We have some fantastic sessions proposed by a host of really smart folks. Here’s what’s on tap so far. We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below.

1. Waterfall or Agile – Let’s Debate!

Bill Simpson, Software R&D Manager at ProfitStars

We’ve all heard buzz around Agile, and all know Waterfall is entrenched. How about we debate it and get some open and honest conversation going? I know there are some waterfall lovers out there and I know there are some agilists who would like to take them on. Let’s facilitate a conversation between the two and see if we can’t cut through some of the noise and get to the meat of it – providing value to our customers! This would be billed as a panel discussion, with audience participation. There likely won’t be any up front presentation. Just good honest debate!

2. Agile Develpoment – Why Product Managers Care

Bill Simpson, Software R&D Manager at ProfitStars

There’s a lot of information out on the web about how Agile Development, Scrum in particular, makes the lives of software developers better. But what about the product manager? What value is in it for you? Specifically, how does it get you more actionable information, better value for your customers, good visibility into what is happening in the organization, and overall, improve your ability to deliver features that delight your consumers? Let’s explore together the product manager’s point of view and help you make an informed decision as to whether or not you should be demanding Agile in your organization! This would most likely be a panel-based discussion with a few experts answering questions.

3. Defining your product strategy using UX

Jacques Woodcock, President at theKit

In this session we will discuss how using UX to validate, refine and even define your product’s strategy and business principles can lead to the coveted innovation we all aim for.

4. It’s not the Product – the Customer is King

Michael Lummus, Product Manager at Acxiom

This workshop will explore a customer-centric approach to marketing and product development that maximizes loyalty, profits and product greatness. Attendees will learn the fundamentals of customer-centric strategy, investigate real-life case studies, and leave with maps of their own customer segments and consumer lifecycle strategy.

5. Making your product invisible

Evan Owens, Director of Consulting at CentreSource

It’s every products dream! To become so integrated into daily behavior that we don’t even think of it as a product anymore. In order to get to this point, often it takes creating a need in the market, rather than filling a need. In this discussion, we’ll craft some solid philosophy, methodology and concepts around how to make your product invisible.

6. The Product Management X Factor: How to be a Rock Star Product Manager

Rich Nutinsky, Instructor at Pragmatic Marketing

What is it about certain people that make them rise to rock star status and not others, and how can we duplicate their success. There are a lot of PM’s out there now. But only a small % I would call stars. Stars have cracked the code to getting different set of outcomes, in their products and their careers… What is the X factor and how do YOU get it?

7. Which comes first? Creating a meaningful experience with each release.

Marc Sexton, Director of Product at Emma

When resources are limited, it’s a struggle to balance marketable features with less sexy, yet necessary, behind-the-scenes functionality. In this session we’ll talk about how to strike a good mix in your releases and do a group exercise of theming, sorting and prioritizing your features in the evolution of your product.

8. Let’s Talk (PR) Shop

Kia Jarmon, Founder at The MEPR Agency

“Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference.” ? Nolan Bushnell As you take your idea from the shower to the store the session will prepare you to ask some of the necessary PR questions prior to taking your product to the shelf. Attendees will walk away with some questions to ask their internal team or future PR agency, many answers on the next steps, and will be more prepared to step into the market place. We will specifically tackle the “so you have created a product, what’s next?” question where businesses will be encouraged to share their product and receive on the spot next steps for their PR plan.

9. Market Validation, Customer Development and the Lean Startup

Marcus Whitney, CTO and Co-Founder at Moontoast

The art and science of achieving ‘Product-Market Fit’ have grown up big time in the last 5 years. In this session, Marcus Whitney, CTO and Co-Founder of Moontoast, will review the dominant disciplines that have emerged in this renaissance and talk about practical ways to implement them.

10. DIY Competitive Intelligence

Eric Dingus, Senior Analyst at Healthways

Have you ever presented a great product idea to senior leadership, only to be asked questions like: Isn’t the PFW Company developing the same product? How does our pricing compare to BKC’s new product? What differentiates your product from iDrinks? We’ve all felt stumped by such questions at some point. But there is hope! You don’t have to possess supernatural gifts to find out rich competitive information. Learn how to gain insight into your competitors’ pricing, product development, positioning and market strategies from someone with over twelve years of competitive intelligence experience.

11. Buyer and User Personas in Product Design and Strategy

John Peltier, Product Manager at The Network, Inc.

Personas are a powerful tool to better understand the buyer and user of a product. Insights obtained from persona development and analysis can drive optimal interaction design and user interface for the people that will use the product, as well as helping to strategize the optimal feature set to win over the buyer. The trick is to create living personas by synthesizing market data and observation of in-house subject matter experts to build these strategic tools as quickly as possible. In this session, we’ll review the basics of user and buyer personas and lead a discussion of your use of personas, and of ways to build personas that others can put into practice after attending the session.

12. User support: How to turn tire-kickers into adopters, users and fans

Rex Hammock, Founder and CEO of Hammock Inc.

A quick overview of online customer support platforms and how they can work together to help users get the most out of your product when you launch — and beyond. The four platforms (with examples) I’ll show are: Zendesk (Support ticket) Get Satisfaction (User community) WordPress (Product update blogging, tutorials, how-tos) MediaWiki (User knowledge management).