David Eglin is a consultant and technology leader with 20+ years’ experience in engineering and content strategy. He focuses on headless CMS and composable architecture, with a particular interest in content modelling and platform decisions. He has worked with organisations including Cancer Research UK, and is the founder of The Headless Company.
Talk
10:50 · Developer Track
[ENG] A Missing Link in Content Modelling
When organisations plan a content migration, one of the first challenges is understanding how their content should be structured. Ideally, that thinking happens before a platform is selected. In practice, the tools we use often pull us towards either abstract diagrams or the specifics of a particular CMS. Both are valid starting points, but getting from an initial idea to a detailed, usable content model can mean revisiting decisions and repeating work. Does getting specific really have to mean getting platform-specific? Drawing on real-world project experience, this talk explores a missing link in content modelling: a way to think through content architecture in detail while keeping implementation choices open. It looks at why recording intent matters—not just what fields exist, but how content fits together, what must be present, and what should be allowed—and how that understanding can support better-informed platform decisions. The session introduces CMMF (Content Model Master Format), a portable format that supports a platform-neutral way of thinking about content structure and intent in detail. It explores how capturing that intent independently of a CMS can make modelling work more useful during platform evaluation, through implementation, and as systems and requirements change.