San Francisco News & Articles

X Change could mean a lot of different things in San Francisco. In this case, we're referring to a stellar gathering of web analytics practitioners, sharing everything they know. And from what we know, no date is required.

The web analytics industry is about 13 years old, yet the space is in no way in a placid state. According to Phil Kemelor, VP at Web Analytics consulting firm Semphonic, the irony is that the evolution of the technology has far out paced the use of the tools themselves.

If you're one of those struggling to make sense of volumes of data or just trying to work out the best practices for applied web analytics, there's an event on the horizon for you.

The X Change Web Analytics Conference, put together by Semphonic, kicks off Thursday September 10th and runs for two days. It will take place in the heart of our dear San Francisco, at the St. Regis Hotel.

It's the format that sets this event apart. The conference is run as an immersion event with the primary format being small group discussions, lead by web analytics professionals from large enterprises including Nokia, Charles Schwab, Intuit and the New York Times.

According to previous attendee, Judah Phillip of Monster WorldWide, "This conference is different from all the others. No Powerpoints, no canned speeches, no talking heads. Instead X Change offers an intimate opportunity for real-world practitioners to get together and have focused conversations about real business challenges."

If the event's format doesn't convince you, then the headliner most likely will. X Change will start off with what is being called the founding fathers keynote. This will be a discussion conducted by some of the best and most experienced minds in the industry. The current line-up includes:

• Brett Crosby -- Group Manager, Google Analytics
• Matt Cutler -- VP, Visible Measures; Co-founder, NetGenesis
• Bob Page -- Group Leader, Yahoo!; Co-founder Accrue Software
• John R. Pestana -- Co-founder, Omniture; Co-founder ObservePoint

Conference registration will cost you US$ 2000, but you'll get 15% off with the CMSWire discount code: XCCMS. There's also an in-depth training day called THINK TANK, running on September 9th. That checkbox will run another US$ 666 for conference attendees.

We're in the final stretch before Gilbane conference kick-off next week in San Francisco. If you’re still not registered, save some money (US$ 200) by using the CMSWIRE code.

For all of you who we will see in a few days, here are some of the happenings that are not to be missed.

Gilbane San Francisco 2008, the annual West Coast shindig for Web CMS and myriad other geekage, is currently accepting proposals for panels and presentations. Your stable of appropriate topics may include:

• Web CMS
• Enterprise wikis, collaboration, blogging (erg)
• Content globalization and localization
• “Enterprise 2.0,” enterprise search, or semantic technologies
• Enterprise CMS
• Digital rights management
• Publishing technology

(Guys, please don’t make this a Twitter-fest.)

Your deadline is January 15, 2008. Hurry and submit a proposal.

The conference will take place at Westin Market Hotel, San Francisco, from June 17-19. Marketh thy calendars.

As a designer seeking to improve my skill-set, I appreciate a conference that realizes that I am a one-woman show: Usability specialist, content manager and information architect all wrapped into one, with a bit of SEO and flash mixed in for good measure.

Which explains why I am excited for the upcoming Voices That Matter: Web Design conference hosted by New Riders, the leading publisher of web design books and resources.

One of the perks of living in Silicon Valley is taking advantage of the SDForum, which usually promises some good healthy brain-overload on what’s important to techies today.

The SDForum has just announced its line-up of speakers for the Security Conference, which takes place this September 19.

At the YPulse Mashup conference in San Francisco this week, a lunchtime discussion about mobile marketing among representatives from Microsoft, Disney, Viz Media and teen cause group YouthNoise provided an inside glance on the mobile of today (think early AOL) and the mobile of tomorrow (kiss your laptop good-bye).

This September 11 kicks off VMworld, dubbed one of the most popular virtualization events on the globe. Amidst all the San Francisco-based virtual server chatter, VMware plans to announce the availability of VMware Server 2.0.