eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, Washington DC

Yes, I said it. It's on record and it was most certainly me who said it And I'll say it here again. Without a shadow of a doubt, Jim Sterne's eMetrics show is the probably the best conference on the planet!

Now that's not to say other conferences are bad. Far from it. SES, SMX, ad:tech, PubCon are also fabulous shows. But, in my opinion, eMetrics is just that little cut above.

The speakers are fantastic. My buddy Avinash Kaushik, for instance, is a true wealth of knowledge when it comes to analytics and online marketing. And he delivers in such a natural, humorous and common sense manner. I guarantee you can leave any session of his and start to put things into action right now!

Here he is presenting the first of many important metrics: His daughter has 21 friends :-)

The audience at eMetrics sessions are a lot of fun to work with. They thought it was a master stroke when I took this pic of them as I was introducing Avinash and told them I'd put it on my blog and claim the audience as my own! And look... I have :-)

The catering at eMetrics is always outstanding. Beautiful, freshly cooked hot food and a full bar too. What more could a delegate (or speaker ask for?).


And the networking is excellent.

Legends abound. Such as, the mighty Jim Sterne himself. And analytics guru and all round good guy, Eric Peterson.

Of course, on the subject of networking, there are always fantastic sponsored events. I went along to the beer analytics event sponsored by Interwoven at the District Chop House. This was very cool as it's a micro brewery. Everyone was given a card with a description of a type of beer (flavour, colour etc.) and the table had various numbered pitchers of beer on them. All you had to do was drink beer, identify which number it was and place it next to the description on the card. All correct cards went into a draw for an iPod. Oh what fun! And free food too!

Of course, knowing conference organiser and noted online marketer, Matt Finlay, meant that I got personal service from him, and also got to keep my very own pitcher of beer ;-)

The following day, I joined a panel of industry stars for an audience driven Q & A session which went down a storm. With me was Chris Boggs (now with eMergent Marketing ), Manoj Jasra (of Enquiro ) and the omni present Avinash Kaushik (Z Q Insights). What a line up!

I got a chance to try out my brand new, dinky portable recording studio.

There's an interview with Avinash over here. And a ClickZ column over here

On the subject of ClickZ, I got caught up with my UK, ClickZ writer and pal Neil Mason of Applied Insights.

He, me and the mighty Jim have shared many a beer over the years!

One other great thing about the DC show... I met my bestest, newest conference buddy, the lovely Fanny Jeanmougin. As assistant to Matt Finlay, it's her job to all manner of important things. Such as dragging Matt out of the hotel bar to make sure he gets to bed before 4.00 am and... :-)

Fanny is from Lyon. Therefore it's also her job to choose the best French wines when we're dining out.

The conference ended with drinks on the terrace. So terribly civilized, don't you know.

The next eMetrics show takes place in Stockholm in November.

Did I mention that, eMetrics is probably the best show on the planet?