Like many Omniture attendees, my day started around 4:30. It was a little earlier than I had planned since our baby was up, and my loving wife felt compelled to wake me as well. It was just 30 minutes early, so I survived. After that, it was off to the airport for the flight to Salt Lake City. The flight was good and the conversation was better. Being at the office working sometimes doesn’t allow enough time for real discussion. It was good to have several hours of business chat with Jen Sievertsen our Executive Director of Internet Marketing.
Arriving at 11:30, I was pressed for time to get over to the hotel and prep for this year’s Omniture MindMeld session. I enjoyed the MindMeld run by Matt Langie last year, and was pleased to participate again this year. Matt did a great job of making some changes for this years MindMeld and found a way to improve on an already good event. The breakout sessions remained in tact, but the closing discussion format changed from a six single person 10 minute presentations to a joint 20 minute presentation with questions from the audience. It seemed everyone enjoyed it and found some value in it.
At the MindMeld, I was fortunate to be able to lead a discussion table on The Integration of Data: Bringing Online and Offline Together. This is something that’s in the future for our organization. I see this as a huge opportunity spot for us. During the pre-session, I was able to chat wtih Michael Thomas, Director of E-Marketing for E*Trade Financial, Jane Kell, Manager of Web Analytics for Delta Airlines, Joel Wright of Dell’s eIntelligence group, and Alex Lanshur, President and Founder of PublicInsite.
After the MindMeld session was over, I headed over to the mixer where I got to spend some time with Joe Megibow, VP of Global Analytics and Optimization for Expedia.com. Joe is a great guy with an INCREDIBLE mind for analytics. I also spent some time talking with Brian Katz of VKI Studios. Brian was also at the table discussion I led and he had a lot of useful, quality information.
Then it was off to check on our presentation being ready for tomorrow and down to the dining area. As usual, the food was good, the networking was great, and a little music from the live band added a lot of energy.
I hope to start posting some flip videos of the attendees tomorrow so stay tuned!
Time for bed, day two starts in 8 hours.
Rachel Scotto of Scotto Consulting and Jane Kell of Delta Airlines
Michael Thomas of Etrade
MindMeld Attendees
Alex Langshur, Rachel Scotto, Matt Langie and Me
The Band at the Opening Reception
Shot of the Opening Reception