Engage 2010: The Last Day

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The skies were clear in New Orleans on the last day of the Engage 2010 customer conference, which continued the camaraderie and collaborative learning found in the first and second days. The breakout sessions overflowed, smiles lit the rooms, and the conversations that spilled out in the hallways were punctuated by the sound of high-fives between attendees, speakers, sponsors and Webtrends employees alike. I’m in absolute awe of the fine folks at Webtrends who summoned this magic for us all to enjoy.

Here is a very short, incomplete list of session highlights on the last day that merely hint at the awesome-ness of Engage 2010:

  • Webtrends’ Director of User Experience Justin Garrity gave an eloquent, in-depth talk about his approach to creating exceptional user experiences. This tied in very nicely with VP of Products Casey Carey‘s roadmap presentation, which built on Justin’s talk and connected it to the value that a Webtrends solution provides.
  • Ben Cerveny of Stamen Design enlightened us on how real-time data visualization unlocks the power of information. The audience — and The Twitters — exploded in appreciation.
  • Justin Kistner, Senior Social Media Manager at Webtrends, led a very popular breakout session called Measuring Facebook: Web Analytics for the Popular Networking Site that had everyone a-buzzing in the hallways and online.
  • The Future of Publishing panel was moderated by Sam Whitmore and featured Paul Berry, Lewis DVorkin, and Alan Citron — all exceptional leaders in online publishing — who shared the virtues of measurement and engagement.

Whitmore, Citron, Berry and DVorkin

During the last day of Engage 2010 Webtrends made a couple more announcements:

  • We released Webtrends Mobile Analytics, which allows anyone working with mobile content and marketing programs the ability to measure and quantify how customers are engaging with both mobile web sites and mobile applications.
  • Macmillan, a leading US publisher of books, textbooks, magazines and digital media, has selected Webtrends Analytics to provide deeper measurement, reporting and analysis to the data associated with all the publisher’s Web properties.

At the end of the final night we closed out Engage 2010 in style by hosting a festive evening in the Grande Terrace of Pat O’Brien’s on the River. (That would be the Mississippi River, of course.) The textured walls, antique chandeliers, and floor-to-ceiling windows created an air of elegance. The food, drink, and service were impeccable. Two pianos sat in the main room encased in brass, their keys tickled by two nice ladies singing jazzy versions of pop tunes.

In the spirit of fun and sharing our talents, Webtrends’ John Patton took advantage of a break from the hired entertainment and sang Journey’s “Faithfully” for us, to great acclaim. This performance was followed by a duet with a mystery man (anyone know who this man is?) who sat down at the other piano to play along with John. Together they performed Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”. There wasn’t a person there that night that wasn’t singing along and smiling with a big ol’ cheesy grin. I know I was!

By the way, even though Engage 2010 is over, the conference network is still alive and kicking, only now it’s being transitioned into a TED.com-like depository of all things Engage. Here is where you’ll (eventually) find all the session presentation files, links to photos and videos, and reviews of the sessions. Although we’re slowly-but-surely adding these elements, we have several presentations up on the network right now. Videos take a little longer to process, but we expect to start uploading our video files very soon. We’ll have general sessions, expert interviews, and the first-ever Ignite NOLA.

Incidentally, if you have any photos or videos of Engage 2010 you want to share, please do us the favor of linking to them in the comments. We want to see ‘em, and we’re pretty sure everyone else does, too! Make sure they’re tagged #wtengage or #wte10 wherever you’re storing them.

If you want to keep up with the trickle of attendee-generated content, I suggest you subscribe to the Engage conference network web feed so you’ll never miss a thing!

You can catch up on the first and second days of Engage 2010 by reading the following posts:
Engage 2010: The First Day
Engage 2010: The Second Day

One final note: we’ve had several requests for the cool Webtrends iPhone wraps several staff members were proudly displaying at Engage. If you want one, leave us a comment and we’ll get one to you.

Thank you New Orleans for an unforgettable experience. I’m pretty sure NOLA helped conjure the magic that is Engage 2010. I’m super pleased to announce that we’ll be working the magic next year in San Francisco, February 28 – March 3. We’ll bring back the favorites: Science Fairs, Sprints, and workshop session submissions. Go register NOW for Engage 2011!