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This past Wednesday a couple of business associates and myself attended WebTrends Marketing Performance Seminar ‘07 in Chicago. First and foremost I’d like to thank WebTrends for putting on such a top-notch event. It was all that and a bag of chips.

We left from a rainy Milwaukee at 5:30am by train. The trip wasn’t too bad, although I wish I would have brought my laptop because it got really slow not having anyone to talk to. We arrived at Union Station at 7:30am and immediately attempted to hail a taxi. Downtown Chicago looks like the mass exodus at 7:30am in the middle of the week. I never knew how many people actually commuted downtown Chicago. I swear the taxi driver cussed-out two civilians, one taxi driver and a pedestrian before we arrived to our destination.

Once we located our meeting room and registered, WebTrends hooked us up with this live leather notebook pen combo. Nice. Next after we found a place to sit, we loaded up on the continental breakfast. This was the best continental breakfast I have ever had at any seminar. I’m thinking to myself, you gave me a nice gift, fed me an incredible breakfast, plus I get a day off from work, all for free. God bless America! LOL.

But it gets better. Once we decided on the breakout sessions we would attend, and finished our excellent breakfast, we were introduced to WebTrends big cheese Greg Drew. This guy is like the guy you love to hate but you can’t because he is like super charismatic and obviously intelligent. He is like on the cusp of it all. I would like to just listen to this guy talk about anything.

Then we met the rest of the big cheese posse. Tim Kopp, and Jon Roskill who both make you sick because they have it going on so tough. Tech heads with personalities. LOL. They were all very impressive to say the least. Then they introduced Bill Schmarzo. Now we’re getting deep, because this guy is like the mad sciencetist of the bunch. He is over Advertiser Analytics. This is the kind of guy that is so smart that you can see the layers peeling off of him. The kind of guy the CIA and MI6 ask for help. J/K

But one of the most impressive people I had the pleasure to meet was Ingrid Nielsen. She works as the search strategist for Clear Ink. She’s an absolute marketing monster! Honestly, she has web marketing oozing out of her pores. When I finally got a chance to speak with her face to face, I asked her the question I ask all those I respect in my field.

“What are you?” (”What is your true name?”)

Ingrid looked at me for a few seconds and politely replied, “I’m an Internet Evangelist.” She blew me away. I could have sat and listened to her all day. It’s a rare treat to be around someone you feel knows more about your craft than yourself. I guess I’m an Internet Evangelist too.

I also met another incredibly intelligent and talented person, Brian Rosenblat. He does strategic marketing for Endeca. Their software is bleeding edge.

I was also very fortunate to be among one of the six people selected to attend a special meeting with WebTrends and Yahoo. As you probably already know they have thrown in lots together. I met more impressive people at this meeting as well. Hopefully, I will be able to stay in touch with some of them.

A great day filled with one of the things I love most, web analytics!