, more developers are pushing more code out to the users and relying on end-users' browsers to play a bigger role in delivering the experience to customers. This session will examine what could go wrong and help retailers understand how to remedy Web 2.0 problems and how to hold third-party providers accountable for their impact on customer experiences.

Read Imad Mouline's Bio

Today's social consumers are adopting a growing array of new social networks, communication platforms and web-enabled devices. In this session, Freddy Mini will reveal the best practices behind using widgets as a means to actively engage users on the many different platforms they use everyday. Attendees will learn why widgets are a vital part of any brand's marketing mix; how to build and distribute effective widgets; and how top brands like USA Today, MIVA and Nissan are building cross-channel widget ecosystems that engage users simultaneously on the desktop, web homepages, social networks, mobile devices and more.
Read Freddy Mini's bio

The complexity of web 2.0 applications is placing new strains on hosting servics and CDNs alike. In this panel discussion you'll hear from two leading hosting services and three leading CDNs on what you need to consider when building and deploying new web applications.
Read James Segil's bio
Read Jared Klett's bio
Read Pedro Santos' bio

When British Airways create a new airline OpenSkies, their interactive agency WebLiquidGroup made the decision to deploy a blog long before they had a commerce site in order to engage the community in the creation of the airline – leveraging social networking and web 2.0 technologies to open a dialogue which was used to develop the OpenSkies product and web experience. Another example is wetryharder.co.uk, which is a part of a larger Consumer Generated Content research, and marketing program WebLiquidGroup manages for Avis UK. The site allows the company to participate in the online community, to be the hub for conversation on car hire and thus, build authority on the subject. The result is a fusion of marketing and customer service, truly a revolutionary approach to customer engagement, which was awarded the SOCAP National Customer Service award in late 2007. This session will cover both examples and how you can leverage digital channels to mine insight and optimize experience throughout the site, the product/services, brand health, and the communications to customers and prospects.
Read Matt Cronin's bio

Few brands conjure up an image of a global financial powerhouse more than Citibank. Its serves 200 million people in 100 countries every day, delivering a localized banking experience that leverages the global brand, but navigates the cultural and linguistic needs its customers. This session will cover how Citibank is crafting a global approach to transforming the online customer experience and engagement model with the goal of establishing Citibank as a leader in online banking.

Read Jeff Fleischman's Bio

With the era of Consumer Electronics 3.0 dawning, TV as we know it and the Internet will converge, setting the stage for new usage models and experiences. Intel sits at the epicenter of this change. The User Experience Group's role is to develop a deep understanding of global cultures and how people integrate technology into their daily lives. This session will answer crucial questions such as: how can we create a meaningful combination of the Internet and television? How do we bring the richness of the Internet experience to the living room without changing the act of watching TV? Even as we all wrestle with Web 2.0, much more is coming. In this session attendees will get a sneak preview of what's in store.
Read Brian David Johnson's bio

Advancing the common good is less about helping one person and more about changing the systems to help all of us. We are all connected and interdependent. We all win when a child in India succeeds in school, when families in Brazil are financially stable, when a mother in Uganda is healthy and can provide for her children. It takes everyone in the global community working together to create a brighter future.

In this session you will hear about how the largest private charity in the world has ignited an online social movement that now has millions of supporters. You will learn about the interactive strategies that help us grow our online participation, and how we leverage the social influence of our brand champions to expand our reach, improve our differentiation, and increase our reputation.

We will touch on social networks, video networks, widgets, blogs, mobile engagement, gaming, word of mouth and online PR as the channels that flow into a great participatory experience.