The first week in December marks the Closed Loop Marketing company retreat to The Web Builder 2.0 conference in Las Vegas. While four of the eight team members are speaking at the conference, the remainder of the team will be there to attend the conference and learn as much as possible. Oh, and to support our team speakers, of course.

On Monday, December 3rd Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus co-present The Right Tests at the Right Times.

In this session Lance and Sandra will talk about how conducting user tests at several critical stages of a Web development project can save time and money””all without a testing lab. Listeners will learn how to use a variety of usability tests””design feedback, paper prototyping, card sorting, task and timing analysis, and multivariate testing””to iteratively shape their projects and get great user feedback.

On Tuesday, December 4th all of our speakers will present.

Lance will present Online Advertising Update: Google Takes Over

Conference attendees will learn how the online advertising landscape has shifted dramatically over the past few years as Search has grown to be the dominant ad platform. Google has been the driving force behind the mainstreaming of Search, but with its recent moves it is clear that Google’s vision is much broader. In this session he will review the reasons behind the major shift in ad dollars toward the Internet, analyze the current state of online advertising and discuss the trends and players that are promising to reshape the advertising world as we know it. Lance will do a live demonstration of the Google AdWords platform and explain its role in catapulting Google to the top. And he will end by showing why Google is poised to turn the whole advertising industry (not just online) on its head.

Later that day Lance will speak on Pleasing Users and Search Engines Alike: Balancing Design, Usability and SEO

This session will demonstrate why showing up in search results (through search engine optimization) is important. In addition, he’ll also go under the hood of sites that have achieved beauty and usability while attaining top rankings in the major search engines. Attendees of this session will leave with practical tips on how to structure, design, and code sites in ways that please both users and search engines.

Sandra Niehaus will present a session on Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers (which is also the title of Lance and Sandra’s new book.) Sandra will use case studies to focus on the most important concepts and elements for creating effective landing pages, home pages, detail pages, and the checkout process. Attendees of this session will learn how to prioritize web design efforts by aligning them with business goals and walk away with practical design guidelines for improving ROI.

The remaining speakers Amy Greer and Roger Gilliam will speak about Harnessing the Power of RSS

In this informative and educational presentation, attendees will learn the difference between “nice to have” and “must have” feed elements””and the impact those elements have on people finding your feeds. The audience will see good and bad examples of how feeds render in various feed readers and learn what you can do about it. They will even provide a checklist of RSS best practices to take with you. Packed with specific examples, screen shots and actionable intelligence, this session will give the information you need to harness the power of RSS for your organization.

We are looking forward to our trip to Las Vegas and the Web Builder 2.0 Conference. For those of you attending, we will see you there. For those of you who can’t make it, check our blog for a recap upon our return.

For more information about Web Builder 2.0, check out the official conference website.

For those of us who’ve been wondering when it would ever happen, it looks like Web 2.0 is finally growing up.

For many months now, wild speculations, entertaining but seemingly ephemeral applications, and irrational business decisions have swirled around the phrase “Web 2.0″. Organizations frantic to stay ahead of the curve””including some of our clients””have looked for a 2.0 bandwagon to jump onto, only to find there wasn’t one. At least, not yet. Or they’ve tried to artificially bolt 2.0 technologies onto their existing business model only to find it wasn’t a good fit for them, either commercially or philosophically.

“Web 2.0 is dead! Long live…”
It was with some relief, then, that we read the announcement “Web 2.0 is dead!” circulate through the blogosphere. Not that we disliked 2.0 so much, but it’s been one of those annoying fads like low-slung jeans that few seem to know how to wear properly and no-one knows how to regulate. Something whose absence might improve society in general.

We read the announcement, and sat back to wait for the next wild trend. Web 3.0, perhaps. Or mobile-enabled VR. Or the blossoming of the semantic web.

Except that’s not what’s happened.

Instead, we’re seeing a more considered, rational, planned implementation of 2.0 technologies. Businesses that understand they need to change their way of thinking about the web if they want to benefit from, say, wikis, or blogging, or mashups. It’s the 2nd wave of Web 2.0, no longer the exploratory cutting edge, but arguably more useful.

B.L. Ochman makes a similar point in her post titled “Web 2.0 Dead? Don’t Be Silly!” - that many companies are just now beginning to make full use of these newer technologies, along with some great examples.

Web 2.0 As the Stage, Not the Star
So the 2.0 technologies are, at last, getting out of their own way. Instead of being the focus of a company’s growth, the newer approaches are enabling the growth. New types of interactions are spontaneously emerging as 2.0 becomes everyday.

Which brings me to a wonderful example of this - TuDiabetes.com. TuDiabetes.com and its sister Spanish-language site, EsTuDiabetes.com, is a social network site for a specific community - those people who’ve been touched by diabetes. Founded by Manny Hernandez, the entire site is based on the free Ning social network platform created by Marc Andreeson and Gina Bianchini. It brings together those who’ve been touched by diabetes, along with their friends and family, and lets them share their experiences, connect and interact in wonderfully supportive ways.

Would this kind of site have been possible five years ago? Yes, but it would’ve entailed a significant investment of time, effort, money, or all three. Five years ago the platform itself would have been the main focus of the organization’s effort, instead of being a springboard to newer, greater things.

The point is, as Web 2.0 goes mainstream, we’re sure to see many more creative uses of it like TuDiabetes.com, uses where the result, not the platform, is the star of the show.

Personally, I’m looking forward to it.