LavaCon Day One

LavaCon 2014 is off to a great start, dispensing tips and tricks for content creation, user experience, social media, and much more. Jack Molisani, the executive director, continues to assemble a "Who's Who" lineup of speakers, and as content creators here at ThinkRHM3, it has been fun to hear insights from so many experts.

Just checking the program and figuring out where to go has been a challenge. The two keynotes were fun. IBM's Andrea Ames pumped us up to create our own futures as this wacky world of writing transforms into content creation. Kristina Halverson, founder of BrainTraffic and author of Content Strategy for the Web, shared an engaging talk about her insights.

Then it was on the tracks. I sat in on an interesting talk that covered how to delight mobile customers, presented by Marta Rauch. She talked about picking the best hash tags and running a social media campaign. Marta is at Oracle, and she showed how good content creation can drive revenue.

Another fun presentation came from Bill Swallow at Scriptorium, who described some of the "opponents" of content strategy. He listed zombies, vampires, mummies, Frankenstein, and ghosts and gave examples from the corporate world for each of the "undead" villains who thwart smart content.

Between talks, it has been fun to reconnect with all the experts roaming the halls. I will be interviewing one or two seasoned vets, and speaking with some vendors, as the show goes on.