First Analytics Camp Is A Hit!

Analytics Camp Rocks Right Brain
Meeting some people you know immediately they can teach you helpful things, things that might keep you out of the poorhouse. I experienced one of those reactions meeting Nathan Gilliatt at BarCampRDU three years ago. Not long after BarCampRDU 2006 I asked Nathan to speak to our company about social networks. Teaching anyone who will listen about social networks is something Nathan was born to do. Teaching about the future is rarely easy as our team illustrated when Nathan presented. Undaunted, Nathan continued to create his own socially networked future.

Three years later Nathan’s modification of BarCamp “unconference” format for the first Analytics Camp held Saturday February 6th was a clear hit at a great venue. UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina is an amazing place designed for a connected global world. UNC decided to build Kenan-Flagler AROUND the computer: outlets are everywhere, classrooms are Roman amphitheater-like with even more outlets in front of every seat, slides are easily projected on massive screens positioned so there is no bad seat in the room and there are collaborative glass paneled meeting rooms with massive white boards lining the halls. Several solitary students were working in rooms this Saturday and it is easy to see why. I would be tempted to never leave these inspiring buildings and business building idea laden halls.

Nathan and his team ran a great event. The first Analytics Camp attracted speakers and participants from Boston, the west coast, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill and a healthy group of BarCamp alums. The diverse audience ranged from company founders, marketing types like moi, software creators and sellers, MBA Students and professors, people looking for work and those crazy enough to run or manage web sites. Sessions included discussions of Behavior Analytics (for dummies) to Growing Basil Using A/B Testing and experimentation.

Analytics Camp Sessions

Analytics Camp Wiki

If BarCampRDU tends toward programming left brains Analytics Camp focused on right brain creative thinkers and marketers. This may be a distinction without a difference, but I could have attended every Analytics Camp session understanding at least a little of what was being discussed. This is not true for BarCampRDU where many sessions speak in programmer tongues. Web marketing requires even he most out-of-the-box right brainers to understand presentation context and results also known as Web Analytics. Google Analytics and Omniture were on most attendees analytics tool list. CoreMetrics, the analytics program my company uses, seemed left out and there was only a single mention of WebTrends, the granddaddy of all web analytics.

I will leave reactions to sessions to a later post. This post is a THANK YOU to Nathan and his hard working team. Even casual ScentTrail readers know my love of “The New Altruism” as outlined by Robert Wright in NonZero, Michael Shermer in Mind of the Market and Fowler and Christakis in Connected. Unconferences are also great examples of altruistic behavior since everyone is giving away their time and expertise for the greater good. Nathan’s decision to “give away” his Analytics Camp idea is a great example of the new altruism. Nathan let me know analytics Camps are planned for Dallas and Washington and coming soon to a city near you if today’s success is any indication. I’ve been privileged enough to be in on and help mold several viral ideas (Magnetic Poetry Kit, Zen Board, Rorshock). Analytics Camp is going viral and global thanks to the hard work of a dedicated group of new altruists. Great job everyone!

Nathan's Blogs:

Nathan Gilliatt

Social Target

The Net-Savvy Executive

Analytics Camp
.