On the topic of conferences to go to, Content 2.0 has been on the radar for a while… whilst I’m not going to be going mainly because I’m going to be hanging over from a little hockey trip to France with a drinking problem, it is something that I’m really interested in 
Some blurb from the site - The issues at stake:
- Do user generated content (UGC) and social networks pose a significant threat to content created by traditional content producers?
- What kind of impact do current trends and innovations have on established business models?
- Is Web 2.0 more about delivering a social value or benefit for the consumer and where do brands figure in the connected landscape?
- How will the commercial value of content be realised in the future? How do we handle the transition?
There are many points of view, so here’s my take:
- Yes, people trust their reliable sources more than thet trust the establishment
- Loads, but business is busines, and there is nothing new under the sun - you still need to make a profit from something!
- Yes, I think web 2.0 (amongst other things) is all about giving user the power to use and choose, all underscored with better useability. Social value remains to be seen.
- With difficulty - let go of your 150 year publishing models. Own the users data, then you’ll get their eyeballs.
If you look at the speaker lineup, there seems to be a lot of weight - all folks who have been there and done that, and I guess that’s the point of the whole event - there is this huge mind shift taking place on the web at the moment (let’s call it Web 2.0 shall we?), where users are being given the power to manipulate and change their content by the techies (call them web .20 geeks - talk nerdy to them), and now business is trying to figure out what role it can play going forward - big companies are notoriusly slow, and it seems that whilst the Beeb is playing the proverbial lead in this grand show, so this conference does come at a time in the UK when it’s needed. It totally sucks being at around 18 months behind the Valley, so I’m hoping that this event, combined with the e-Consultancy Web 2.0 event, will start to create the momentum needed in the UK for change to happen.
As always, I think the benefit of going to conferences is more about the people that you meet and discuss stuff with, rather than what you hear - most of the stuff you can read about at your leisure if you have the time and inclination to do so. So if your bag is figuring out how your business will fit into this new content landscape, then it’s probably worth going to
