BarCamp and Internet Week in New York City – May 29th – June 9th, 2009

Posted by Marshall Sponder on May 28, 2009 | Link It

New York is going to be even more full of events going on in the next 10 days or so,  some which I plan to attend, to the extent I can attend them.  In fact, things are going on this week as well, including GirlsinTech, which I attended last night at Kush in lower Manhattan.  I’m also going to GoldenNetworking.com’s Twitter Party tonight at Johnny Utah’s. Also -BarCampNYC4 – May 30-31, 2009 happens this weekend and is already sold out (but it’s free) over at the ITP facilities at New York University – I’ll be there at least most of Saturday and maybe some of Sunday, not sure if I’ll speak or not, still thinking about it.

Internet Week officially starts June 1st and I’ll probably drop by the The TechSet Bubbles Up Innovation with PepsiCo early Monday Evening and Ignite NYC 3 .  I’ve also been invited to cover MediaBistro Circus on June 2nd and 3rd, and time permitting, I’ll be at part of the event and the networking afterwards, trying to find the new directions Social Media, Search and Web Analytics is going.   There’s also New York Tech Meetup and Facebook Garage going, not sure how much I’ll be able to cover of all the things going on, again, time and workload permitting.  I’m still trying to decide what combination of sessions I can cover at The Circus that allows me the best overall experience.  We’ll see.  There’s also First Wednesday JUNE which I’ve regularly gone to.  Next Thursday, Diggnation LIVE in NYC at Webster Hall which I planned on attending  – but there’s also an Ultra Light Startup focusing on Twitter occurring at the same time, again, I’ll figure it out.

And, a good friend is dropping by next week, Gary Angel who co-founded Semphonic.com and who I’ll meet with while he’s in town – he’s also founder of XChange Conference that I’ve attended and spoken at twice, in Northern California.

What I’ll be focusing on is what is new and emerging and meaningful in 2009 and 2010 – and that’s what I’ll write about.  In a way, I would not mind covering some of this for Entrepreneur.com, where I also write, but that’s not focus of my column which is Web Analytics, solely.

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Data Stories @ GooglePlex NYC

Posted by Marshall Sponder on May 14, 2009 | Link It

Sara and Max introduce SEMPO at an event I had a hand at creating  tonight at GooglePlex East NYC; and Sara Holoubek gave me a good deal of credit for it at the gathering tonight.

First, we have a Google Analytics Update from Ari Paparo who is a group product manager at Doubleclick, but the presentation was confidential, but secondary dimensions and Pivot tables are upcoming, in beta, now.

AdPlanner is also got some changes, allowing publishers to opt on their own cookie and Google Analytics data. Website Optimizer and the Analytics IQ program, to Get certified in Google Analytics.

Someone suggested, as a question, a desire to move more of Google’s data, like Google Insights, into Google Analytics, and some of that is beginning to happen with Flash and Google Analytics.

My sense is that Google Analytics is becoming enterprise and yet, common, in some ways. The main event started, Dani Horowitz, how created DaniWeb.com, pretty much, on her own, on a shoestring, is speaking – and here’s the video a friend of Dani’s , Ryan Hoffman,  took tonight.

I’ve been a member of DaniWeb.com since 2005 and I want to point out that Dani does most of the programming for her site by herself.



Dani Horowitz wants to get conversion rates up and she has a lot of traffic but they don’t stay long, and only view 1.3 pages per visit, having opened up her Analytics to the audience, live, which was my idea, I’m told, the Data Story.

Dani has a bounce rate which is too high, ESP in Forums, which she feels should be ~40% for a forum page (not sure where she gets that number).

Someone in the audience suggests Stackoverflow.com as a site That might have solved the issue of registration issue with a crowdsourced reward system.

Dani used VBulletin to power Daniweb and a suggestion to cut down the number of replies to a thread to increase pageviews.

Also, a recommendation engine to help combat Google, which is doing most of the leg work (like a stick) where it should be Dani’s site that does a lot of the additional work.

A bunch of us are going to dinner, after, and if I get some more insight for Dani Horowitz and DaniWeb

Here’s some testimonials that were left by attendees of tonight’s first, a major site that opened it’s analytics to an audience

Dani is awesome for letting us have a peek at her data. We can all learn from each other and this was great to be able to see what troubles other websites are encountering. More please! 
Cons:Too many power point stills. WIll be good to have some more live interaction. i.e. log into analytics and show some things (not screen grabs). I was discourage to meet to many Newbies. Will like to mingle with professionals, but i guess that in part one of the main porpuse of SEMPO, educate for newbies. Good: I liked the speaker guy–a pro. Also, I liked all the new info about Google upgrades to analytics. Although, I could had gotten the same info online–eventually. I it was guess is good for networking and meeting new people. which i didn’t do :-)  
This event rocked- great presentations from Googler Ari and from Dani of Daniweb. Q&A section could have been better structured but was pretty cool considering the number of people competing for the mikes and limited time to talk. The only glaring problem was with the double-whammy long lines, first to get into the building at the security desk (one person per entrance is not enough to efficiently distribute passed and allow access), and then to sign Google’s NDA. It tool me over a half hour to get past both lines. Once I got in I was a very happy guy. 
  • I would love that next sessions would keep the same content structure, very educational. I really liked Google Analytics presentation, and would suggest that in a future opportunity they showed a case where they teach how to use each and every feature of it with a real client. 
  • Interesting to see Dani’s data, but I think it might have made more sense for some additional background info and data to be sent to people in advance.
  • As always a great mix of disciplines, friendly people and great content. 
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Girls in Tech Relaunch

Posted by Marshall Sponder on March 31, 2009 | Link It

I’m going to  be going to the Girls in Tech NYC Relaunch Launch Party – March 31 - tonight featuring

Special guest Juliette Powell – A media entrepreneur, a community catalyst and author of 33 Million People in the Room: How to create, influence and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking will join us for a guest appearance and book signing.

Also, I reviewed her book recently


33 Million People in the Room – Part 1 – Juliette Powell

33 Million People in the Room, Part 2, and Social Capital Value Add -

33 Million People in the Room – Part 3 – Juliette Powell

There’s also going to be a few extras like:

  • Raffle prizes – a KaraB laptop bag from eBags, $100 in driving credit from Mint Cars on Demand, and a 50/50 cash prize from raffle ticket sales! (Everyone is entered once for free with their event admission with more entries available for sale.)
  • Goodie bags – The first 200 guests to arrive will receive goodie bags stuffed with treats from our sponsors.
  • Complimentary hors d’oeuvres
  • Drink specials
  • Some of the best professional and entrepreneurial networking in NYC!

By the way, I was interviewed at the Rubin Museum of Art about Social Networking and Art with Juliette Powell last Friday night,(see below) so I’m definately going to talk to her about the next time we do this and her feedback on the footage – it was our first shoot.

Here’s the details embedded for tonight embedded here as a graphic

Event Info:

March 31, 2009
6:30 pm -9:30 pm

The New York City chapter of Girls in Tech is thrilled to announce our “Relaunch Launch Party” is coming up on Tuesday, March 31st at 6:30pm. Held at the M1-5 Lounge (52 Walker St.), this is a party New York’s tech-related professionals will not want to miss!

Girls in Tech NYC Relaunch Launch Party

Also, I’ll be at the Clickable Cafe tonight – but probably won’t stay for the whole thing.

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