Archive for May, 2009

Okay, so maybe the headline for this post is a wee hyperbolic, but if you’ve been to the X Change in the past I know you’ll forgive me my excitement. Yes, it’s that time of the year again, time to get ramped up for the X Change!

This year’s conference is being held at the extra fancy-schmancy St. Regis hotel in San Francisco, immediately adjacent to San Francisco MoMa and as central as you can possibly get while still suffering Starwood 5-star luxury accommodations. In a word, the venue is SWEET!

But, as with past X Change events, the venue will immediately become secondary to the excellent conversation, excellent company, and excellent insights being shared. As with the 2007 and 2008 events we plan to have the brightest practitioners from the best companies leading the conversation. Confirmed participants already include Best Buy, Intuit, Nokia, AOL, Forrester Research, Charles Schwab, Turner Broadcasting Systems, and more!

Also, as Gary alludes to in his post about the conference, I had a pretty good idea for this year’s conference keynote … we’re still pinning down details but I can honestly say the keynote this year is something that none of us have seen before at a web analytics conference or event.

We’re also excited to announce that on September 9th we will be holding the first-ever X Change Think Tank training day! Credit Gary this one, and it makes perfect sense to me given the strength of the Semphonic crew, but we will be taking the ideals of the X Change and extending them to an extremely intimate learning environment. I will be leading two classes and I hope to get my new business partner Aurélie Pols to lead one or two as well!

If you have budget for training in 2009 I definitely encourage you to have a look at the Think Tank and feel free to ping me directly for more details.

One of the things I love the most about the X Change is the transparency we have and that we learn from our participants. Every attendee helps us make the X Change a better conference, every year! To this end I am actively seeking input about the conference via this site, Twitter, email, … heck, you can call me directly if you have a good idea!

You can register now for the 2009 X Change and will save 10% if you do so before July 31st! Head on over to the Semphonic web site and start the registration process — and don’t forget this is an event that has sold out every year it has been offered! Because we limit the conference to 100 participants we fully expect to sell out in advance again … don’t get caught waiting!

I hope to see you at the X Change!

When I quit my job at Visual Sciences back in May 2007 to form Web Analytics Demystified I did so because I had a vision of a new type of web analytics consulting group. I very much wanted to build a small practice made up of very senior people capable of solving the really hard problems most companies have after they’ve made the investment in web analytic technology. I wanted to establish a firm that would compliment the highly tactical firms that I respected so much — companies like Semphonic, Stratigent, and Europe’s OX2.

After two years I am very proud of the work I’ve done and the clients I’ve worked with. I have had the opportunity to work with some of the best brands, the best companies, and the most visionary management teams who are actively wokring to do more than simply “run reports” and instead want to actively compete on web analytics. That said, I have come to the realization that there is no way I could satisfy the global need on my own … so I did what every good business owner should do: I went out and got someone smarter, more eloquent, and better looking to be my business partner!

At Emetrics last week in San Jose I was incredibly excited to announce that Aurélie Pols, Europe’s most widely known and well respected web analytics consultant, has joined Web Analytics Demystified as a Principal Consultant.  Aurélie brings depth and experience in web analytics that is rare anywhere in the world and exceedingly rare in Europe, she was the first consultant to break the “one vendor” stranglehold in Europe that forced firms to work exclusively with a single technology, and she brings a brilliance to the explanation and use of these tools that amazes even me.

Now Aurelie and I will be working together in Europe to “demystify web analytics” and help companies make significantly better use of their technology investment. Between the two of us and our contacts across Europe Web Analytics Demystified will now be providing a far greater level of service than was previously possible.

I highly recommend that you read Aurélie‘s “Hello, World” blog post and start following her at aurelie.webanalyticsdemystified.com. If you have any questions about Aurélie’s practice or how Web Analytics Demystified can help you regardless of where you’re located, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly.

I hope you will welcome me in welcoming Aurélie to the Web Analytics Demystified team.