Presentations: Conversations

As part of the conference this year, we’re trying something new. Instead of holding just traditional speaker-and-audience sessions, we’re also creating a handful of 50-minute round-table conversations that you can join. But space is limited! We’re signing on an appealing list of Web 2.0 experts, each of whom will introduce a topic and then facilitate a discussion for up to 30 people—which is all the room holds. If you get into one of these sessions, you’ll be expected to lean in and join the conversation, not just sit back and listen. We’ll announce the moderators and specific topics in the coming weeks.

Due to limited space, these sessions will be first-come, first-serve. Please plan accordingly.

Cheating in Mobile

Dan Shapiro (Sparkbuy Inc.)

Appstores are hell. Why fight it out hand to hand when you can work the system? We'll get in to the nitty gritty of how to build carrier relationships, close OEM sales, and score preloads. Names will be named--be ready to talk about your mobile plans and how to get them on the fast track.

Controversies of HTML5

Tantek Çelik (tantek.com)

What's up with HTML5? Why did the WHATWG drop the "5" not long after W3C's launch of a new HTML5 logo? What is and isn't HTML(5)? Bring your questions and passion for the open web, standards leader and HTML5 book author Tantek Çelik will lead a round-table sure-to-be-lively conversation to help sort some of this out.

Creating a Great Research and Design Culture at Your Startup

Laura Klein (Users Know)

Have you been struggling to incorporate great design and user research into your startup's every day life? Do you know the best way to make sure every product you release is a fantastic user experience? Come share your ideas, suggestions, stories, and questions about how to improve the design and research process for startups.

How to Do an Awesome Launch

Rashmi Sinha (SlideShare, Inc.), Ross Mayfield (SlideShare, Inc.)

Building a great product is just part of it. A launch needs to have marketing, press, early adopters who will vouch for the product and a million other things that need to line up. Rashmi and Ross will share lessons from SlideShare's recent launch of Zipcast and lead a discussion about how to do great launches.

Lessons Learned At Y Combinator

Jon Dahl (Zencoder)

Y Combinator consistently manages to take smart hackers and turn them into successful startup founders. What lessons can we all learn from the Y Combinator approach to startups? And what exactly does Y Combinator do? We'll talk about the Y Combinator experience, the YC take on startups, and about the moderator's experience with his YC-backed startup (Zencoder).

Seismic Shifts: The Future of the Global Mobile Eco-System

Kelly Goto (gotomedia, LLC), Paul Smith (mPulse Media), Raj Singh (Skyfire), Rudy De Waele (mTrends)

Steady user trends bring about dramatic and abrupt changes by handset manufactures like Nokia, operating system providers like Microsoft, and carriers like T-Mobile. AT&T's bid to acquire T-Mobile and Microsoft's billion dollar deal to be Nokia's OS provider and the shake-up in Japan are just the most recent seismic disruptions to the mobile eco-system.

So You've Hired a Community Manager, Now What?

Moderated by:

Stephanie Agresta (Weber Shandwick)

Panelists:

So you've hired a Community Manager, now what? Come discuss how organizations big and small can leverage investments in community management and social media. How do you prevent a community manager from becoming a "social media help desk employee." How can 1 person or a small team of people really impact and grown an online audience?

Top 10 Disruptors In Web & Mobile Media, Entertainment, Productivity and Life

Kandice Cota (gotomedia & IPFranchise), Josh Levine (Great Monday)

Whether we like it or not the pace of all things new has forced us to get comfy with change or be a doormat for a disruptor. From the familiar to the unexpected disruptors are everywhere. What can visionaries who've upended industries teach us about business, trends, and thinking abut product innovation?