As usual, Gary Angel has beaten me to the punch, this time with his great post about the conversation leaders we’ve announced for the 2008 X Change conference. The full line-up is included further down in this post, and you can read the press release in PDF format from the Semphonic site or download this PDF invitation to the conference more suitable for printing.

Since folks have been asking me via email what is really different about X Change, primarily to help make the case to management to attend the conference, and at the risk of sounding redundant, here are three great reasons to consider attending the conference:

1. X Change is an “expert user” conference, and we’re doing everything we can to create tremendous value for expert users. Everyone coming to the event — the conversation leader’s we’ve invited, the consulting and thought-leaders we’re bringing to the event, and the select list of senior people from the vendors — has years of experience in web analytics. Their experience, combined with those of the 100 attendees, is designed to help those of you working on the cutting edge in web analytics get your concerns addressed and your questions answered.
2. The conversational format is designed to allow every attendee share their ideas and ask their questions, making X Change a very participatory “Web 2.0″ conference. There is nothing wrong with sitting and listening — when you want to sit and listen. But the explosion of web analytics blogs, the growth of the Web Analytics Forum, and the number of web analytics folks on Twitter suggest that a bunch of us actually want to participate. X Change is the conference for the participants.
3. We have a plan to allow you to share the insights you gain with your team back home. One of the chief complaints at last year’s conference was “I wanted to attend every session!” To help share the insights gleaned in each conversation, and help paint a picture of the industry today and where it is heading, after the event we will be publishing the “Proceedings of the Second Annual X Change Conference” document, free to all conference attendees.

If you’re still wondering about the value of the conference, or need more ideas to sell a luxurious stay at San Francisco’s Ritz Carlton to your manager, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly and we can chat.

The conference theme this year is “People, Process, and Technology” — the three-legged stool that all of our web analytics efforts rest upon — and we’ve broken the conversations down into similar groupings. We will have full descriptions of the conversations available online very soon but here are the leaders, their companies, and the general topics they will be discussion.

PEOPLE

• Steve Bernstein (PayPal): Getting Analysts to Produce Analysis and Getting the Business to Listen
• Megan Burns (Forrester Research): Building the Business Case for Change
• Bill Gassman (Gartner): Evolving Your Use of Analytics
• John Lovett (JupiterResearch): Industry Standards or a Lack Thereof
• Bob Page (Yahoo!): Web Analytics and Data Privacy

PROCESS

• Steve Bernstein (PayPal): Driving Visitors Up the Value Chain
• Dennis Bradley (Charles Schwab): Bridging the Gap from Web Analytics to Marketing
• Marston Gould (Classmates.com): Where Does Web Analytics Stop and Customer Analytics Start?
• Linda Hetcher (Avaya): Searching for Success with SEO and SEM
• Dylan Lewis (Intuit): Campaign Analysis and Attribution Modeling: Dangerous Assumptions
• Dylan Lewis (Intuit): Establishing a Web Analytics Center of Excellence
• John Lovett (JupiterResearch): Data Integration: Myths and Realities
• John Rosato (IBM): B2B Analytics: Challenges and Opportunities
• Rachel Scotto (Sony Pictures Imageworks Interactive): Integrating Online and Offline (Market Research) Data
• Michael Wexler (Yahoo!): Web Analytics for Brand Marketers

TECHNOLOGY

• Dennis Bradley (Charles Schwab): Justifying the Need for Advanced Visualization Tools
• David Cronshaw (MSN/Microsoft): Emerging Trends in Online Video: Measurement, Monetization, and Mobilization
• David Cronshaw (MSN/Microsoft): The Metrics of Video: Cost per Engagement and Beyond!
• Jim Hassert (AOL): Analytics Across the Enterprise
• Jim Hassert (AOL): Managing Expectations: Panel-Based and Census-Based Methodologies
• Seth Holladay (Rodale Publishing): Slicing and Dicing Visitors: Segmentation Strategies
• Seth Holladay (Rodale Publishing): Tracking Non-Traditional Conversion Events
• Judah Phillips (Reed Business Interactive): Building a Successful Web Analytics Team
• Judah Phillips (Reed Business Interactive): Knowing When You’ve Outgrown Your Current Web Analytics Solution
• Ron Pinsky (AIG): Data Collection: Implementation, Utility, and Ongoing Integrity
• Ron Pinsky (AIG): Integrating Customer Experience and Marketing Data with Web Analytics
• Bob Schukai (Turner Broadcasting): The Mobile Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities
• Bob Schuka (Turner Broadcasting)i: Mobile Technology: Development, Deployment, and Measurement
• Rachel Scotto (Sony Pictures Imageworks Interactive): Measuring Web 2.0: Widgets, Gadgets, and Social Networks
• Jared Waxman (Intuit): Using Real-time Survey to Improve the Customer Experience
• Jared Waxman (Intuit): Competitive Intelligence Tools and Methodologies
• Michael Wexler (Yahoo!): Mobile Marketing, Mobile Measurement
• David Yoakum (The Gap): Measuring Web 2.0: Interactions, Events, and Consumer Generated Content
• David Yoakum (The Gap): Using Web Analytics to Inform Personalization and Remarketing Efforts

If you’re a long-time reader of my blog and you’re really interested in web analytics I would very much encourage you to consider the conference: read Gary’s post, download this PDF invitation to the conference, or email me directly so we can talk about how the conference might benefit you and your organization.

Things are starting to heat up for the X Change conference in August (17, 18, 19 in San Francisco … more details here) with two announcements made this week and last.

First, we’ve announced the X Change Scholarship program which will allow us to encourage and promote the innovative use of web analytics for improving web site performance. Our goal with the scholarship is to help one deserving web analytics practitioner join us at the X Change free of charge; all we’re asking is for a well written essay describing a great use of web analytics. You can read the details here and I’m happy to answer questions directly as well if you’re interested in applying for the Scholarship funding.

Second, we’re starting to announce more about the content of the 2008 X Change beginning with the news that the conference keynote will be a “Town Hall” type event with three of the most respected industry analysts in the business today: Megan Burns from Forrester, Bill Gassman from Gartner, and John Lovett from JupiterResearch. Gary and I will be facilitating a discussion between X Change attendees and these three analytics insiders to help get to the bottom of the relationship between people, process, and technology.

As I’ve said before, X Change is like no web analytics conference you’ve ever attended (unless you went to X Change last year …) If you’re really interested in web analytics, I hope you’ll come to San Francisco and join us in August!

Yep, it’s that time of the year again, time for my bi- (soon to be tri-) annual pilgrimage to Europe to meet with some of the best and the brightest overseas. I’m very excited about this trip for a handful of reasons:

1. The trip begins in London next Monday at what is likely to be the largest event in the history of Web Analytics Wednesday. Thanks to the fine folks from SCL Analytics and Unica and a little support from E-Consultancy there are currently 128 people registered to attend the event! London has always been a hotbed of WAW activity and this is my first time attending the event. I’ll be giving a short presentation on “The Future of Web Analytics” and taking questions from the audience.
2. On Tuesday I will be presenting at Nedstat’s “Streaming Media on the Move” event at London’s Soho Hotel and talking about the white paper I recently authored with Nedstat’s Chief of Innovation and how measurement is changing in a Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 world.
3. Wednesday and Thursday I will be in Amsterdam doing private presentations. Over the years I have grown to love the beauty, culture, and diversity Amsterdam has to offer (despite the presence of what Aurelie lovingly refers to as “the narcotourists!”)
4. Friday I will be in Brussels, Belgium with the fine folks at OX2 giving a private presentation and participating in another special Web Analytics Wednesday event (albeit a somewhat smaller affair)
5. The following Monday I will be in Helsinki, Finland working with my partner Trainer’s House/Satama and giving a presentation on Measuring Lead Generation site. The folks at Satama are great to work with and I’m very excited about getting to spend more than 18 hours in Helsinki this time …
6. Back to London on the 8th for some client work and home on the 9th. Phew!

If you’re in or near London or Brussels I’d love to meet you at one of the Web Analytics Wednesday events. I suspect I will also have a little free time in Amsterdam and Helsinki so if you’d like to meet in one of those cities, please feel free to drop me a line and we can try and meet!

I am incredibly honored to be able to announce that Web Analytics Demystified has partnered with the fine folks at Semphonic to present X Change 2008 in San Francisco at the Ritz Carlton, August 18 and 19, 2008.

In my decade in the web analytics industry I have attended and presented at hundreds of events around the world. While each have their own unique value proposition and are truly great in their own way, X Change is the only conference I left both completely energized about our industry and actively scheming about how I could become more involved in presenting the event. I said as much after last year’s event.

You can read more in the press release but here’s what you’re not going to read in the release:

• For me, X Change was like no conference I’ve ever attended as a practitioner, consultant, analyst, or business owner. At the end of the day I didn’t want the conversation to end!
• The key is the “huddles”: far more structured than “birds of a feather” sessions or round tables, yet informal enough to encourage everyone to participate, and loaded with analytics experience and talent.
• The small size of the conference is intentional, and Gary, Joel, and I are working to bring some of biggest brains and folks working on the most exciting projects out there to participate. The net result is an amazing ratio of experts per attendee.
• No booths, no vendor pitches, no literature you don’t want under your door. At least last year, the vendor representatives were senior people working at the top of their game (folks like Matt Belkin, Olivier Silvestre, Aaron Gray, Rand Schulman, etc.)
• More web analytics bloggers per capita than any conference ever thrown. (Okay, maybe that isn’t really a selling point but it led to a lot of really good PR …)

Again, I am incredibly pleased with Gary and Joel’s decision to allow Web Analytics Demystified a greater level of participation in the event this year. If you’re a long-time reader of my blog and would like more information about X Change, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly.

I hope to see you in San Francisco in August!

Gary Angel and the folks at SEMphonic have just launched five more must read web analytics blogs. Check out Gary’s post and subscribe to new web analytics blogs from great people like Joel Hadary, Paul Legutko, Phil Kemelor, June Dershewitz and Jesse Gross. While it’s no secret I am a huge fan of June Dershewitz, I’m very excited after the recent X Change conference to read Joel, Paul, Phil, and Jesse’s work as well.

Props to Gary for getting this uniquely talented crew to share their ideas and experiences. Even if he did call me a monolith, I still appreciate what Gary and Joel are trying to do for the entire web analytics community.