Here are my highlights from day 1 - mainly in pictures - it's all about rich media after all - although apologies that some are a bit grain!! You can see our tweetwall from the event here http://wiffiti.locamoda.com/
Markus Mueller opened the conference and took the audience through the many exciting sessions from IBMers and Customers who were going to be sharing their experiences with the delegates.
Larry Bowden then took the audience through IBM's vision and strategy, which has been built on the customer feedback we have received - he has been doing this for the last 13 years and is very passionate about helping our customers achieve the best business results through web experiences, including using mobile, cloud and analytics to enhance this. Larry presented how our customers have benefited from using IBM's web experience software.
As well as taking the audience through what used to be IBM's Project Northstar and how it looks today:
Overall, it's been a fantastic day, with some great content and excellent speakers - so very much looking forward to seeing what day 2 will bring!
You can join in the conversation using #ibmexperience and follow me on @RSwindell. Check back for my day 2 highlights this time tomorrow!
IBM investments were also discussed, including key acquisitions such as Kenexa, UNICA, Core Metrics, Tealeaf as well as the product the updates of IBM forms and XWEbX 8.x FastTrack this year.
Gary Dolsen then took the stage to show the audience what we have been working on in the last year and what we are working on now. He explored that the relationship between LOB and IT is really important at the moment, they have to work hand in hand and our investments reflect this. He said that customers have asked for nicely pre integrated suites of functionality and this is part of the version 8 portfolio of digital experience software.
He explained that Content is one of our biggest areas of investment
There was then a demo from Rob Enright and Nicole Carrier - who talked how IBM Social Software can be used to help analyse the market sentiment about a brand and then use this to generate new revenue through running segmented targeted marketing campaigns - as well as split testing promotions through all strategic online channels. This can all help build tighter relationships with customers around what they care about most.
Nicole also showed a heat map of the fictional companies site that can then be used to optimise a website. 
Rob talked about Kenexa and Social Recruiting - and how our digital experience software can complement this to achieve exceptional web experiences for candidates interested in joining a new company, including a culture fit quiz!
Peter Bugge Jakobsen from Jyske bank started his session showing a video of ow Social their bank is - and he is clearly very passionate and rightly proud of what they have achieved. He spoke about responsive web design needing to be enhanced progressively and all devices and channels considered at the same time.
I then attended a session from Dan Collins and Jeff Seifert on Delivering Engaging Social Business Solutions with IBM. They spoke about the GBS CMO report and what CMOs are concerned with over the next five years, with Social Media being the second highest market factor effecting the marketing function - just topped by data explosion. Interesting stat was that 62% of Facebook fans "like" a company page just to get the discounts - therefore having communities are key - these people need to be engaged with, as eventually they are going to buy something, this can be done through integrating IBM Web Experience Software.
Why social needs to be part of Portal was the next session I attended given by Mac Guidera. He spoke about CEO priorities including empowering employees through value, engaging customers and individuals, and amplifying innovation with partnerships - all found in the IBM CEO study "Leading Through Connections".
He then showed this slide about the value of a social business platform.
Sales can improve productivity, customer service can improve customer retention, marketing can reach new audiences and product development can speed time to market - all using IBM's Social Software to improve business processes. He then showed how different companies all over the world and cross industry have realised these benefits - check out the IBM website for these case studies.
Winning Strategies from Peter Funke and Thomas Bryner was the next session I attended, which began by looking at the Business Value Assessment model.
He spoke about the importance of Innovation - to improve services, expand into new areas and develop new product. He said simply put its about selling more, with a higher profit margin, to more people and have more effective sales team.
Peter then took over and about the benefits associated tooth social business investments across all industries, including margin and productivity improvements across tasks like reading and answering email, searching and gathering info, communicating and collaborating internally and more role pacific tasks.
My last session of the day was Rob Enright and Latoya Sankey on improving customer engagement with IBM Enterprise Marketing Mgmt and Web Content Mgr. They spoke about IBM's vision to help clients create engaging, exceptional and differential web experiences. Some great stats in this session including Internet connected devices outnumber people in the USA and 80% of the worlds population will have a mobile device in the next five years,10% of adults in the US own a laptops AND tablet AND smartphone. Also by 2014 video is going to account for 90% PF web traffic - rich media has to be incorporate into your website.
Latoya then spoke about the various value realised by customers using the IBM Customer Experience Suite and the Marketing Center, as well as how Smarter Commerce is weaved in.
Rob then gave a demo of the Marketing Center, including segmentations, a-b split testing, and communication - whether it's a website or an email etc. This was followed by a really fun dynamic and interactive demo of the software through a site - tracking clicks, conversions etc, and seeing which operating system and device people were using to do this.
