World Tour Day Two: Stockolm, Sweden
I just got back from the special Web Analytics Wednesday event in Stockholm, Sweden and wanted to post some thoughts and a few of the pictures I took.
When I first founded Web Analytics Wednesday I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Like I’ve posted in the past, I started the event simply because it seemed like a really good idea — not to make money, not even necessarily to sell books, really just to bring the entire web analytics community together.
Now that I’ve seen what Lars Johanssen with help from IndexTools, WebTrends, and Omniture have built here in Sweden I have to say I am completely blown away!
Lars, with the help of his sponsors providing some food, some drink, and a nice place to gather and present, manages to draw the largest Web Analytics Wednesday group in the entire world almost every single time they get together. And while Lars does this for the betterment of the Web Analytics Association, when he asked the group, less than half of the 70 or so attendees were even WAA members! Lars has tapped into a rich community of very interesting (and interested) business people, all of whom appear quite passionate about learning more about web analytics.
It would be great if more cities around the world could reach out, get sponsors, plan activities, and really push to make their local Web Analytics Wednesday events something that people are excited to attend. I’ll ask Lars next time we talk, but I suspect it doesn’t really take that much effort on the part of the local organizer!
Let me ask you this: What would make you personally more willing to host, sponsor, or attend a local Web Analytics Wednesday event? Is it more support, more recognition, more formal education, or simply more free food and drink? Please leave me your thoughts in the comments or email them to me directly and I’ll summarize later this week (from Holland or Belgium!)
After seeing what Lars has put together, I am personally more motivated than ever to help the entire web analytics community benefit from Web Analytics Wednesday, regardless of your affiliation, location, or motivation! Please do let me know!
Okay, here are the pictures from Day Two of my web analytics world tour …
About half of the attendees, including Mr. Fulton Yancy from Visual Sciences (front left) and Lars Johansson waving in the back (red blob, sorry about the pictures this time!) I’m not entirely sure why Fulton didn’t join the panel and why Visual Sciences declined to sponsor this event despite generous funding from WebTrends, Omniture, and IndexTools.
Google’s Dr. Brian Clifton (left), who flew in from London for the event and three unnamed Swedes.
The vendor and consultant panel. From the left, Dennis Mortenson of IndexTools, Steve Jackson from Satama, the guy from Omniture whose name I cannot begin to pronounce, Ian Tickle from Webtrends, and Per Strid of Sweden (not on the panel.)
Ian Tickle and Per Strid. I had heard a great deal about Mr. Tickle but had never met him. He turned out to be incredibly nice, thoughtful, and polite. He actually even cited an Omniture TouchClarity case study when an audience member asked about the value of optimization technology!
Anyway, despite having had almost no sleep since I got to Europe, and it being 3 AM as I finish this post, everyone seemed to enjoy my “web Analytics is Easy” presentation and I heard several people talking about the Analytics Demystified RAMP over beers. Thanks again to Lars Johansson for inviting me to Sweden and further motivating me to help foster WAW events around the globe!!!
