The last 3 days have been so busy, and with spotty internet connectivity added, I could not really post much of anything - but I was able to Tweet, quite a lot, and that led me to a decision to buy another Tmobile SideKick rather than an iPhone, which I've been considering. 

Why?  Because, for all the nice glizy interface features the iPhone offers, it doesn't actually make my life any easier - email is harder to do, twittering is much harder to do and while the browsing experience is much better on an iPhone/IPod Touch, most of what I do with a phone (besides speaking on it) is to use Google Reader, Gmail (in the built in browser) and Google News - and that's pretty much it.  

And I can type 40-50 Words per minute with my thumbs on a Sidekick using the very nice keyboard - try doing that with the iPhone - your lucky to get 20 WPM and a lot of misspellings using one finger (whereas I can use two thumbs with mine).  

So, Tmobile SideKick Slide - your my next phone - as my current Sidekick 3 is looking pretty beat up lately, having been dropped several times.   Anyway, I digress.

Anyway, The best thing about the Social Networking Conference in Miami this week was the people I met - most were from different communities than I'd have talked with at the other types of conferences I fo to or speak at - and I got a chance to talk about the Web Analytics Association to many people who never heard about us or know what we do. 

I stayed at the Royal Palm Miami Beach Hotel which was an OK place, not too badly priced and near the Miami Convention Center where the conference took place (along with the Miami Antique Show - which took up the better part of the Convention this week).

I posted a downloadable copy of our presentation on the WAABlog in a post titled Speaking at the Social Networking Conference in Miami, Feb 1st, 2008. The feedback was good, we had a full room (50-60 people) but few questions.  Later on, at a party thrown at the Opium Club, which was an interesting experience - where I spoke to a couple from the iDate Conference that happened at the same time and place (sister conference)  who attended our presentation, expected more of a guide to how to build a Social Network - which we didn't really talk about in any detail - we talked about the community and process of how we are rolling out WAASOCIAL slowly, with no actual launch date (but anyone is invited to join who is interested in Web Analytics).

Getting back to the Opium Club - the interesting experience happened when..

I dragged myself out around 1:30 AM Friday night (it's Miami, after all, they're like that there) and showed up with a conference pass which wasn't honored - and I had to pay 20 bucks to get in - I did.  Bought a drink and walked around, too dark to find anyone and ended up bumping into Mark Lesnik - one of the conference organizers - just as I was getting ready to leave.

Mark Lesnik profusely apologized and tried to get the Opium Club to make it up to us - and they did - by offering me an exclusive table and a bottle of Gray Goose (worth about 150 bucks).  I shared the Gray Goose Vodka with two people from the iDate Conference who run a site focused around an alternative life style - that made for very interesting conversation on what the other side of the conference, the iDate people, were doing.  In was a nice evening and we consumed a lot of Vodka- but there was a lot left - and it was given out.

Some people found the Opium Club party on Friday night boring (but there was a lot of dancing there, not that I did any) - such as Nataliya Yakushev, who I know from NYC and who also has a home in Miami  - clearly she'd have liked to sit at our table (and drink the Gray Goose with me) - had she known we where we were - which is kinda hard to do in a big club like Opium, as dark and noisy as it is.

Wherever I go, I talk to who I'm meant to meet and generally, the Opium Club was a good experience for me - and I got back to my hotel room around 4:30 AM - and collapsed in to a deep sleep.  Yesterday, I was also kinda tired, but I'm not sorry I went.

On Thursday night Jared Freedman and I had dinner with Bryan Eisenberg, who was in Miami for a different Conference and he took photos of us which were good. 

If you don't have Facebook, here's the one's I liked:

 Jared freedman and Marshall Sponder

Moi

Tim Ash and Marshall Sponder

I know Tim Ash from SES, and he was speaking at iDate on Landing Page Optimization.

Jared Freedman is one of my co-chairs on the Social Media Committee of the Web Analytics Association and creator of V-Tracker and AdSoft - packages that produce Virtual World Metrics and Advertising.

Also, seeing Bryan Eisenberg and having dinner with him was a one of the highlights of the trip, Bryan's company, FutureNow INC is now going public and they moved from Red Hook to Dumbo (I'm invited to come by sometime soon).  Bryan also was one of my sponsors to the Board of Directors of the WAA - so he gets special mention in my book, any day.

And that's it - but if you really want to follow the day to day of what I do, read my Twitter feed.