On The Trail

So, I’m back from the eMetrics conference in Santa Barbara. All I can
say is wow. It was 3 solid days of people talking about the stuff I think about
every day. And not just any people. There were many C level execs, all the so
called “thought leaders” from the web analytics space and plenty of regular
folks from companies large and small doing the same thing I’m doing. The best thing about it was the size. There
were ~120 people so everyone was very approachable and happy to talk. The conference
was sold out and Jim Sterne (the organizer) expects demand to continue growing.
Instead of allowing the size of the conference to grow he is planning on
holding more of them to meet demand.

The talks were almost all excellent. I’m planning on summarizing
them here as best I can—at least until I run out of steam. I’ll go in order because
the best ones were first (OK, I was kind of fried on the last day, so that’s
probably not fair…)

So the content and attendees were great. The other bit was
the venue/accommodations. The food was plentiful and wicked good. Each break
was on the patio right next to the Pacific. Dolphins frolicked in the waves for
us. Lots of guys in white jackets and ties brought us lots of really good
fruit, treats, drinks (at night). Oy, I should probably stop before the boss
gets jealous and takes my place next year….