Those of you following me on Twitter and Facebook have probably noticed that I’m spending much of October on the road.  After delivering the keynote address at ForeSee Results excellent Digital Citizen 2008 conference for the public sector I hopped on a flight to London to deliver the keynote at Coremetrics European client summit.

While in London I was able to join over 170 bright, motivated, and extremely nice web analysts from Europe at what turned out to be the biggest non-Emetrics Web Analytics Wednesday event ever.  This event was everything that I have ever hoped that Web Analytics Wednesday would be — extremely well organized by the kind folks at SCL Analytics, featuring great  talks from senior folks from the vendor, practitioner, and consulting community, held in a fantastic location thanks to the generosity of Coremetrics.  An absolutely perfect evening!

Thanks again to Chris and the team at SCL, Renata and the team at Coremetrics Europe, and everyone who participated in the event.

I have one more private event on Friday but what I’m really, really excited about is getting to present (again) at Jim Sterne’s Emetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Washington, D.C.  I am proud to say that, aside from Jim, I may be the only person in the world who has attended every single North American Emetrics.

Despite having heard it all and seen it all and started helping Semphonic promote and produce the X Change, I would never consider for a moment skipping this great event.  This year Jim was kind enough to allow me to present to a combined track in the big room on Tuesday so I will be delivering a brand new presentation titled “Competing on Web Analytics.”  Drawing on Tom Davenport’s great work in HBR and his own book, this presentation more than any I have given in the past brings our practice together and presents a clear, concise roadmap for success.

If you’re coming to Emetrics I hope you’ll join me Tuesday at 11:10 AM in Room Plaza ABC.

When I was describing my travel schedule to a friend last night he asked me point blank “Why do you do it? Why do you travel to so many Web Analytics Wednesdays and conferences, spending hundreds of days a year on the road to evangelize for web analytics and support the web analytics community?”

Easy. I love what I do!

Because I love what I do, it would never occur to me to skip an Emetrics. Sure, I’d love Jim to pay my speaker’s fee and yeah, I’d love a keynote speaker’s slot now and again. But after 10 years in this industry I’m clear that the web analytics sector is bigger than me, Jim, or any vendor, consultant, practitioner, author, or blogger.  Emetrics provides a twice-a-year touchpoint for a large part of our community, and Emetrics is the event that gave me, Avinash Kaushik, Bryan Eisenberg, Jason Burby, Jennifer Veesenmeyer and many more the opportunity to establish our personal and professional brands.

So for me, and I think this is true for most of my peers, it’s not a question of whether we’ll be at Emetrics, it’s only a question of what we’ll talk about.

Because of the things I’ve learned at Emetrics, I promote and support Web Analytics Wednesday to give back to the larger community.  By facilitating the Global Sponsorship, by supporting emerging events around the planet, by helping local hosts plan more engaging events, and by attending as many WAW events as humanly possible I am able to take much of what I’ve learned at Emetrics and put it into action on a larger scale.

The support of my friends, partners, and co-sponsors is allowing Web Analytics Demystified help to keep the web analytics community together when we’re not at Emetrics.  In 2008 we are going to beat our goal of 5,000 attendee, making Web Analytics Wednesday the largest gathering of web analytics professionals worldwide. Web Analytics Wednesday works because everyone’s intentions are pure — hosts want to have a nice event, participants want to network, and the sponsors want to support the WAW community.

Simple.

So I hope you’ll come see me at Emetrics next week, or at least join June, Jim and I at what will likely be the biggest Web Analytics Wednesday ever next Wednesday at the conference hotel.  Emetrics is the conference for everyone, so I look forward to seeing all of you there.

Next week I am delighted to be delivering the keynote speech at the Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) in Vancouver, British Columbia.  I will be giving a new presentation titled “Competing on Web Analytics” that applies the wisdom that Tom Davenport originally outlined in his best selling Harvard Business Review reprint to the work we do in the online channel.

I’m also excited to be going to IMC because there are a ton of great speakers in the line up, folks like my old friend Xavier Casanova from Liveclicker, Gary Angel from Semphonic, Anil Batra (who just became a father, congrats Anil!) from ZeroDash1, and Tom Leung from Google who I have never seen speak but have heard good things about.

If you plan on being at IMC and would like to set aside some time to meet or catch up, please feel free to email me directly and we can plan a time.

I was surprised to learn this morning that there are fewer than 10 open registrations left at the 2008 X Change conference in San Francisco August 17, 18, and 19.  We set the limit for the conference at 100 paid attendees to ensure an intimate setting and for the ten of you who are able to complete your registration in the next few days I can assure you that decision will pay off in a big way.  This year’s conference has attracted some of the best companies and most experienced practitioners working in the field today, and despite the generally lousy economic climate, has folks coming from as far away as Sydney, Australia to participate in the conversation.

If you’re already registered for the event, don’t forget to return your huddle selection forms, your tete-a-tete requests, and the list of questions that you’d like to ask our distinguished analyst keynote panel!

If you’ve been considering the event, don’t delay: Register now and join us at the 2008 X Change!

Since we’re about two weeks away from X Change 2008 I wanted to bring a few networking events that will be happening around the conference, one for participants only and the other for anyone in the Bay Area who wants to join us!

For X Change conference attendees we’ve added a networking reception on Monday afternoon that will occur concurrent to the “Expert Tete-a-Tete” event already planned.  Gary Angel, the CTO of Semphonic and our partner in the X Change has a great write up in his blog about the tete-a-tete.   When conference participants are done chatting with the great expert vendors and consultants who will be in attendence they’ll be able to join their peers in a private networking event designed to promote additional idea sharing and communication over wine and cheese or similar goodies.

For those you in the Bay Area unable to join us at the X Change, June Dershewitz is throwing another gala Web Analytics Wednesday event in conjunction with the conference but that is open to all web analytics practitioners.  Last time we had a conference-associated WAW in San Francisco it was crazy with over 400 attendees.  Hopefully this time things will be a little more subdued … you can sign up to join us at the official Web Analytics Wednesday web site.

Hopefully I will see some of you reading my blog at one or the other of these events, or both!

Those of you in the WAA are hopefully aware that due to Avinash Kaushik’s untimely resignation the Web Analytics Association is currently having a special election.  While the entire organization without a doubt misses Avinash’s charisma, spirit, and great passion for measurement, a great slate of folks have been nominated to replace Mr. Kaushik.  While I don’t know all the candidates personally, I have had the great pleasure to work with one for several years now: John Payne from Coremetrics.

I first met John years ago while he was at IBM SurfAid and I was at WebSideStory.  I was privileged to work directly with John and his team while I was an analyst at JupiterResearch, as I am again privileged to work with John on occasion now that I have started my own company.  And while I have tremendous respect for Akin Arikan, Dennis Mortensen, and Mark Wachen based on my past interactions with each, I can think of few people who would add more value to the current WAA Board of Directors than John Payne.

John was gracious enough to answer a few questions I had about his candidacy and qualifications despite being on a well-deserved vacation in Alaska.

EP: Tell us briefly about your work in the web analytics industry?

JP: Well I am probably the one with the most tenure in web analytics … note I avoided saying the oldest, which is also true ;-) I co-founded IBM’s Web analytics solution (SurfAid) in 1996.  In that role I have been involved in all aspects of delivering web analytics.  I am intimately familiar with the data and the challenges associated with performing meaningful, actionable analysis.  I am currently responsible for Product Management at Coremetrics.

EP: Why are you running for the WAA Board of Directors?

JP: Because of my experience in working with the data and how to build a viable solution around this data, I bring a unique and seasoned perspective to WAA. I am at a point where I want to help the larger web analytics community become more productive and effective.

EP: What three things do you believe make you the one candidate to vote for in this election?

JP: I am hands on … I know the data, the challenges,  the level of effort required to make the reports meaningful.  While I have been doing this a long time, I also see a vision for how this can evolve in the future, to capabilities such as analytics across domains that result in targeted content and predictive modeling for more effective content delivery.  Thirdly, my experience will help guide WAA to deliverable that will hopefully have higher value to its members and the larger web analytics community.

EP:  How do you feel about term limits for WAA Board members?

JP: Term limits are a great idea because a regular infusion of new energy and talent will keep the WAA more vital and relevant.

EP: Some have accused the WAA of being somewhat close-minded and having a “not invented here” attitude, something that has the potential to negatively impact the community as a whole. Can you tell me if you encounter this how you might approach the problem?

JP: Each idea needs to be assessed on its own merit. I would encourage full review and dialogue of all new ideas before any rendered decision.

EP: What is your favorite thing about web analytics?

JP: I really enjoy “playing” with the data and “torturing it until it confesses!”  Really, web site visitor behavior does not lie, and I enjoy finding the story that causes the web marketing team to grim with excitement as they lay out a strategy and measure their success.

EP: What is your least favorite thing about web analytics?

JP: I am always disappointed by some portion of the community who just wants answers without being willing to “bond” with their data and the tools that they need top use.  I guess my disappointment stems from the fact that I enjoy doing “deep data dives” so much!

EP: Thanks a ton John, now back to your vacation and best of luck in the election!

Those of you in the WAA should have an email from the association titled “Re: WAA Board of Directors Special Election - Voting Period Now Open” with your ballot ID.  Hopefully all of you will take the time to vote in this special election and show your support for John, Akin, Dennis, Nicholas, or whichever candidate you choose.

VOTE NOW IN THE WAA SPECIAL ELECTION (you will need your ballot ID and to log in to the WAA extranet)