London Calling!

Hi, I’m Margot Bloomstein, and I have a proclivity for puns. Twee references? Sign me up. Never metaphor she didn’t like? (SEE what I did there?) Yes. All of that.

All that aside, yes! London Calling! Come out of the cupboard, all you boys and girls—but no ice age coming. Instead, it’s content strategy that’s zooming in, with scads of opportunity for collaboration and hands-on learning over the next six months. Scroll to the end for a picture that shows what that looks like, but first let’s talk…

Workshops!

The talented trio of Jonathan Kahn, Kate Kenyon, and Sara Wachter-Boettcher leads a full-day workshop September 21 focusing on the role of content strategy in organizational change.

This past spring, I had the opportunity to hear Jonathan champion this facet of content strategy in a stellar talk at IA Konferenz in Essen, Germany. He made the high-level case for content strategy in the boardroom and then dug into the tactical, low-level stuff of how you can—and should—overhaul workflow to enhance collaboration and content production. Together with Sara and Kate, he’ll focus on how you can future-proof your content and embrace the challenges and opportunities mobile presents for device- and context-savvy brands.

A few spots still remain, so go sign up!

Confab!

Know how they say “London, the Minneapolis of Europe”? No? Well soon, they will. After two years in the Midwest, Confab: The Content Strategy Conference will cross the pond to convene in London for the first time. Rejoice, and hide your gin. Two dozen speakers from nine different countries will dish on mission-driven strategy, the economics of content strategy, pace in user experience, accessibility, and more.

Registration opens September 20, which means you’ll want to be ready with approval from your manager on that day. Confab 2011 and 2012 sold out months in advance, and Confab London should be just as hot. Olympic Opening Ceremony ticket hot. Like, hotter than a Michael Phelps 200 meters hot.

Note: not Michael Phelps hot, but who knows what Erik Westra is planning?

UX London!

Andy Budd has given me the okay to announce this: I’m thrilled to join the programme for UX London in April 2013! In 2012, UX London featured presentations and workshops on many facets of user experience design. Luke Wroblewski discussed how to guide people through mobile web experiences, Kristina Halvorson described the content strategy roadmap, Bill DeRouchey detailed the value of the designer’s unique perspective—and they’re just a few of many smart voices. This spring, I’ll be leading a workshop on how user experience practitioners can embrace brand-driven content strategy and deploy it through exercises to audit content and prescribe new content types. Sign up at UX London to learn when you can register.

Am I excited about all this? Yes. Pretty much exactly like this.

Look! Look how happy the Royal Family is about content strategy!