The 2008 CSS Marketing Technology Summit will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, TX, May 6 - 7. Our Marketing Technology Summit is a look at how technology is changing media and marketing, the intersection at which all CSS clients live. To understand this digital revolution, we must begin by taking a closer look at the technologies to which consumers are really latching-on today. Consumers are increasingly tied to their mobile devices; they are becoming more comfortable with Web 2.0, as well as the expanding options on the mobile web and more. We think it is important for the traditional media to understand all of this, because executives in these companies have decisions to make about how to extend their legacy brands to the Web and they need to decide what new Web-based businesses they should be launching.

In addition, corporate executives and sales managers at all levels need to understand how marketers are using the new marketplace options to connect with consumers. Smart marketers are allocating more money to the Web. They are starting to move to mobile and they are investing in elaborate CRM systems to conduct more sophisticated email marketing campaigns. Although traditional media companies are in a perfect position to deliver true integrated marketing solutions, a clear understanding of the current landscape is necessary.

Here is what you can expect from this year’s Summit:

• The “big picture” ─ we will provide you with the view from 30,000 feet
• A bold challenge to find your own “Blue Ocean Strategy”
• Real examples of ideas and solutions that are generating revenue right now
• A focus on Integrated Marketing Campaigns that really work for clients
• A clear understanding of technology trends and how they affect your business
• A look at how to navigate the interactive advertising agency
• Ideas on how to staff the new media sales department

We are assembling our best-ever guest speaker line-up:

Gabor George Burt
Gabor is an internationally recognized expert on Blue Ocean Strategy and Value Innovation; the highly acclaimed, new approach to creative strategy formation and implementation authored by INSEAD professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

Gabor is also the chief architect and original host of the Blue Ocean Executive Experience series, an exclusive immersion forum on Blue Ocean Strategy. He is actively involved in strategy-formation with a wide range of international clients ranging from Fortune 500 firms to successful start-ups, as well as in his own wide-ranging application of the Blue Ocean concepts.

An engaging and provocative presenter, Gabor aims to uncover the core concepts of Blue Ocean Strategy and make them immediately accessible for his audiences. He is a frequent lecturer and advisor to companies on the topic of innovation and strategies that lead to uncontested market space.

Gabor is from the business sphere and brings a pragmatic and practical approach, which will be useful for those in media, because the traditional media is swimming in the Red Ocean. Gabor will share stories about companies facing similar obstacles who were able to find their way out of overcrowded Red Oceans and into the domain of Blue Oceans – where focus on competition is replaced by the pursuit of high value at lower cost. Nintendo is one company he’ll talk about. They compete with Sony and Microsoft, and essentially made both irrelevant in a market space facing the same intense competition legacy media companies are facing today. They used a Blue Ocean Strategy approach to develop the Wii – a pioneering innovation that redefined and substantially expanded the video game market.

Another traditional industry having a hard time staying relevant with changing lifestyles is “Public Art.” Come and learn how “The Cow Parade” is changing the very concept of Public Art and in the process bringing together art, business and social responsibility.

David Pogue
David Pogue is the personal-technology columnist for the New York Times. Each week, he contributes a print column, an online column and an online video. His daily blog, “Pogue’s Posts,” is the Times’ most popular blog.

David is also an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News and a frequent guest on NPR’s “Morning Edition." His trademark comic tech videos appear each Thursday morning on CNBC.

With over 3 million books in print, David is one of the world’s bestselling how-to authors. He wrote or co-wrote seven books in the “for Dummies” series (including Macs, Magic, Opera, and Classical Music); in 1999, he launched his own series of complete, funny computer books called the Missing Manual series, which now includes 60 titles.

How to sign-up

We will start announcing the rest of our guest speaker line-up soon, but you can sign-up now by sending an email to Dolly Heims at dollyheims@csscenter.com or by contacting your CSS Consultant. The deadline for sign-up is Friday, March 14. Remember, seats at a Summit may be obtained in lieu of visit days (trading in one 2008 visit day gets you four seats to be used in any combination at the 2008 Summits or Facilitator Certification Workshop), or seats may be purchased individually (see your CSS Service Agreement for the cost, or contact your CSS Consultant).

Anyone is welcome to attend this Summit, but the program is being designed specifically to serve the needs of Corporate Executives, GMs/Publishers and Sales Managers (DOS, GSM, LSM, NTR Managers, etc.) from TV, Radio, Newspaper, and Cable.