As part of my worldwide Web Analytics Wednesday tour I will be in Cary, North Carolina on the SAS campus next Wednesday, May 21st enjoying the good graces of Richard Foley who has just finished his term as President of the Web Analytics Association.  The fine folks at SAS have offered to spring for food and drinks so I have gladly agreed to present my “Future of Web Analytics” presentation (which I have had to revise twice already, sheesh!)

If you’re anywhere Cary we’d love to have you join us for this small party.  I say small in comparison to last week’s Web Analytics Wednesday super event which is unlikely to be duplicated anytime soon.

I have a bunch of other stuff I want to write about — the new WAA Executive Board, the EUWAA, measures of engagement, my consulting business, and some really amazingly cool technology I have seen recently but that will have to wait.  Forty games in forty nights and the Cavs are down by 11 (on my TIVO, please don’t write in and tell me who won the game!)

Web Analytics Wednesday in San Francisco this week was an amazing success by every conceivable measure. But don’t take my word for it, here are the metrics and key performance indicators:

• Budget for the event: $10,000.00
• Actual amount spent: $14,500.00
• Percent over budget: 31%
• Percent extra expenses graciously covered by ForeSee Results and Tealeaf: 100%
• Planned number of sponsors: 4
• Actual number of sponsors: 5
• Percent sponsors interested in this event: 120%
• Estimated satisfaction of sponsors based on feedback sample: 100%
• Projected number of attendees: 200
• Projected expenditure per attendee: $50.00
• Actual number of attendees: 400
• Actual expenditure per attendee: $36.25
• Percent of actual budget spent on drinks: 50%
• Estimated number of drinks served: 1,450
• Estimated number of drinks consumed per attendee: 3.6
• Number of hours spent serving drinks: 1.5
• Estimated number of drinks consumed per hour:996
• Estimated number of drinks consumed per hour per person: 2.4

I think the key measure of success is really satisfaction but I totally forgot to ask Larry Freed’s folks at ForeSee Results to conduct a survey during the event, we weren’t tagged with Coremetrics tags, and SiteSpect wasn’t able to test due to incredibly cramped conditions so we’ll have to rely on your comments and June’s pictures for the time being to make that determination. Maybe someone will post Tealeaf-esque replay video so we can estimate satisfaction based on qualitative data…

Speaking of the sponsors, I really want to thank all five sponsors of the event for their participation, willingness to help out, and excellent attitude … especially when the crowd volume prevented them from getting a word in edgewise during their 15 seconds of fame.

Suffice to say we could not have thrown a party like this without the help of these fine organizations.

I was also really pleased to see some of our industry thought-leaders out for the event, folks like Gary Angel, Jim Sterne, Larry, Judah Phillips, Brett Crosby, and Avinash Kaushik who has never attended Web Analytics Wednesday as far as I know but who just joined Google full-time, eschewing independent consulting for good old-fashioned job stability — congratulations Avinash and congratulations Google!

I was even more pleased to see many members of the Web Analytics Board of Directors at the show including Jim, June, Avinash, Bryan Induni, April Wilson, Richard Foley and probably a few more I am forgetting. I think this is great since the WAA has what can only be described as an estranged relationship with Web Analytics Wednesday … hopefully we can get that relationship worked out in 2008 so these two great organizations can work together for the benefit of our entire community!

Anyway, thanks to June, David Rogers, and all the volunteers and sponsors who made this great event happen. Mr. Sterne hinted that he’d like Web Analytics Wednesday to happen concurrently with every Emetrics conference around the world so hopefully we can work that out and take this great party on the road.

While clearly next week will be incredibly hectic with Emetrics, vendor announcements, and what is shaping up to be the largest Web Analytics Wednesday ever held, I wanted to quickly drop a note thanking Corry Prohens and the team at IQ Workforce for sponsoring the Web Analytics Demystified job board.

Corry is a great guy working in a pretty tough market and all indicators are that he really understands the needs of companies looking for web analytics talent. Corry is publishing industry survey data, featuring some of our real rock stars, and sharing the industry buzz. More importantly, Corry and his team are talking to some really talented people who are thinking about switching jobs.

The big advantage that Corry’s sponsorship brings to Web Analytics Demystified is a greater number of high-quality jobs being posted. We’ve been seeing this in our traffic volumes but having more good jobs brings in more great job seekers which is bringing in more great jobs!

Corry will be at Emetrics next week and is coming to the Web Analytics Wednesday event at Fluid Nightclub. If you run into him, take the time to chat him up and hear his perspective on what is indeed a topsy-turvy job market. Otherwise, pop over to the IQ Workforce web site and have a look at what Corry and his team have to offer.