When Daniel Waisberg, the WAA marketing chair told me about this, I simply couldn’t believe it. But here is the official announcement as the prove.

Special thanks for the volunteers who made this annual event possible:

•Judges: Jennifer Veesenmeyer, Judah Phillips, Stéphane Hamel and “Wandering” Dave Rhee.
•Logistic & Organization: Daniel Waisberg, June Dershewitz, Clare Madden, Shannon Taylor, Suzanne Carter-Jackson.

I want to make our paper available on my blog as well and welcome any of your inputs. Enjoy reading!

Although his presentation is geared more toward beginners, yet the same principle are applicable for those who want to take their web analytics understanding and practice to the next level: learning (books, blogs, eMetrics Summit etc.), sharing (blogging, speaking etc.), networking (web analytics wedesday, eMetrics Summit etc.) and participating (WAA committees, WAA yahoo forum etc.)

I can’t think of any other way to improve myself and this is an ever evolving, life time process too. The moment you start to think that you know everything, that’s when you probably need find another job.

Now let’s enjoy what Alex brought to us:

By no means, this is going to be a very special trip. Not only I am going to attend the first WAA Board of Directors meeting followed by eMetrics Summit from Tuesday to Thursday, but also because everything else going on, specifically the whole swine flu thing.

In my backpack, I’ve got my iPod loaded with songs, podcasts and sermons I like, Nikon Coolpix, to take pictures and videos whenever I want, Logtitech Webcam, to talk to my wife and kids with ooVoo, and of course, my Dell laptop, to work at night when all the eMetrics craziness is gone.

But this time, I’ve got something else. My dear wife, fearing of the pandemic spreading of swine flu, bought me two 3M N95 masks, and a gelFast personal hand hygiene unit. Imaging on my belt, there is hand sanitizer on the left, and Nikon Coopix and my Blackberry Pearl Flip on the right. No matter what, I’ve got myself prepared.

I definitely don’t think I am a risk averse type of person. If I was, I wouldn’t choose to risk my life and climb big mountains with a bunch of amateur student mountaineers from college. Quite contrarily, I think I am a type of person enjoy risk taking. But to risk my own life is one thing, to put my family at risk is another. Bible says, “A wise man is cautious…” (Proverb 14:16) Why a wise man needs to be cautious? Because he needs to take care of his family!

I booked my travel and registered eMetrics summit two weeks ago but only made up my mind until Friday when I told my wife, “Honey, I think I will go, but with extra caution”. She gracefully agreed. What complicated the situation was she suddenly got a fever on Friday night and had 101 temperatures. We were about to attend spring outing with the church group on Saturday morning and a house party with my wife’s colleagues in the evening. We canceled both. Although we know the chance is slim, we didn’t want to take it, and we didn’t want others feel uncomfortable either. I almost gave up. No matter how much I love this “web analytics” thing, I can’t leave my wife behind especially when she is sick.

But thank God. My wife feels much better today and she encourages me to go, at least for the Board of Director meeting because she understands that’s very important to me.

Maybe you are laughing at me…maybe you think we are over concerned. The reason I am telling you all these is that I want to say “thank you”, as the newly elected Director of the Board of WAA. I understand how difficult for you to come out and make time for this three days summit. It is challenging to get companies to pay for the registration fee, travel and lodging these days, as each one of them is cutting back on OPEX. It is uneasy to leave families, friends and communities behind. The three days’ summit is not like a vacation, but a brain washing, quite painful if you are not used to it. And when you are back, your managers expect you to deliver immediate 1000% ROI…do the math and calculate how much conversion rate you need improve.

I understand all these, but I am confident as you are and believe that these three days will be different. You and I will learn everything as we can. We will immerse ourselves in the ever-changing technologies, thought provoking presentations and workshops, not mentioning life changing networkings and meetups…

So that’s my little story of eMetrics. How about you? Do you have your story too? Tell us how you overcame challenges and finally made your way to San Jose!

Needless to say, I am very grateful and still couldn’t really believe this is all true. I started the campaign with fairly low expectation as I understand how competitive the election is. But history is made. By You, my fellow web analysts.

I want to thank a lot of folks who stand behind me for this election. The first person is Bryan Eisenberg. He is the one asked me to consider running for the Board of Directors and gave me his full support. Joel Wright, my buddy and colleague at Dell, introduced me to web analytics and told me that I’ll win even before the election is closed (good prophecy, Joel!). Gautam Madiman, my manager at Dell, for encouraging me and endorsing me. Anil Batra from Zerodash1, Jonghee from Victoria Secret…and many others I don’t even know their names. Last but not least, for my wife, willing to share more family loads to support my duty as a Director.

So what’s the next? What I am going to do for the web analytics community as a Board of Director in the next two years? These are questions wondering in my mind. I am fully aware that as the only Director on the Board without a CXO title (sah!), I am bringing some unique perspectives to the Board. But to better serve you, I need your help.

May 3-4, I will be in San Jose, attending the Board of Director meeting. I will also be in the eMetrics Summit for the next three days. I encourage you to get in touch me if you are there. Let’s chat about work, life and the community while we are in the WAA Community Meeting and Speed Networking, or WAA Reception, or Birds of a Feather Lunch, or eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit Reception, or Web Analytics Wednesday. Talk to me about your ideas, passions or frustrations. If you are not there, feel free to drop me a note via ed at superwebanalyst dot net or follow me on Twitter @ed_wu.

Look forward to seeing you and hearing from you. Remember, we are super web analysts. No tool (no matter how good they are) can do us any good, until we are using it in the right way, with much passion and intelligence. And to do it right, you’re going to need help and guidance from WAA. Hope you have a great week.

Of course, I will be more than happy if you vote for me in the practitioner sector. In addition to my written answers and interviews to the four questions the election committee asked, here are the list of top 10 reasons why you should vote for me.

Some of the following claims might not be 100% accurate. I’ll take the blame if they are not, as long as you enjoy reading and have fun.

Ready? Here we go:

Ed is the only one on the ballot

…who doesn’t have a title of Director, VP or CEO etc. (read as “Ed is like the current stock market which has great potential to grow”)

…who is originally from China (read as “Ed likes Chinese food”)

…who has ever climbed a mountain as high as 24,000 feet (read as “Ed is more risk averse now”)

…whose car got hit two days ago by a severe hail storm (read as “Ed lives in a city which motto is to ‘keep it wierd” )

…who can’t pronounce “Analytics” right, no matter how hard he tried (read as “Ed has some sense of humor”)

…who has the least experience with Facebook. To be exact, one day plus two hours at 1:30pm CST as I am writing this post. (read as “Ed is becoming Facebook addict just like you)

…who also has the least experience in the web analytics field comparing with those web analytics “Gods” and “Goddess” (read as “Ed has a fresh perspective and open mind”)

…who is a Super Web Analyst (read as “Ed is a marketing guy”)

…who is endorsed by Bryan Eisenbergon Linkedin (read as “Did Ed bribe Bryan for this?”)

The last but not the least. Ed is a lucky man who has a great wife and two adorable kids, Gloria and Joshua.

Only this time, I wish I am not the only one on the ballot. After all, at the end of day, it’s what our family matters most to us.

I wish you have a great weekend.

So I am one of the five nominees in the practitioners category and three of us will be elected. 60% chance, not bad, right? But then I also realize all of them are exceptional performers in their companies. I will be very humbled if I get elected and have to work even harder for WAA so that you won’t be regret for voting for me.

March 23, 2009

Dear Members:

A month ago we put out the Call for Nominations to the WAA Board of Directors – seeking candidates to fill six expiring seats on the Board. We received a tremendous response from members throughout the world and are pleased to announce that twenty-two extremely qualified members are running for election to the WAA Board of Directors.

They are:

Anil Batra, Chief Analytics Officer, Ascentium, USA
Daniel Waisberg, Head of Web Analytics, EasyNet Search Marketing, Israel
David Millrod, Managing Partner, Technology Leaders, USA
Juan Manuel Damia, Partner, Intellignos/SocialMetrix, Argentina/USA
Khalid Saleh, President, Invesp Consulting, USA
Olivier Silvestre, Co-founder, Tealium, Inc., USA
René Dechamps Otamendi, Founder, Ox2/LBi, Brussels
Sergio Maldonado, Director, MV Consultoria, Spain
Stéphane Hamel, Web Analytics Advocate, Immeria Consulting Services, Canada

Ed Wu, Senior Analyst, Global Consumer Online, Dell, Inc., USA
Greg Asman, Director of Web Analytics, Aspen Marketing Services, USA
Peter Sanborn, Group Manager, Web Analytics, Microsoft, USA
Rachel Scotto, Metrics Manager, Sony Pictures Entertainment, USA
Ray Sibulkin, Executive Director, Business and Marketing Analysis, Edmunds.com, USA

Alex Yoder, Chief Executive Officer, WebTrends, USA
Arie Abecassis, President, MindFireInc, USA
Claudia Woods, Director of Strategic Development, Predicta, Brazil
Jonathan Levitt, Vice President of Marketing, iPerceptions, Inc., USA
Kimberly Weller, Product Manager, SAAS Institute, USA
Mark Wachen, Managing Director, Interwoven/Optimost, USA
Matthew Langie, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Omniture, USA
Nicolas Babin, Chief Operating Officer, AT Internet (XiTi), France

Following our initial Call for Nominations, we learned that a highly respected member of our Board would not be returning for the final year of her term. April Wilson, who has made tremendous contribution to the Board and the WAA membership, has decided to step down to allow more time for her professional and family pursuits. She will be greatly missed.

As a result of April’s departure, we will elect 7 Board members this year. The successful candidates will serve two-year terms on the WAA Board. The candidates will be elected as follows:

Consultants: The two highest vote getters in this category will be elected.
Practitioners: The three highest vote getters in this category will be elected.
Vendor: The two highest vote getters in this category will be elected.

We encourage you to review the profiles of each of the candidates and get to know them prior to the election. The profiles include photographs, bios, written responses to selected questions, and audio interviews, and can be found on the WAA website by clicking on the main three pages linked above.

The election will be conducted via electronic ballot from March 27 through April 10, 2009.

For more information about the election process, please read the WAA Board of Directors Election Process – 2009 document, or contact the Nominations Committee.

Thank you to all the nominees for your willingness to serve the WAA – and to all our members whose active participation ensures the success of this process.

Regards,

Jim Sterne
Chair, Nominating Committee
Chair, WAA Board of Directors

General background/bio

I am currently the senior analyst for Dell’s Global Consumer Online business. I am responsible for driving strategic analytics initiatives, recommending actionable ideas to fuel the optimization engine, evangelizing, championing web analytics and sharing best practice across our global business units. My prior experience includes marketing strategy, business intelligence, competitive pricing and sales management.

I attended eMetrics Summit and am well connected with many web analytics practitioners. I am passionate about web analytics and see that as the career of choice for the rest of my life. I am also the author of the Super Web Analyst blog.

I graduated from Michigan Business School in 2004, with focus on marketing and general management. Outside work, I am active in the faith community and enjoy reading, writing or just spending time with my family.

Major contributions I will bring to Web Analytics Association and its membership

I believe the most important role for a Director to play is to help set the vision for WAA and develop strategic priorities based on that vision. To accomplish that, the Director needs to understand not only where the web analytics industry is going in terms of technical innovation, but also what’re the unmet needs from business/marketing perspectives.

As a core member in Dell’s web analytics community, I am at a unique position to see how Dell, as the # 1 e-commerce company implement cutting edge technology and use state of the art web analytics applications to drive online innovation and better serve its customers. What’s more impressive is we started with US first but expanded the program to our global business units fairly quick. Like the cliché goes, this is a journey and we are still at the beginning of the journey. I am excited about being part of the journey as I have the opportunity to really bring technology, vendor, consultant, people and process all together, with the ultimate goal to build the competitive advantage for Dell. Of course I am also experiencing the pains of politics, bureaucracy, organization silos, HIPPOs…you name it.

I believe my experience at Dell will enable me to give the board a balanced view so that we, as a team, can set right vision and strategic priorities for the association.

You should vote for me because…

If you a practitioner like me, you should vote for me because the BOD is typically being dominated by consultants and vendor representatives. They are great leaders in their companies and industries and I look forward to working with them on the board. However I think I can best represent your needs because I have the same needs as yours. It’s just that simple. If you are a vendor or consultant, I think you should still vote for me because I am your customer and don’t you like talk to your customer more often?

I have a passion about web analytics. I dedicate myself and focus my energy for the things I really love and web analytics is one of them. As a college student, I led a team with 13 students on a mountain climbing mission and we conquered the mountain with 24,700ft. To prepare for the trip, my team had to practice a whole year, in their spare time and we had to raise $10,000 fund by selling instant noodles, one pack at a time. During my four years at college, I attended and led three such missions and almost lost my life in one of them.

Of course that’s more than 10 years ago and I am not climbing anymore because my wife won’t allow me. Yet I am still a mountaineer fundamentally. I am curious, courageous and I like challenges. I have been doing different jobs but none of them like my current job really satisfying my curiosity and challenging me intellectually. So here I am. Like you, I have learned so much from this community and now I am ready to give back, with passion and dedication. I am willing to spend 10-12 hours a month, or whatever it takes to help bring WAA to the next level.

Where will the Web Analytics Association should be in the next two years?

I would like to see WAA to become the ultimate resource for the members to learn and grow in the next two years. WAA forum is a great place, probably more for beginners to ask “how to” questions. eMetrics forum is great but it is expensive (though well worthy) and only few times a year. What it is lacking is a continuous learning experience for practitioners like us. We have mastered the basis and we want to reach to the next level. We want to see more case studies and learn how we can implement similar solutions for our company. Webinar/podcast is a great medium but there is too much sales pitch. We need a better learning and sharing platform and I think WAA, as the only unbiased and credible professional association, can take up this challenge and fulfill the hungry needs.

In my process to apply for the business school six years ago, I co-founded a Chinese Professional Association where members can share their learning and network with each other, in their journey to apply for the business schools. Today Chinese Professional Network has become the destination for MBA applicants as well as MBA schools in China.

I believe WAA should start to establish a process and a platform where members from different industries and companies can share their best practices in a confidential and non-competitive environment. I know we have this need and I believe many other companies have the similar needs as well. If elected, I will work with other Board of Directors and committee members to define strategy, allocate resource and make this happen as quickly as possible.

What is the biggest challenge facing the digital marketing industry?

I can just speak from my personal perspective–I am not “guru” enough to predict anything in the future. I also learn from my experience that we should just focus on things we can control and let God do his works.

The first challenge I see is the emergence of multi-channel marketing and how web analytics can grow itself to become a true all-in-one solution for companies to analyze its marketing efforts, regardless where they are. I have seen some interesting articles but don’t believe we have cracked the code yet.

The second challenge is the risk of abusing “optimization”. The stories I have seen is we tend to optimize a certain page or even just some elements of the page and rush to declare success when we see a 5% jump in conversion. What we forget is the website is an eco-system and all elements of the site are all parts of the same body. Optimizing one part doesn’t mean the whole body is necessarily better off. We should be extraordinarily cautious when we design, test and implement any big changes and very thoughtful in calculating the impact on the overall business, not just the individual parts.

I think WAA can do many things to help its members overcome both challenges. Only the sky is our limit as we have so many passionate people like you and me. I realized this when I was in the WAW in DC last October.

If you are a member of the WAA, I hope you’ll support my nomination. 2009 is surely a tough year for all of us, and I hope you are holding strong, with a little help from WAA.

Sincerely yours,
Ed Wu

Coming here is not an easy thing. For one, the company is going through challenging times and many travels have been canceled. For another, it is difficult to leave my two little ones and my wife at home. Believe it or not, I haven’t traveled much in the last four years since I came to Austin.

Austin is a nice city and there is no doubt about it. If there is one thing I can complain (I’m learning not to complain anything), that’s the airport and lack of direct flight to anywhere. I don’t understand why I have to fly to Chicago, stop there for one hour and continue to DC. A funny thing happened when most passenger were on board in Austin. The flight pilot asked if there is anybody volunteering to give up his seat for next flight and he can have $200! Wow, if I am not interested in attending the WAA networking event in the afternoon, I would like to offer my seat for somebody absolutely desperate and exchange for $200!

Chicago is likely always, a little bit chilly and rainy, even in the middle of Oct. DC is much better, a mild weather at about 65C. I took the hotel shuttle to the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center where the eMetrics summit will be hosting. First time to the summit, I am a little nervous than exciting and lingering on many questions in my mind: what type of experience I am going to have? Who I am going to meet? What I am going to learn? Even, where I find a good restaurant?

After check-in, reading emails and taking a quick shower, I headed dowstairs for the networking event. There are about 40-50 people hanging on there, drinking, chatting and smiling. Typical social event in America. I am not a social animal at all, even when I was in the business school. I got a glass of wine and wandering around the lobby. After chatting with few people, I met with Mr. Jerry Tarasofsky, the founder and CEO of iPerceptions. A nice guy with grey hairs, he has founded seven companies in past but this one is the most successful. Since Dell is a big client of his, naturally we have a lot of things to talk about.  I think conceptually, many companies start to get the importance of customer surveys. But practically, there is a big opportunity out there for companies learn to use voice of customer data to drive real actions. Since I came to my role at Dell, I have been trying hard to integrate iperceptions with clickstream data and finding a good solution to read/analyze customer verbatim from the open-ended survey questions. I am glad that Mr. Tarasofsky told me they just announced New Tools to Transform Open-Ended Feedback Into Actionable Intelligence today. Sounds interesting and I am going to give it a try.

eMetrics Summit 2008 Washington DC

I look forward to day one of the summit and I will bring with you more of my learnings tomorrow.

I look forward to learning from the industry gurus and fast charging my brain to be a super web analyst. I won’t do live blog for the event, but I’ll try to recap the key learnings from the sessions I attend. Stay tune for more exciting news from DC.