Eric T. Peterson Answers Questions About X Change

June 17th, 2008 by Lars Johansson

The program for the web analytics conference X Change has been released, so I decided to ask Eric T. Peterson a few things about it.

What in the program are you most excited about?

Eric: Since I was largely responsible for lining up conversation leaders it would be pretty hard to point to any one topic since I think we have a ton of great content. You can actually see all of the conversation descriptions at the Semphonic site now.

Personally I am pretty excited about the technology sessions we have on mobile (Bob Schukai from Turner Broadcasting and Michael Wexler from Yahoo!), video (David Cronshaw from MSN/Microsoft) and all of the “people” and “process” huddles facilitate by thought-leaders like Steve Bernstein from PayPal, Bob Page from Yahoo!, Marston Gould from Classmates.com, Linda Hetcher from Avaya, John Rosato from IBM, Dylan Lewis from Intuit, Rachel Scotto from Sony Pictures, and many more!

I’m also excited about the keynote session we have with Megan Burns from Forrester, Bill Gassman from Gartner, and John Lovett from JupiterResearch. The “town hall” format I think will be a refreshing take on the conference keynote and we hope to make it very participatory. You can read more about the keynote in this press release:
http://www.semphonic.com/resources/releases/pr080519.pdf

I left last year’s conference amazed at how “un-conference” X Change was and how nice it was to be surrounded by so much expertise and so many great practitioners. We’re very much on our way to duplicating and even improving on the first conference with commitments to participate from our conversation leaders, the analysts, and industry experts like John Squire from CoreMetrics, Aaron Gray from WebTrends, Eric Hansen from SiteSpect, Josh Manion from Stratigent, the great Jim Sterne, and even Europe’s own Aurelie Pols from LBi/OX2!

How did you select the location for the conference?

Eric: Angel at Semphonic and his partner Joel basically set out to find the nicest possible hotel in San Francisco for the event based on quality of conference facilities, rooms for participants, and that elusive je ne se quoi that leaves attendees thinking “man, that conference was amazing!” We had that early on at the eMetrics Summit when Jim invited us all to the Four Seasons Biltmore hotel in Santa Barbara but it has been elusive ever since …

Based on people’s feedback about the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco — usually starting with “Oh man, that hotel is amazing” or “I have ** always ** wanted to stay at the Ritz!” I think Gary and Joel hit the nail on the head. Heck, it even has a fantastic looking lobby bar, something prerequisite for web analytics conferences and the late-night party crew!

Of course we were able to get an unheard of rate for conference attendees.

If someone only has the money and time to attend one conference, how should she choose between industry “default” event eMetrics and challenger X Change?

Eric: Good question, and a very difficult one to answer but I’ll try. eMetrics is an amazing event as you’re well aware, the grand-daddy of them all in our industry and now the official conference of the Web Analytics Association. eMetrics serves an incredibly valuable purpose for the industry as a whole by providing us a central gathering point around the globe where everyone can come together — thought-leaders, vendors, and practitioners regardless of their level of experience or specific interest. Big announcements are made there (Avinash, a full-time Google employee!), big parties happen there, and really big names in the industry deliver keynotes (Tom Davenport!)

In short, eMetrics is more than the “default” event, it’s a great place to be, a great community event, and one of the best run shows going today.

X Change is different, specifically and purposefully. X Change is working to be the conference for those folks in our industry who have already been to eMetrics a few times and who are looking for something different, something deeper, and something more directly relevant to the challenges they face day-in and day-out on the job. At eMetrics most of us sit and listen; at X Change we will all sit and converse, and the conversational format ensures that everyone’s voice can be heard. Gary and Joel designed X Change to be for expert users by expert users and focused on pretty advanced topics.

The thought-leaders that are invited are hand picked, as are the vendors, based on their overall contribution to the industry. There are no booths, no vendor pitches, no goodie bags full of stuff you don’t really want — just highest-quality content coming directly from the people whose success depends on making web analytics work inside their organization. It is our firm belief that there are individuals out there who are looking for a conference that is more focused, more intense, and more personal than eMetrics can possibly hope to be with 600+ attendees: that is what have made X Change.

Put another way, eMetrics is “Conference 1.0″ and is great if you’re looking to listen and learn; X Change is “Conference 2.0″ and is great if you’re looking to participate.

What made you join forces with X Change?

Eric: Funny story. I was so impressed with the first X Change conference (see my blog post) that I more or less called Gary and begged him to let me participate in this year’s event. I think I said I would do anything — advertise, make phone calls, open doors for people, clean tables, whatever — simply because after years of presenting at conferences all around the world I was more or less blown away at how cool X Change was.

Well, Gary and Joel came back and offered to make me a full partner in the event. Wow!

Given that Web Analytics Demystified is a pretty small organization (at least for now) I jumped at the chance to work more closely with an already great business partner to put on this great conference. As I got to know Gary and Joel better I was even more impressed with what they were doing!

Case in point: Despite the obvious potential for making money off conferences, Gary, Joel (and now I) run X Change as a break-even proposition: All the money we make from participant fees goes right back into the conference to ensure the best possible experience for everyone! How cool is that?

While I’m looking forward to your IMC event in Vancouver this Fall, Lars, and while I will always attend eMetrics events when I am able, I very much look forward to helping Gary, Joel, and the entire team at Semphonic continue to make X Change a great event, regardless of whether we continue to partner on the event in the future. I think our industry is large enough for a few events like this, especially when they are so complimentary and well differentiated.