Archive for September, 2007

UPDATED: Apologies to Ian Thomas but I forgot to indicate where BETA 1 screen shots stopped and where future releases began as he related this information during his presentation. Please see the note inline below and again, apologies to Ian!

Ian Thomas from Microsoft was in Brussels, Belgium today showing off some screen shots of the upcoming Microsoft Gatineau product. The following are exclusive screen shots of the product, sans commentary per my agreement with the ever-so-nice Mr. Thomas. If you’d like to be considered for the Gatineau BETA, please either visit Ian’s blog at http://www.liesdamnedlies.com or fill out the form at http://advertising.microsoft.com/gatineau

Thanks again to Ian for letting me bring these to light and best of luck with the BETA launch!

UPDATED: The following screen shots include visualizations that Mr. Thomas indicated would be in future Gatineau releases.

Again, if you’re interested in signing up for the Gatineau BETA, please go to http://advertising.microsoft.com/gatineau. Any questions about these screen shots or the product images should be addressed to Ian Thomas via his weblog (http://www.liesdamnedlies.com)

I finally got a little time to relax on Wednesday when I arrived in Rotterdam, Holland, the site of Emerce’s eDay conference where I presented my “Web Analytics is Easy” presentation. The event planners and the City Council of Rotterdam invited the event speakers out on a nice boat trip. I was lucky to connect with serial entrepreneurs Mark Fletcher (Bloglines, Startupping.com) and Biz Stone (Xanga, Google, Twitter), two tremendously nice guys and both serious movers in the Bay Area Internet scene.

Biz and I had a pretty good conversation over dinner about “Web 3.0″ and I was also lucky enough to catch up with Rolf Skyberg, Disruptive Innovator at Ebay, on the same subject. What is “Web 3.0″ you ask? Come to SEMphonic X Change and find out!

The only web analytics vendor at the conference was Holland’s Nedstat but it was nice as I got to chat with the company’s CEO and VP of Marketing. I was also surprised when one of their newest consultants produced a well-used copy of Web Analytics Demystified which he asked me to sign.

My presentation at eDay went well I think. The Dutch people in attendance seemed very engaged despite (or perhaps because of my very non-European presentation style) and many stuck around after the session to ask questions. The woman in the back (standing) told me that she believed me when I said that web analytics was hard. I think I said something like “Hallelujah!”

After a quick Internet radio interview, my good friend Aurelie Pols and I had a nice drive to Brussels to the Global Headquarters of OX2. It was my first visit to Brussels and to meet many of the employees of my partner in Belgium and it was quite fun. Here is Aurelie with her newest web analytics specialist (whose name I didn’t write down, please forgive me!)

Here is Aurelie’s husband and the President of OX2, Rene Otamendi (right) with the infamous W. David Rhee, OX2′s newest employee, who is perhaps best known for his incredibly valuable contribution to the Web Analytics Forum.

I am hugely excited about Web Analytics Day here in Brussels.  Not only will Ian Thomas be on hand to show off Microsoft’s Gatineau application for the first time in public, but after nearly 150 requests to attend Rene had to stop registration due to space limitations.  While we’re obviously disappointed that everyone cannot join us, it is very encouraging that so many people are interested in measurement here in central Europe.

For those of you who have grown tired of reading about my jaunt about Europe, fear not!  Tomorrow will be my last post on the tour and I promise to not blog next week from Las Vegas.

I just got back from the special Web Analytics Wednesday event in Stockholm, Sweden and wanted to post some thoughts and a few of the pictures I took.

When I first founded Web Analytics Wednesday I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Like I’ve posted in the past, I started the event simply because it seemed like a really good idea — not to make money, not even necessarily to sell books, really just to bring the entire web analytics community together.

Now that I’ve seen what Lars Johanssen with help from IndexTools, WebTrends, and Omniture have built here in Sweden I have to say I am completely blown away!

Lars, with the help of his sponsors providing some food, some drink, and a nice place to gather and present, manages to draw the largest Web Analytics Wednesday group in the entire world almost every single time they get together. And while Lars does this for the betterment of the Web Analytics Association, when he asked the group, less than half of the 70 or so attendees were even WAA members! Lars has tapped into a rich community of very interesting (and interested) business people, all of whom appear quite passionate about learning more about web analytics.

It would be great if more cities around the world could reach out, get sponsors, plan activities, and really push to make their local Web Analytics Wednesday events something that people are excited to attend. I’ll ask Lars next time we talk, but I suspect it doesn’t really take that much effort on the part of the local organizer!

Let me ask you this: What would make you personally more willing to host, sponsor, or attend a local Web Analytics Wednesday event? Is it more support, more recognition, more formal education, or simply more free food and drink? Please leave me your thoughts in the comments or email them to me directly and I’ll summarize later this week (from Holland or Belgium!)

After seeing what Lars has put together, I am personally more motivated than ever to help the entire web analytics community benefit from Web Analytics Wednesday, regardless of your affiliation, location, or motivation! Please do let me know!

Okay, here are the pictures from Day Two of my web analytics world tour …

About half of the attendees, including Mr. Fulton Yancy from Visual Sciences (front left) and Lars Johansson waving in the back (red blob, sorry about the pictures this time!)  I’m not entirely sure why Fulton didn’t join the panel and why Visual Sciences declined to sponsor this event despite generous funding from WebTrends, Omniture, and IndexTools.

Google’s Dr. Brian Clifton (left), who flew in from London for the event and three unnamed Swedes.

The vendor and consultant panel. From the left, Dennis Mortenson of IndexTools, Steve Jackson from Satama, the guy from Omniture whose name I cannot begin to pronounce, Ian Tickle from Webtrends, and Per Strid of Sweden (not on the panel.)

Ian Tickle and Per Strid. I had heard a great deal about Mr. Tickle but had never met him. He turned out to be incredibly nice, thoughtful, and polite. He actually even cited an Omniture TouchClarity case study when an audience member asked about the value of optimization technology!

Anyway, despite having had almost no sleep since I got to Europe, and it being 3 AM as I finish this post, everyone seemed to enjoy my “web Analytics is Easy” presentation and I heard several people talking about the Web Analytics Demystified RAMP over beers.  Thanks again to Lars Johansson for inviting me to Sweden and further motivating me to help foster WAW events around the globe!!!

After a long flight from Portland > Minneapolis > Amsterdam > Helsinki I finally arrived at my first destination in Europe: Global headquarters of Satama, a leading European digital services company with a global clientèle and an energetic, insight-oriented crew and authors of Captain Blackbeak’s Blog (arrrrr!) I didn’t mention Satama in my last post because the event tomorrow is private for a select list of roughly 70 Satama clients and prospects.

I’ve known some of the Satama crew for awhile now online but it was nice to put names with faces! Here are a few of those faces so you can play along at home:

Mikko Isoniemi, Business Unit Director for Analytics, and Steve Jackson, Senior Consultant for Analytics

Janne Korpi, Project Manager and Team Leader for Analytics

Many of the Satama crew, including Mia Luostarinen (front left) who provided invaluable help getting me to Helsinki!

I’m very much looking forward to meeting Satama clients tomorrow at the presentation, after which Steve, Mikko, and I will be heading directly to Stockholm, Sweden for Lars Johansson’s totally sold-out Web Analytics Wednesday event!

I’ve blogged about my travel schedule a few times but tomorrow I’m heading out on the official “Web Analytics Demystified World Tour” and I’d love to catch up with my blog readers if you’re coming to any of the following events:

• Tuesday, September 11th I will be with the great Lars Johansson at the totally sold out Web Analytics Wednesday event in Stockholm, Sweden.  This event is co-sponsored by the nice folks at WebTrends, Omniture, and IndexTools and promises to be a full-evening of web analytics “demystification” for the 80+ folks who will be in attendance.  I will be giving my “Web Analytics is Easy!” presentation and then we’ll have a panel of experts that includes Dennis Mortenson of IndexTools, Ian Tickle from WebTrends, Steve Jackson from Satama, and Magnus Hultman from Omniture.  Despite this event being sold out/standing room only, you can still contact Lars about getting on the wait list.
• Thursday, September 13th I will be presenting at e.Day 2007 in Rotterdam Holland.  I’m excited about presenting at e.Day since I will be working along side industry giants like Biz Stone (Twitter), Rolf Skyberg (eBay), Martin Stiksel (Last FM), Sep Kamvar (iGoogle), and Mark Fletcher (Startupping.com but you may know him as the founder of Bloglines)  You can see the entire line up of speakers at the e.Day web site.
• Friday, September 14th I will be presenting three times at OX2′s Web Analytics Day in Brussels, Belgium.  I am hugely excited about this event since I will get to hang out with my good friends Rene, Aurelie, David Rhee, and even Ian Thomas from Microsoft who will be on hand to give the first public demo of Microsoft Gatineau.  Some great news that you may not have already read is that WEB ANALYTICS DAY IS NOW TOTALLY FREE for practitioners of web analytics.  Yep, thanks to the generosity of the sponsors, practitioners can join us at no charge and consultants pay only a small fee to attend this event that is sure to be talked about in Europe for years to come.  I hope you’ll join me in Brussels!

When I get home from Europe I will have barely enough time to clean my clothes and catch up on email before heading right back out on the road, this time in the American West.

• Tuesday, September 18th I will be leading the Advanced Analytics workshop at Shop.ORG in Las Vegas, Nevada, working again with my good friend and former co-worker Patti Freeman-Evans of JupiterResearch.  Those of you who have been to Shop.ORG in the past know what an excellent event this is and how much fun it will be in Las Vegas.  Patti and I will be giving short presentations and then we’ll be leading an expert practitioner panel that features my good friends Dylan Lewis from TurboTax, Kim Weller from Circuit City, and Michael Fried from Backcountry.com.  If you’re coming to Shop.ORG, please join us in the Advanced Analytics session!
• Thursday, September 20th I will be giving the keynote presentation at SEMphonic X Change in Napa Valley, California.  I am hugely honored to have been asked to present the keynote at this event, especially considering the rock star lineup that will be on hand to run “huddles” and help make X Change a unique event in the web analytics community.  If you haven’t already decided to go to X Change and would like to join us, send me an email and I’ll gladly help you save 15% off the cost of attending.

If you have any questions about how to hook up with me at any of these presentations, please don’t hesitate to write.  I always love meeting my book and blog readers in person and am always happy to sign copies of Web Analytics Demystified and Web Site Measurement Hacks if you bring them along.

See you on the tour!