Web Analytics Wednesday Times Three

May 24th, 2007 by Lars Johansson

We had a three-part Web Analytics Wednesday in Sweden yesterday. The news was that it was no longer just taking place in Sweden – it was global!

The set up:

Live presentations in Gothenburg.
Live presentations broadcast on the web (same as above).
User-only meeting afterwards in Stockholm.

Twenty-two people were signed up in Gothenburg.

The webcast was full – 50 people had signed up. Unfortunately, some were unable to log in for reasons that are still a mystery to us. Sven Gerber, the German coordinator of WAA and owner of the webcast license, had never experienced that problem before. We also had the bad luck of having the uploaded slides crash when the webcast began. We did several trial runs prior to the event and were logged in 30 minutes before the actual event – we didn’t experience any such problems during any of the testing.

It was quite fitting that Justin Cutroni of EpikOne, one of the speakers, did a presentation about learning from your mistakes. We’re not certain what the mistake was yet, but we’re trying to figure it out and learn from it.

It was my experience that Justin’s presentation ran pretty smoothly, while Fredrik Strauss from Admeta had worse luck. None of my introductory slides worked either. When it rains, it pours. Fredrik has promised to give a personal presentation if someone would like. You can contact him at fredrik (-at-) admeta.com. Fredrik’s presentation was about automation of online ad optimization.

We received very positive feedback about the webcast despite the initial technical difficulties, and I was not the only one who really enjoyed what Fredrik and Justin presented.

Unfortunately, Christopher Ahlberg of Spotfire was unable to attend due to something unforeseen happening in the family.

Sixteen people were signed up for the non-sponsored user meeting in Stockholm; unfortunately, some couldn’t make it. Those of us who did make it there, despite beautiful weather and sports, had a great time. It was like we were back to where it all started a year ago – an intimate gathering in an Irish pub.

The feedback that I have received from Gothenburg so far has been positive.

In total, 88 people were signed up for the three events. Only the webcast had limited “seats”.

The good news is that we’re generous people! We’re providing a recording and access to the slides:

Fredrik Strauss: Automated Optimization of Online Advertising
Justin Cutroni: Mistakes and Lessons Learned

And don’t forget about Fredrik’s generous offer.

I’d like to extend my gratitude to everyone who made these events possible: Fredrik Strauss and Leif Jägerbrand of Admeta, Fredrik Engvall of Spotfire, Sven Gerber of WAA Germany and e-dynamics, and Justin Cutroni of EpikOne. OK, I had a hand in it too.