Many in the CMS industry mark their years by counting Gilbane conferences. I have fond memories of my first event in 2005, which means the 2014 edition will officially make it a decade of taxonomy talk and oversized vendor claims. Mainly I can trace Gilbane to some of the most meaningful professional relationships of my career, and a front row seat watching the content industry evolve, pivot, and then evolve some more.

Gilbane 2014 is back in Boston this week December 2-5 at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel (conveniently located just a few blocks away from our office). The CMS Mythbusters will again be out in force, moderating a handful of panels and hosting a social gathering. Look for myself, James Gardner, Bryant Shea, Lars von Sneidern and others from Connective DX at the event and after hours networking.

First things first, be don’t miss our Content Happy Hour at the Harpoon Brewery taking place Tuesday, Dec. 2 from 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm. Just a short walk from the conference venue, we’re hosting the event in partnership with Content Strategy New England, and hope to lift a pint with you. Please RSVP,as space is limited.

Beyond the beer, here’s some of our day one “best bets” for Tuesday, December 2:

Don’t miss opening keynotes which feature Brad Kagawa, VP of Technology from the New York Times. We covered the Times’ CMS operations earlier this year, and I’m excited to hear firsthand from Brad on what’s been happening at the Gray Lady.

I’m torn between some great options at the 1:30 pm slot. Meg Walsh, Senior Director at Marriott International, returns for a second year to discuss What It Takes to Build a Modern Customer Experience. Her keynote last year was the talk of the show and something we covered here on the blog. I love Gilbane  having her back her to report on the progress.

Competing with Meg is a session with the Harvard Business Review which just launched a massive site overhaul this weekend. And on top of those two options, Scott Brinker (the Chief MarTech himself) is leading a panel on marketing technologists. Choose carefully – None of these deserve to be missed.

The 4 pm session on Stump the Web Content Management Consultant is always one of my favorites. In part because I am a web content management consultant, but also because of the fun format. The panel is moderated by Jarrod Gingras of Real Story Group and features Praveen Ramanathan, Anne Casson and Deane Barker. I’m particularly interested in seeing if Deane will get stumped, as I’ve never seen him short for a point of view on any question even vaguely related to CMS (or CrossFit for that matter).

That’s just a few of the places we’ll be on day one, and again, don’t forget about our brew pub gathering in the evening. We’ll post our day two best bets tomorrow. Hope to see you at the big show!