The next Syndicate conference, entirely devoted to the business aspects of RSS, is taking place during December 12-14 in San Francisco.

In conjunction with the event, Pheedo is informally hosting an off-conference RSS Industry Night Roundtable, which I'll be moderating as a neutral party. Essentially, we are aiming to focus the event on our industry and not on any company in particular.

Event Summary:
Coinciding with the RSS industry conference, Syndicate, the RSS Industry Night Roundtable aims to assemble a group of the top thought leaders in the RSS industry to discuss key topics that challenge all of us in this space. This group will span the disciplines of RSS advertising, RSS manufacture, RSS aggregators and readers, and RSS purveyors and luminaries.

The intent of this meeting is to discuss a number of key issues facing our industry and it's chances for continued success. This meeting will also serve as a vehicle for our key industry partners to discuss mutual challenges and viable solutions, as well as come to a mutual understanding of goals and objectives that we all have for the RSS space. Lastly, we will have an opportunity to collaborate, as leaders in the industry, on how we can increase the rate of RSS adoption among information consumers.

When:
Time: 6:30PM
Date: December 12th
Timing: In conjunction with the first day of Syndicate Conference on December 12th, 2005 in San Francisco.

Moderator:
Rok Hrastnik, a noted RSS authority and author of the book Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS has agreed to moderate the event as a neutral party.

Topics:
There are so many topics that we can collectively address as an industry, however, it's critical that we focus on the important few that address issues of RSS growth and adoption.

We will focus on key industry issues that are preventing business adoption of RSS. Below are the high-level issues that we'll cover on the 12th. At the end of the document are additional topics that can be discussed if there is additional time.

--> Lack of standardized RSS metrics
--> Lack of presentable case studies and best practices
--> IRSS mass syndication
--> Actual RSS penetration
--> Rich-media advertising

Attendees:
Ideally, the event will attract around 20 high level leaders from within the RSS industry from the following disciplines.

RSS Manufacture
RSS Advertising
RSS Readers
RSS Services
RSS Convergence
RSS Research

Participation:
If you wish to participate, please contact Rok Hrastnik as soon as possible for additional event information. The audience will be targeted to RSS service providers.

Additional RSS Topics Of Interest:
--> Establishing key industry terms related with IRSS: customization, personalization, targeting
--> The load that IRSS feeds will place on the aggregator & advertiser services
--> How will RSS Readers support IRSS and prevent IRSS feeds from mass-syndication
--> How can we get data about actual user counts shared by RSS Reader companies, with the intent of coming up with a realistic evaluation of the number of RSS users, in order for RSS to become more valid for marketers
--> Javascript, Flash, and other rich media in RSS
--> Caching issues with the major web-based feed readers

RSS Marketing Case Studies
--> How can we as an industry work together to prepare strong case studies with concrete results that will further the business interest in RSS

RSS Metrics
--> Establishing the reliability of different tracking models ("pixel tracking" and log analysis; IRSS; user authentication) and their future
--> Establishing a standardized set of RSS metrics as an industry

RSS Advertising--> Establishing a standardized set of advertising related RSS metrics, especially in relation with existing advertising metrics supported by the ad world

RSS Marketing Best Practices
--> Establishing RSS marketing best practices (perhaps in a written document), giving specific guidelines on how to best promote RSS feeds onsite, content guidelines etc.

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