This was my fifth Superweek and it won’t be my last.
I expressed a personal view on Facebook regarding this year’s week in Hungarian mountains. It’s very closed community of Analytics professionals speaking a common language. The view was very local and focused on analytics industry in Balkans, which is really different from the view I will present here.
Bottom line – our work as analysts, practitioners, implementation specialists, etc… – is doomed if we continue ONLY to evangelize local market (even if it is 15M+ people summed up across 5 countries). The world moves fast, clients think about profit and our industry is moving between legal, technical, analytical, statistical and artificially intelligent realms. Analytics industry is not only data – it is so much more.
If you want to provide this kind of services – providing single service is not an option. Growing business, challenging status quo with clients, pushing analytics magic to customers and moving internationally is only option.
Our scope (poorly described as analysts) of work is so much broader and exciting – which is what makes this industry great. People coming to Superweek clearly show this. Doug Hall‘s closing keynote explained this in so many details.
Superweek – key takeaway
Make business from (with) online analytics. Sporadically, throughout the years, many keynotes and lectures tackled the business of making business with analytics. It was not an easy task.
First Superweek was an eye opener for the world that revolves around web analytics – from implementation and technical angle by Simo Ahava to strategies and holistic views on business (and analysis) by Avinash Kaushik. Understanding that you are not alone in your country or region or world. There was brave new world waiting for new people, people with skills and practices required for new (or old) online economy.
That first SuperWeek showed me that I am not alone – from Jeff Sauer’s Jumpstart podcast
The conference made me think of how to build a healthy business. Kristoffer Ewald from Meta People (now Artefact), Steen Rasmussen from IIH Nordic, and power duo from Analytics Pros (Caleb and Charlotte Whitmore) showed a way. Conversion Works, Leap Three, Hub’Scan, Tatvic – showcased business behind analytics (and I’m clearly missing all agencies). Individuals growing their business and agencies – Jeff Sauer, Yehoshua Coren, Phil Pearce (just to name a few). Google was omnipresent throughout the years with speakers explaining technologies, products, and future product updates.
Late night chats, live podcast recordings, and great bonfires were just a bonus to a great week.
AI and machine learning are here to stay implemented in a smart way (thank you Matt Gershoff and others).
What comes next … after initiation
Years go by and you notice that the business is growing and people are moving toward concepts, future problems, and generally things Google does not provide (at least not directly and within analytics scope).
But you start thinking about business. How to join all pieces of the Great Analytics puzzle together?
What is the probability of loosing a puzzle piece from a 5000 piece puzzle over 5 days @supervveek?
Who cares, it’s done! And no one though it would be possible!!!
Awesome job to all the digital analysts, their families and random people at the hotel #spwk pic.twitter.com/KyhgxscFvh— Prolet Miteva (@proletm) February 2, 2018
Business is so much more than pure analyzing data.
[People + Process + Structure] > [Data + Technology] – Avinash Kaushik
JS wizardry, GTM hacks, GA struggles and GA360 (and other premium products) relaxed work are used to solve client problems. Before technicalities, there is pre-sales, consulting framework, pricelist, process, service list, account management… and so much more.
What I wish for Superweek 2019
Let’s talk about the business of analytics more. New agencies struggling with GCP (Google’s Certified Partner program) must move faster learning from best practices shared on this kind of event. Use cases of marriage between analytic tools, advertising, and performance measurement are required more than ever.
The openness of Superweek is the place where this discussion and learning should take place.
Thank you Zoli.