Henry Stewart Conferences will have their DAM Conference in New York City on June 8th and 9th, 2011 at the New York Hilton.
How many reasons do you need to attend DAM NY 2011?
Readers of this blog may use the discount code when registering for this DAM Conference
Attendees who wish to stay at the New York Hilton can get a discount on a hotel room while they are available
Pre-conference tutorials are available on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
A meetup scheduled with the NYC Digital Asset Manager meetup group during the evening of June 7, 2011.
Great lineup of speakers and panels, including the keynote with Richard Buchanan, Vice President & General Manager, Content Services, Comcast Media Center (CMC). Richard Buchanan will present about Managing Digital Video Assets Across Multiple Media Formats and Platforms
A lot of networking with analysts, DAM experts, potential DAM users, active DAM users and vendors.
You are not alone when it comes to DAM, so join the conference and the conversations during the largest DAM-specific event of the year
I am to present about DAM Reporting, Measurement and Auditing
If several people from your organization want to attend, there are discounts as well
Find out the latest information about Digital Asset Management
Here is what some people have said about this conference
Why are you interested in attending the DAM New York Conference?
The unique identifier often comprises of a series of numbers and/or letters. This is unique within the DAM system.
So, why is this important? Because a unique identifier is unique regardless of what the file name happens to be. File names are often created by people, not computers, therefore rarely unique.
Often, it is a sequential number assigned by the system upon upload of the asset. There are some unique IDs which are created with an algorithm to make sure the asset is unique within the DAM system. This can help reduce exact duplicate assets in the DAM system.
In order to enforce a file naming convention in any organization, just follow these simple steps…
Establish and define a clear file naming convention which can scale up in the long term for many years. (Not just until next week)
Document the file naming convention in writing with guidelines and samples. Make the documentation available to everyone and distribute it to everyone. Have one version of the guidelines available for everyone to follow, even if it is updated for any reason. Share a link to it.
Train people on how to use the file naming convention properly.
Assess the people who were trained (give them a written test) by having them demonstrate they understand and can follow the file naming convention guidelines.
Follow the file naming convention after the training and assessments.
Enforce it. Keep everyone equally accountable.
When someone has violated the file naming convention, let them and their supervisor know by email. Every time. You can only violate the rules so many times. Three strikes and you are out.
The first time the file naming convention is not followed, email the person those guidelines again and have them correct the file name(s) themselves within the same business day. Have them communicate once the file name(s) has been corrected.
The second time the file naming convention is not followed, give them remedial training and the assessment again. Then, have them correct the file name(s) themselves within the same business day. Have them communicate once the file name(s) has been corrected.
The third time the file naming convention is not followed, visit them with the file naming convention bat.
Thank you for using the established file naming convention. Have a nice day.
The file naming convention bat is now available in black and blue, with accents of red. For those who prefer Cricket, we have one of those models available as well. Later, we will be reviewing how to enforce completed metadata fields in a DAM.
Let us know when you are ready for some vendor neutral consulting on Digital Asset Management.
What specifically is your organization going to do with Digital Asset Management?
For those of you who have not read this blog before or did not realize it, I am and remain vendor agnostic. Everyone should realize there is no one DAM fits all solution. Many DAM vendors will claim their solution is the best for you and they may try to sell you a solution even if it does not meet your needs.
I have looked at 90 DAM solutions in the past. Someone claimed there are as many as 150. Which solution is right for your organization?
The right DAM solution for your organization will depend on the following:
Again, there is no one-size-fits-all DAM solution. There is not one DAM system that could monopolize the whole field of Digital Asset Management. Of course, there are bigger vendors than others, vendors that only do DAM, some open source solutions and some systems which will work together with other systems you may have.
Each DAM system and solution is different. Some upload differently. Some handle file names differently. Some have more strengths in some areas than others. Some have more weakness because they are less developed or updated less often. Some DAM systems are constantly updated, versioned, changed and/or bug fixed. While others are not so much.
What is the best DAM solution? There is no one answer. It depends. What are you going to do with it?
First, research within your organization what your organization has in place now and what it really needs going forward. Where are the gaps? This includes researching the people, processes and technologies you have now. In case your organization has no idea how to do this, look into using a consultant. Select a consultant that is not tied to any specific DAM vendor(s) unless you have already made a decision on using a particular system. Hopefully, it will meet your organization’s needs.
What are the goals of the organization (not just one person) for the DAM? Which systems meet those goals?
Which system meets the business needs as described early on?
Which DAM system is scalable? (scalable for your assets, metadata, users and workflow)
Which DAM vendor and system can your organization work with? Is it too complex with too many features? Is it too simplified with not enough features? Is the vendor available before and after the commitment to using their system/services? Or is all outsourced?
Which DAM system make no sense to your engineers nor IT department?
Which DAM system can work with your organization’s use cases?
Which DAM vendor can tell you how it would work and then show you a working example from start to finish using your assets?
Which DAM vendor is friendly to you just for your business, but has no existing support for you after you sign up?
Which DAM vendor can not show you anything that works, but will promise you the moon and stars? Which DAM vendor should you run (do not walk) away from?
Which DAM vendor, integrator and system will deliver what you need? Which will/can not?
Which DAM vendors will offer you a white paper to download and have 5 different reps call you about the exact, same thing? (This would require them using a CRM system properly)
Which vendors will invite you to a webinar which you attend and you ask some questions by typing them in (which can be captured), but they ignore them and then call you a month later asking if you had any questions? Then, you ask what was the topic of the webinar, but the person calling you does not even know. (If you only knew how many webinars I attend per month)
Which DAM vendor is financially stable? Many DAM vendors are private companies while some are large publicly traded companies which have DAM as part of their available offerings.
Which DAM systems has had so many owners and different names and different development teams that barely anyone knows how to manage it or use it even on the vendor’s side?
Would you pick a DAM solution without consulting your IT department first? Not a good idea.
Would you pick a DAM solution based on a game of golf with rep or sitting in a sauna with them? What does either of these have to do with selecting technology that meets your organization’s needs? Analyst Theresa Regli warns us about this. Heed that warning.
Did you really think I was going to mention one vendor? One product? One service? Seriously? No.
Be wary of any vendor (or anyone for that matter) saying they have the right solution for you without them knowing anything about your organization, the people, the technology you use, your use cases and your specific reasons for seeking a DAM solution.
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