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?

I hate my wife...

Nobody knows what it's like to do things you're forced into. My wife makes me do something so disgusting, I can hardly talk about it.

But this is my confessional. This blog is where all my deepest thoughts end up.

I want to talk about it, but it's so hard. And disgusting...

I need a second to think before I write this...

My wife makes me... She makes me... I can hardly type through my tears... It's so horrible. Absolutely horrible!

She thinks it's normal... But she asks me to...

She... she makes me eat vegetables!

But no, it's worse than that. She puts green ones in there. You know, the type that cows and sheep and other animals eat. It's horrible. It's disgusting and she makes me do it ALL the time.

She once put... I can hardly talk about it. She once put... Please wait, I'll be OK in a moment.

She once put a pile of baby spinach on my plate and forced me to eat it. But wait, there was poached egg on top. And she wouldn't let me eat the egg without the spinach.

She's a maliciously sick woman. She needs help...

And I need a plastic bucket... she just made me eat rocket uuuuurrrrgggghhhh!!!!

My hyperlink can beat your hyperlink...

Hey, this looks like some seriously good testing. And a lot of fun!

Sure beats the usual "who can rank at number one for the word neefoofwar and win an iPod" bollocks.

eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.

Not long to go before I head to Washington DC for the must-attend eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. The whole shebang gets off to a flying start October 14 and rocks through until October 17.

I'll be chair/moderator of the search analytics track which runs over two days (October15/16). And there are some fantastic speakers and great topics. I'll start the ball rolling on Monday morning (15th) and then we have author and analytics guru, Avinash Kaushik. We're then joined by Manoj Jasra of Enquiro Search Solutions. My great pal Andrew Goodman joins the party and Chris Boggs pitches in too. And then we have Pat Stroh, Vice President Analysis Decision & Support at IMPAQT.

Plus there are four other tracks covering every aspect of online marketing over the entire four days. This really is a top class show and one that I always look forward to.

The venue is the Omni Shoreham Hotel. I'll be geting in on the Sunday. So if anyone wants to join me for a splash of sherry in the evening, I'll be in the Hotel's Marquee bar from about 7.30. No doubt I'll be dragging Goodman and Boggs along with me :-)

If you're a search marketer and live in the DC area, whether you're coming to the conference or not, why not just pop in for a beer and say hi anyway.