X Change conference conversation leaders announced

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.