15 sessions on marketing and the semantic web

Looking for a conference that really pushes the envelope of digital marketing?

Last year, I gave a talk at the Semantic Technology Conference on marketing in the semantic web. At the time, the topic was in its infancy. But as predicted, a lot happens in one year. This June, at the 2010 Semantic Technology Conference in San Francisco, there is now a whole track dedicated to this subject, Marketing in the Web 3.0 World. And, I humbly say as the track’s chair, it’s going to rock.

With Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Bing now all leveraging semantic web data — Facebook’s announcement of Open Graph being the latest major development — the timing couldn’t be better.

While the overall conference — which runs a full week — dives deep into the underpinnings of the semantic web, this track will focus on the higher-level applications of this technology in marketing and advertising. It’s still not for the faint of heart, but it will be the “real deal.” If you want to be on the cutting edge of leveraging linked data and the semantic web in your digital marketing, this is for you.

Here are a few highlights of the 15 sessions in this marketing track:

David Siegel, author of the terrific book Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business, will give the keynote. David has been one of the leading advocates for the potential of the semantic web to change business — tapping into the accelerating shift from push to pull marketing models.

Kavi Goel from Google will give an hour-long presentation on Google Rich Snippets — what promises to be one of the most thorough examinations yet of how marketers and publishers can embed structured data into their web pages to make them stand out in Google search results. Tactically, I expect this session to be worth its weight in gold.

Jay Myers of BestBuy.com — whose e-commerce success with linked data has been widely hailed — will join Barbara Starr and Paul Bruemmer who worked on Overstock.com for a session on leveraging RDF and the GoodRelations vocabulary in e-commerce SEO. These presenters have tremendous real-world experience with the state-of-the-art in semantic web and search engine optimization.

Gil Elbaz of Factual and Dhruv Bansal of Infochimps will join me for a session that steps back from the semantic web and looks more broadly at using the web to share data — and collaborate on it — with customers and partners. This is Data as the New Marketing Channel, and when you see the examples these presenters have, I know you’ll be as inspired as I am.

David Bean of Attensity, Shion Deysarkar of Extractiv, and Dmitri Soubbotin of Semantic Engines will give a powerhouse presentation on sentiment analysis and marketing intelligence powered by semantic technologies. These are three brilliant minds on the leading edge of social media monitoring, who will show you what’s possible today… and in the near future.

And there’s so much more:

• Ian Davis and Michael F. Uschold on linked data business models
• Brooke Aker, Amiad Solomon, and Ian Saunders on semantic advertising
• Chris C. Arning on semantic technologies for market research
• Jamie Taylor on the social fabric of semantics
• Mark Leyden on the legal implications of linked data
• Lars Hard and Brooke Aker on mobile semantics

If I could bring together two dozen of the most fascinating figures in the semantic web and its intersection with marketing, this would be them. I’m thrilled that they will all be there in San Francisco for some terrific talks and discussions.

If you’d like to join us, you can use the special code ST10SPKR to save $200 off registration.

P.S. If this is all new to you, you might want to start by taking a look at the presentation I gave earlier this year at the Web 3.0 conference on Data Marketing for Web 3.0. There’s also a video interview available as well.