It's nice when I get a Thank You, in this case, from Gary Angel, CTO of Semphonic, when I didn't expect one - Start the Music and Get Me Off This Damn Stage:
"…Standing in front of so many friends at the opening of X Change. Dinners in New York with Marshall Sponder talking analytics and art. Jesse Gross’ dry wit during Staff lunches. The passion Eric Peterson brings to every conversation. Working with Tim Bush and Heather Spindler again after seven long years. Working with Dennis Bradley at any time - when things went badly wrong early this summer (and it was mostly my fault) he was a rock. Paul Legutko’s continual and seemingly effortless brilliance. I never took a bigger chance than hiring someone whose real specialty was Roman Coinage and I never made a better decision. Talking web analytics with June Dershewitz while ride-sharing to work - beats the hell out of sports talk radio. Building a really special piece of work with Richie Block and Teri Wayne – damn that was fun. Wrapping up X Change and for once getting to talk in the way I like best about the things that matter most to me – about why what we do is, in our own small corner of the world, a quest for truth. And how the truth is always and everywhere an elusive and difficult beast hunted successfully only with care and intelligence."
I was just thinking about 2007 today, as I was talking a solitary walk (the best kind for me), how this year brought into my life many new people - and how, for the most part, things worked out better this year than I expected.
The highlights for me this year, in terms of my career in Web Analytics:
- Being Elected to the Board of Directors of the Web Analytics Association
- I had no idea a year ago that I'd be on the BoD and - for Social Media, no less. Now, the Social Media Committee - a new one - is the largest in the WAA, with 60 members as of today, and several ongoing projects including building a Social Network for the WAA, drafting Social Media Standards and launching the WAABlog.
- Going to France twice this year, once on an Art Trip (I spent 5 days in Paris and another 5 days in Aix-en-Provence, the high points were visiting the Louvre, Eugene Delacroix's studio in Paris, going to Paul Cezanne's Studio in Aix and taking a trip up Mount St. Victoire with my friend, Christine Boulet.
- I went back to Paris this month to attend the LeWeb3 conference - a dream that I envisioned last year - after reading a Jason Calacanis post on the LeWeb3 Conference.
- Going to Napa Valley and spending time at the XChange Conference - one of the first times I've spoken at a conference - was also an personal achievement for me; I guess the two Emetrics Summits' I attended this year in San Francisco and Washington DC were great too.
- Working on the IBM Business Center in Second Life was a big deal for me, and one of the sexiest and interesting projects going on in IBM.com - and I wrote my own ticket for it - I had a strategy and I brought in a person to help me execute in Jared Freedman (Ancient Shriner in Second Life) from Code4Software.com that built the first full metrics platform for Virtual Worlds, and the best one, in my opinion.
And then, people I met like Gary Angel, who I didn't know before this year and Phil Kemelor from Semphonic and CMS Watch, who I actually crossed paths with in Berkley, 30 years, when I lived there for a year.
It's been an interesting year, and I feel 2008 is going to be an even better year - with the very first milestone ahead, is Leaving IBM.
