After several years of success in California, the XChange conference is arriving in Europe and will take place on May 29-31, 2012 in Berlin. XChange is specifically designed for Web Analytics professionals, who want to exchange with peers. XChange is organized by Semphonic, and its Vice-President for Europe, Matthias Bettag, will share some insights about the conference in the interview below.
Nicolas Malo: Guten tag Matthias ! Congratulations for organizing the first XChange conference in Europe! Could you please start to explain the concept of this unique conference?
Matthias Bettag: The concept is actually simple. The best thing on conferences is meeting other experts, being in conversations and getting known to each other. At the XChange the conversations are the conference. There are no presentations, no Powerpoint, no vendor exhibition and no sponsored speakers. Vendors are very welcome of course, then attending with one or two experienced senior consultants, if not C-level, in order to really participate content wise rather than being in a competition. The conference is based on so called "huddles", a term coming from American football. Huddles are group discussions in smaller conference rooms which last 90 minutes and with not more than 20 people. There are three "huddle-slots" per day, and each slot offers up to six huddles in parallel. The huddle topics discuss all kind of issues around digital analytics and releated. When attending the conference you can prioritize in advance on which huddles to participate.
As said, a huddle is a group discussion, not a presentation or a monologue. The huddle leader is the moderator who is guiding the discussion. Each participant is a peer. The perfect huddle is highly interactive and engages everyone in the room. It is really about sharing experiences and discussing trends, methods, and approaches, but also to ask questions and hear what others have to say. It is a learning experience for everyone.
This format shapes a very different athmosphere, people get known to each other during the 2 days, the conversations are getting deeper and due to the limited amount of participants (85 for Berlin) there is no risk that someone gets lost in an anonymous crowd. I personally very much liked on the XChanges in the US to see how true experts "dared" to frankly raise questions. Something which I almost never experienced in the 5 minutes Q&A sessions after a Powerpoint presentation in front of 250 people. The XChange has its name because the conference is really about exchanging thoughts and questions in the very best way.
According the feedback Semphonic received from the US based conferences, the XChange is simply the best conference to attend for professional digital analysts.
Nicolas Malo : What is the usual kind of attendees for the XChange conferences in California?
Matthias Bettag : Typically practitioners with a high level of expertise working in digital- or webanalytics, but across all kind of industries, like media, technology, financial, internet, retail, health care, consumer, non-profit, governance, etc. In California the majority of attendees are coming from the US, but there are an increasing amount of attendees coming from other countries every year.
It would be wrong to assume all attendees are working at fortune100 companies, the XChange is just as valuable for anyone in our industry, and also other consultants and self-employed analysts don't want to miss the conference after they attended once.
Nicolas Malo : Who are the confirmed huddle leaders for XChange Europe as we speak?
Matthias Bettag : We are very happy to present world-class huddle leaders from all across Europe, plus some from the US. Just to name a few we can confirm XChange "veterans" like Matt Fryer from Hotels.com and Tom Betts from FT.com in UK, but also Isabelle Mouli-Castillo from Dell in France - she just won the WAA award of the "Practitioner of the Year", Jacques Warren from Canada, a leading -and french speaking- expert in customer centric digital analytics, social media and analytics governance since more than a decade, Craig Sullivan from Belron in UK - if you are on Twitter you should know @optimiseOrDie, Gemma Munoz from Spain - she is probably the most popular webanalyst in the Spanish speaking region, Ole Bahlmann from Berlins famous startup SoundCloud, Ulla Kruhse-Lehtonen from Nokia in Finland, Michael Notte from Belgium - well known also by his popular blog www.kaizen-analytics.com, David McBride from Comcast in US, and last but not least Gary Angel, President of Semphonic, who just won the WAA award "Most Influential Industry Contributor". And many more.
You find the full list here http://semphonic.com/consulting-services/europe/huddle-leaders.aspx
Nicolas Malo : What kind of outcomes from the conference should expect attendees?
Matthias Bettag : Attendees should expect highest level discussions and deep insights, meeting the most interesting experts in our business, and likely making friends. The XChange can be seen as a mix of a personal training, an expert's conference and a basecamp. Calling this networking sounds almost too cheap, as it is way more than exchanging business cards and having small talk. The XChange can change your view on what you do, and how. Expect to learn a lot of stuff regardless how experienced you are, expect to be inspired and highly motivated for your job, expect to be part of an exceptional community which is truly driving our business.
Nicolas Malo : The first XChange conference in Europe will take place in Berlin, one of the world's craziest party town. Have you planned some entertainment in addition to work?
Matthias Bettag : Activities between 10pm and 7am are not part of the official conference entertainment plan ;-) However the XChange takes pride in providing first class accommodation and social program. We start with a welcome reception at the hotel the night before the actual conference starts, followed by a casual get together at a cool spot somewhere around. Day one will offer a boat cruise on the river Spree having a waterside sightseeing including dinner, and the very special room rate of 109 euro at the Scandic hotel in Berlin (located at Potsdamer Platz at the very centre of the city) is honored 3 days pre and post of the conference dates in case that one wants to extend the stay. The final program around the conference has not yet been decided by every detail, but be ready to have a lot of fun when coming to Berlin.
Nicolas Malo : Vielen Dank Matthias, and see you on May 28th in Berlin!
MORE INFO AND REGISTRATION : http://www.semphonic.com/consulting-services/europe/xchange-europe.aspx
