What I appreciated about the conference was the ability to look at what certain publications were currently dealing with or had dealt with to get them here (not RJI/J-school here, but here and now here: the present).
Several presenters talked about knowing their audience. It amazed me how much they knew or could know. One presenter said he used to decide (along with his editors and others) what he thought was best for the print issues and hope he got it right. Now, with the digital feedback (through forums and data collected from customer use), he can see when he gets it right and when he doesn't. There is a newly intense focus on the user.
I think readers are people we consider when we design, but I don't think we have taken it to that level quite yet. And it may not be possible for us until we have the ability to gleam the crazy amount of feedback that these companies are able to collect.
In general, I found it interesting how different each of the presentations were. From a breakdown of steps that led to the creation of an app and the technical aspects of that process to explanations of why it is necessary and how to get readers interested (if you build it, will they come?) to a practical demonstration (rather view) of the current app. Some of the speakers were really engaging and others were very easy to tune out. (And the mag+ presentation sounded eerily familiar. I think there were some recycled jokes or comments in there somewhere...)
I also very much enjoyed the iPad conference. I think one of the battles we'll be fighting is to make sure that if something calls for a treatment that doesn't necessarily get a lot of hits. It'll be about balancing the design with the analytics.
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