OX2 Web Analytics Blog

I love Europe! I couldn’t say it enough and it’s kind of encrypted into my genes, being Dutch, French-speaking, living in Belgium and managing OX2’s Web Analytics business unit while my Spanish husband, René, takes care of the rest, the Interactive Agency.

Yes, honey, the hotel is fine and I’m so sorry, I missed your birthday but I promise, I’ll make it up. Trust me when I say that there are some Michelin stars restaurants you haven’t tried yet 😉

So, that’s for my personal message home. Please feel free to come up to me in Düsseldorf if you know of some good places to eat. I usually we ar green and even though I do not have dreadlocks, one could say I’m dressed rather casual 😉 Because that’s what the Emetrics Summits are actually all about: Networking!

The ball is usually opened by our favourite guest host, Mr. Jim Sterne himself, such a fine gentleman who can keep you on the edge of your seat. Yes, even if you’ve seen the presentation in London already. It’s in the little details, the influences of the previous summits, the attention to detail where Steven, Albert and Isaac turn in Germany into Walter, Albrecht and Karl.
It’s about the big picture of Web Analytics that he passionately describes from a high level in order to get your bearing and note with a smile that only Jeff Bezos has the advantage of attaining statistical significance within less than 10 minutes. It’s about the influence of putting data into context, using the powerful information Avinash delivered in London.
Just one slide, here in there in order to make sure our noses are up, pointing towards the right direction, under the breeze.
It’s about the fact that I finally understood what Lars from Sweden meant when he told me that 42 was an interesting number 😉 Sorry, didn’t read the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy 😦 I’m more into Jacques Attali this year, it’s closer to home.

I must admit my German is not great and was very grateful not to be alone in the matter, thank you Raphael. We even set-up an English speaking table in order to share our secrets.
Tough one, I’ll admit, will have to think about what I’ll send through to Sandra but that’s what Web Analytics is all about: it’s not easy; no one said it was and once you have to move beyond basic support, it can really be mind blowing.

It took me some time to lift my little Web Analytics business unit off the ground, it took me hours of reflection, discussion, weighing out the options for my team in order to assure organic growth while helping my clients reap the benefits of their investments. The shock came from a speaker in London over a year ago now. He glared at me while delivering a passionate speech about his vision on Web Analytics and ranted about those “expensive consultants”. I hope I shook up some people I met there as well into another way of thinking, about change.
Change is good, it makes us evolve into better usage of data, into thinking about the investments we’ve made in the tools in order to fool around with the data and find those long sought-after insights we all so desperately need.

Yes, sure it’s about the presentations but it’s so much more about this delightful brain evolving atmosphere where you can just walk up to someone, or sit at their table, and start to share your views, me talking English, Thomas answering back in German. I honestly believe we made sense and hope the information I sent him through will be helpful.

And then dinner. I felt like my mind lacked RAM at some point but hey, that’s me, I know how my mind works, it stores information and tends to spill it out and the most random moments. Might be a female thing. Don’t know. It usually takes us a couple of days – for René and me – to debrief the Emetrics Summits. It’s like this long digestion of a wonderful meal of sharing of minds, of knowledge, of evolution through the different presentations and most of all these little discussion around the tables, in front of the coffee Madame, while smoking a cigarette (yes, you can smoke here honey, another good reason to go to Germany 😉
The business version of Babette’s feast. Ha!

And sleepless nights after a day such as yesterday.
A good Spanish friend of mine, who lives in Barcelona for now but lived in Luxemburg and Germany at some point – I think – sent through this nice video in order to reassure me that my 4th language is not that bad.
Germany, what are you thinking when it comes it Web Analytics? Enjoy.

This entry was posted on April 18, 2007 at 10:46 am and is filed under About us, eMetrics, Emetrics Summit Düsseldorf 2007, Thoughts and Ideas, Web Analytics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.