ForumCon Chicago took place on September 27th at the Merchandise Mart. Program highlights, videos and presentation slides for the event can be found below.
ForumCon San Francisco took place on February 16, 2011 at the Google San Francisco offices. Program highlights, videos and presentation slides for the event can be found below.
A bit overdue, but better late than never! With ForumCon San Francisco less than 60 days away (are you as excited as we are?) we wanted to share a few of the video highlights from the previous conference. Check them out below!
Financing & Exit Opportunities for Forum Companies
In this fireside chat with Jeremy Liew, Managing Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Oliver Roup, Founder & CEO of VigLink, asks how a forum can go about raising capital, and when it makes sense to do so.
3 Users Walk Into a Bar
Three users walk into a bar: search visitors, n00bs and power users. In this presentation Dan Gill, Co-Founder & CEO of Huddler, discusses how to think about the user experience in each of these scenarios and how to think about monetization when it comes to each of your sites' unique audiences.
Performance Marketing From an Advertiser's Perspective
JJ McCarthy, Global Director of the eBay Partner Network, shares an inside look at how eBay approaches performance marketing.
A Closer Look at the Affiliate Nexus Tax
As affiliate nexus taxes are being enacted in more states, online merchants and forum owners are increasingly facing a number of business challenges and difficult decisions. In this panel discussion, experts on both sides of the issue weigh in on the key issues, and share how their respective companies are managing the issue.
Real Time Content-Marketing
Content marketing continues to gain momentum. In this presentation Tyler Tanaka, VP of Business Development at PostRelease, will discuss why brands and agencies are gravitating towards content marketing, and the content marketing tactics you can leverage to help grow your own community and it's brand.
Making your Forum Mobile
Michael Wechsler of TheLaw.com shares how forum owners can make their forum mobile seamlessly and painlessly.
Affiliate Marketing for Forums
More than likely you are already doing the obvious when it comes to monetizing your forum (running banner ads and perhaps Google AdSense). Intuitively, these kinds of ad models are easy to easy understand. They "sell" pieces of white space on your site.
In this panel, we'll discuss one of the more technically difficult and often misunderstood monetization options available to forum owners: affiliate marketing. Four experts in the affiliate marketing space will discuss best practices and answer your questions.
Future of Forums
Many refer to forums as the "original social network" -- they were bringing individuals together en masse long before Facebook, MySpace or Twitter did. In a space that has already covered so much ground, what's next? In this panel four forum & community experts will discuss the trends they anticipate sticking, which will likely subside and the overall direction they see the forum space moving in.
Verticalized Social Networks - Online Influence that Savvy Marketers Covet
Speaker: Dan Gill, Co-Founder & CEO, Huddler Format: Presentation True enthusiasts yearn to connect with others that share in their passions -- Audiophiles, Golfers, Movie Buffs and Moms frequently use interest-based networks, not social networks, to connect with like minds. When these enthusiasts connect with one another, millions listen and are influenced. Today's savvy marketers understand the value of building relationships with these influencers and will pay to do so. We will discuss opportunities to create win-win relationships between brands and communities to enhance engagement and revenue.
Speaker: Kris Jones, Founder & CEO, KBJ Capital, Author Search Engine Optimization: Your visual blueprint for effective Internet marketing Format: Presentation Is your forum or website outranking the competition? Are you positioned in Google's increasing vertical search results? Join Pepperjam Founder and Internet Entrepreneur Kris Jones for a thought provoking and actionable conversation on how to systematically leverage Google Search, Mobile, Video, Local, Products, News, +, and more to generate more traffic and make more money on your forum or website.
Monetization 360: Image, Data, Ads, Link Insertion, and Affiliate Marketing
Format: Panel
Forums -- rich in user-generated content -- offer an abundance of monetization opportunities. In this panel, experts from the major monetization tech providers will share tips, tools, and best practices for approaching monetization from the perspective of a forum owner. We'll also be leaving plenty of time for Q&A to answer your specific questions on how to get the most out of each one.
Effective Use of Social Networks to Enhance Forum Traffic & Value
Format: Panel
With the growth explosion sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest have seen in recent years, it's becoming increasingly difficult for forum owners to ignore the potential value these channels can offer their community. In this panel discussion, experts that have found concrete ways to make social media work for them will share tips, tools, and best practices forum owners can leverage to increase their traffic and enhance engagement.
Speaker: Jamie Vondruska, Founder & CEO, Vortex Media Group Format: Presentation Jamie Vondruska, founder of VWvortex, one of the largest and longest running automotive discussion forums, has been involved in building forum communities for more than 13 years. In this session, he shares how he got his start, the biggest hurdles he initially faced, how he overcame them, and the new challenges he faces today.
The Future of Forums panel has become something of a tradition at ForumCon. While the panelists have rotated yearly, it has always been a lively discussion that touches on the current state of the industry, what has the panelists most excited at the moment, and what lies ahead. This year, the theme is The Best is Yet to Come (and not just because cocktails will immediately follow!).
How to Create, Curate, and Put Great Content to Use
Speaker: Tyler Tanaka, VP of Business Development, PostRelease Format: Presentation As online visitors' browsing habits and search engines' algorithms continue to change, content continues to be the key to keeping them both happy. In this session, Tyler Tanaka of PostRelease will share new ways and tools to better create, curate, and use good content that will keep your search rankings high, page views up, and most importantly -- your forum members engaged.
Igniting the Conversation: Getting to One Billion Forum MAUs
Speaker: Joe Rosenblum, Chief Technology Officer, Internet Brands Format: Presentation Executives from the parent company of vBulletin will draw on experience from operating over 200 forum sites to explain the trends, tools, and technologies that are driving the next wave of forum growth. Specific areas to be discussed include why 2012 is a great time to start a forum, why Google Panda is an SEO best friend to forum sites, how forums can leverage Facebook to attract more users than it draws away, vital considerations for forums serving mobile visitors, key ways forums need to change, and how they should stay the same.
Format: Presentation As users time spent online begins to more heavily splinter between desktops / laptops and mobile devices, it's critical that forum owners and community managers take their community's mobile experience into consideration.
Users will be accessing communities from their mobile devices. The question is, how can you preserve the end-user's experience, as well as revenue and functionality, within the mobile format? In this session, leading technology providers will offer their perspective on the mobile forum space generally, as well as an inside look at the tools available today to make your community mobile.
Speaker: Dan Gill, Co-Founder & CEO, 
Speaker: Kris Jones, Founder & CEO, 
Speaker: Jamie Vondruska, Founder & CEO, 
Speaker: Tyler Tanaka, VP of Business Development, 
Speaker: Joe Rosenblum, Chief Technology Officer, 
Speaker: Neal Sainani, Director of Product Management, 
Speaker: Winter Wong, Founder, 
