And it’s gonna be fuuuuun.

Why?
Because we here at Brain Traffic love content strategy even more than we love cake. Because we’re dizzy with excitement about the way interest in content strategy is exploding. Because we love you and would like to meet you in person.

So! We thought it would be a great idea to host a great big content strategy get-together.  Content strategy can radically improve the way our companies plan for, create, deliver, and govern our content. Doesn’t that sound like something worth celebrating?

What?
It’s a conference! Oh. I said that.

You’ll hear from passionate, pragmatic speakers who are recognized for their expertise in the fields of user experience, CMS, marketing, media/publishing, social media, and SEO. We’ll have authors and folks from agencies, small businesses, and enterprise-level organizations.

Both days will feature two keynote speakers and four breakout sessions. We’ll also be throwing a killer party or two. Of course.

Who?
Are you a marketer? Web manager? Publisher? Media strategist? Web strategist? Enterprise content manager? User experience designer? SEO strategist? Social media strategist? CMS consultant? Writer? Editor?

Yes?

Then you should come to this conference. Because everything you do involves a common, critical asset: content. And your content deserves strategic consideration beyond the standard reactive, last-minute, wild west content we usually end up publishing.

Where? When?
The conference will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis, MN on May 9-10, 2011. When there is no snow. Usually.

How?
The conference website will launch sometime this fall. You’ll be able to register right away to take advantage of early-bird rates. We’ll announce the launch on Twitter (just follow @braintraffic); we’ll also announce via Facebook, LinkedIn, and several other locations. Just stay tuned!

What next?
Watch this space in the coming weeks…we’ll reveal more about the conference as the website launch gets closer.

In the meantime, guess what? …

What’s it called?
WE DON’T KNOW YET.

Hahahaha! No, uh, seriously. "Brain Traffic Content Strategy Conference" just kind of lacks that POW! ZAP! ZING! you usually like to see in a conference title. You know?

We'll figure it out soon enough. But, please, feel free to brainstorm below.

Questions?
Email us, and we'll do our best to get your questions answered.

Who's excited? WOOOOOO!!

You know. The guy who helped create the profession of information architecture.

Perhaps you even have a copy of Lou's book, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, sitting on your shelf, right within arm's reach. If you don't, you should. Maybe even two copies.

As a longtime fan of Lou's work, I was honored to help "open his eyes" to content strategy (his words, not mine).

An excerpt from our interview:

(Hm. Upon review, I think he actually took that part out …)

Read the actual, non-annoying, mostly informative interview here: Future Practice Interview: Kristina Halvorson

Kristina's Rosenfeld Media webinar Content Strategy for Websites takes place on April 23, 2009, 1-2pm EST. Use code RMWBNR for a 20% discount off your ticket purchase.

The bad news is that I'm tired. The good news is that there are many, many smart people out there who are serious about making web content better. More relevant. Findable. Persuasive. Consistent.

I'd like to highlight the work of a few brainy colleagues, here.

Colleen Jones (Threebrick) participated in the Content Strategy Consortium at the IA Summit in Memphis (big post on that coming later this week!).

At the IA Summit last week, she spoke about the need for content to find a balance between "usable" and "marketing-focused." I'm very impressed by Colleen's thinking about the role of persuasive content in web user experience.

Rahel Anne Bailie (Intentional Design) and I finally met in person at SXSW. She's been writing and talking about content management system design and strategy for a very long time. I admire her straightforward style and her smart, common-sense problem-solving approach. This is a presentation she gave at the DocTrain conference.

And finally, Derek Powazek (powazek.com) totally wowed me with his SXSW presentation, Design for the Widsom of Crowds. Plenty to think about here when you're hatching your user-generated content strategy. (He includes a few references on his blog.)

Which presentations blew you away? Share the love.