Hi everyone. This is one of the last things I am doing as the director that works with the Marketing Committee: formalizing our Events and Discounts policy.It is not 100% there, because we will surely run into operational details, but I have gestated it for so long; I think it is time to push it out. (Many thanks to other directors who have helped. You know who you are.)

So here are the issues that we faced. Everyone who was having an event that was related to the Internet in any way whatsoever wrote us and said, "Hey, let's do a 10% discount, and we'll trade out lots of stuff, no money exchanged." And it was a good deal for the WAA and our members, until our newsletter became full of logos, and we found that lots of members didn't care -- they could get better discounts elsewhere, or we weren't really reaching the right conferences.

At the same time, we finalized an agreement with eMetrics; they are now the Official Summit of the WAA, and WAA members get a 15% discount to it. The agreement is actually a lot more in depth, because it calls for lots of cross-promotion. But if the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit was the official WAA Summit, and if we were having trouble with other discounts, what would the fate of all those other events be?

It turns out that these waters aren't as treacherous as they appeared to be. So here is what we are hoping to do:

On the discount front, any event (or book, or service) that wants to offer a discount may, but the marketing committee is going to work harder to get better discounts for you; to get more than one free pass; to only accept events that our members want. You may think it is hard to know what members want (and sometimes it is!), but we do have a track record with a number of events, and we know that if we can't give away a free pass, members sure don't care about the discount to that event. Even when we accept events, we won't necessarily treat them all the same - some events will get mentions in our newsletter, and others will be on our discounts page for anyone to use, but without advertising. It all depends on the agreement we have with the other organization or publisher.

But what about the WAA calendar?

Our goal is to have all web analytic events on our calendar. Some events will have preference (a different color, a higher placement) than others. But if you have a web analytic event, submit it to our calendar! You don't have to be a WAA member, either, because our goal is to have the definitive web analytics calendar, not the calendar where people who are members get to post.

Now for the gotchas: Not all events are about web analytics. This is something that will eventually get pounded out over time. Is it a WA event if 20% of the sessions are on WA? 50%? For example, Search Engine Strategies is an SEO/SEM conference. Yes, they have some analytics sessions, but that is not their main goal - their primary goal is to teach SEO/SEM. So an event like that would *only* get onto our calendar by virtue of having a discount that we accepted. (Now you can see how these things get tied together, discounts and the calendar.)

So different kinds of events will have different colors on the calendar. If you do a discount to your analytics event -- working with the Marketing Committee -- you can probably get more "play" - especially if you also give away some free passes. You won't get the kind of publicity that the eMetrics Summit gets, or that sponsored events (like WAA webinars that are sponsored) are getting, but you will get visibility. And other members will get to see when your event is. And our calendar will be the destination for analysts who want to know where to be seen.

Whew.

Robbin Steif

Comments

[Nick]

So if the eMetrics summit is the Official Summit of the WAA and you're looking for all events to be in the calendar why are only the eMetrics events in the US showing in the events calendar. The eMetrics Summit next week in London, UK does not appear.

It seems to tie in with the discussions around the NA focus of the WAA that have been going on elsewhere. Either ALL events, regardless of where in the world they are need to be posted to the calendar, or things need to be regionalised.

[Lars]

Robbin,

Thanks for opening up the discussion.

I'd love to see more of this on the WAA Blog. Maybe EUWAA next? Or if we take it to WAA Social. :)

I've said it before, and will say it again, I liked the work you did to offer a smorgasbord of options to members, but was sad when you had to stop.

I think I should comment on your post since I think it's my "fault" this discussion was started.

First, full disclosure. These are my opinions as an individual and *member* of WAA. About me: http://snipurl.com/28v0q
I am also an associate director of IMC, a conference about Internet marketing, web analytics, testing, and more. We offered to give very generous discounts to members of WAA, but were declined the opportunity.

But, that's not why I am writing now. I am writing as a member. As a member I'd like to see ALL events listed.

Maybe the first thing you should do is add X Change.

#1:
eMarketing Association lists all events on their event page, not just their official event. They don't even ask for a discount in return. I don't know if associations should have ONE official conference. Maybe, but it sort of feels the same as having ONE official web analytics vendor. At any rate, eMa has shown that it is possible to have an official conference and still offer everything to members. MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) has done the same. A major decision like getting an official conference should have been voted on by members. I do recommend eMetrics as a great conference, it's not about that. Jim and Matthew have done a fantastic job, that's for sure. Yet I get the feeling that things could have been handled better. eMetrics did what's best for business and can't be blamed, but did WAA do what's best for members?

#2:
WAA must tread carefully since at least two members of the board profit from eMetrics. Unless the playing field is fairly level people may suspect wrongdoings. That would hurt WAA. Play it safe.

#3:
It's fair to ask that listed events should be relevant. You mentioned SES as an example of an event that may not be relevant. Well, maybe, but SMX has been listed, and it's comparable to SES. Also, there was a presentation about search at eMetrics Stockholm that WAS relevant, so don't judge too quickly. And what about testing and on-site behavioral targeting? Strictly speaking those topics wouldn't qualify either. WAA is a member-driven organization. Let members decide what they want. You don't have to put ANY logos in newsletters. A simple short list with links would be sufficient. You wrote; "we found that lots of members didn't care" -- how did you find that out? What's the data behind that statement? How will a handful people be able to determine what more than 1,500 members want?

#4. Was any other conference asked to give a bid on becoming the official WAA conference? I'm thinking conferences like X Change. It may be likely that eMetrics would have been selected anyhow, but it would have felt better from a member perspective if the "bid" would have been open. Same goes for WAA Base Camp, maybe someone like Semphonic or ZAAZ would have been interested given a shot at it?

Always think "what's best for our members?"

I think very few people are against having many choices, just like most companies evaluate many web analytics vendors before selecting one.

My recommendation; think this through long and hard to make the right decisions on how to move forward. Always think like a member.
Ask many other members for input. The more independent, the better.

Best of wishes to X Change, Online Marketing bootcamp, Webanalytics Congres, Internet World, eMetrics, and more! Competition is good. :)

Cheers,
Lars

[Robbin Steif]

No, Lars, that was the wrong answer!! You were supposed to say, "Robbin, I know that you worked for six months to get us to this point and open up events and discounts again. I know that you don't get paid for this and personally, I really really appreciate it."

Well ok, now that I have vented, here are a few thoughts:

WRT events that should be on the calendar and are not - someone commented on that -- well, we will get there.

Lars, to your specific points: yes, just about everyone now can add their events. Events will still be moderated, because we aren't going to do non-WA events. But submit, submit, submit. If Xchange wants to be there, June D should submit. If you want your event, please submit it. If you already submitted it, we will go through those events and add them as appropriate. They were not discarded, our webmaster told me tonight.

And yes, we are trying to have an official event and still list everyone else's. That was the point of my post, and the work I have done for the past six months.

OK, as far as the Official Summit of the WAA -- I get all the credit/blame for that one. I wanted a better discount for WAA members to eMetrics, so that is what I traded. You can blame me. It is a two year contract, and the first year is almost half over, and if the members think we should vote on it when it is over, then we'll vote.

WRT SMX vs SES -- we have a signed contract with SMX which includes the calendar. We didn't get the SES contract done in time.

How did we find out that members didn't care? I got feedback from event organizers who said, "No one used the
discount." Sometimes, we tried to give away tickets and no one took them (or we worked really hard to get one person to use it.) That is not true of ALL events, just some. So the goal
should be to find more events where more members care.

We had contractual relationships to include logos in newsletters.

You make a good point about an event being about testing, about copy, not clearly WA but isn't it part of WA?? I didn't say this was going to be easy, I just said that we are going to try.

[Lars]

OK. Thanks, Robbin.

I know someone who got a free ticket through WAA and was extremely grateful and satisfied.

[Robbin Steif]

Nick, now that I am working on a real computer instead of working in every airport in California, I had a chance to revisit your comment. There are two issues there, having non-US events (and non-US event organizers should submit! Let's get those events up) and having the non-NA emetrics Summit events on the calendar. The latter one, we should just do (unless I am missing something here. Always a possibility....)

[Seth R]

Events, Discounts and the WAA…continued
___________

Hello everyone.

Over the past weeks (and months) there has been significant discussion regarding the policies for the WAA calendar. Within the board the initial decision was to restrict the calendar to WAA, WAA partner and WAA sponsor events. This was done for a number of practical reasons—easy to manage and a clear, easy to communicate policy. The board also felt that this direction would provide added value to sponsors and partners.

In his comment on this topic, Lars said, “Always think what’s best for the members.”

Taking the feedback we received along with the discussions with WAA members and within the Board, it comes down to what Lars said.

Therefore, the WAA calendar will be “open” to events whose organizers provide discounts to WAA members and whose topic area is of interest or to the benefit of WAA members. The focus, of course, is web analytics.
In her post on May 14th, Board Member Robbin Steif laid out the framework for an open calendar policy.

The marketing and membership committees recently came back with a handy grid and hierarchy to simplify the decisions as to which events will be posted to the calendar. I will try to describe it here:

1. WAA event or Base Camp: yes.
2. Partner events such as eMetrics and University of British Columbia (UBC),for example: yes.
3. Corporate member event: yes, if discount or passes are offered to WAA members and the event is mostly (50%+) focused on web analytics or areas of high interest to our membership (privacy as an example)
4. Does it provide exceptional networking, education or training that would be beneficial or of high interest to WAA members: Yes. In these cases we would ask for a discount for WAA members if one is not offered upfront.

With more events listed, the calendar will no doubt be a focal point for our community, worldwide. However, with more content to review and manage we need to ask for forgiveness in advance if something is missed. We will also have to eventually figure out a way to improve the calendar so it is easier to use, search and post to.

Please, let us know if you have any questions or additional feedback/input. The marketing and membership committees are driving the details of the policy. Feel free to contact April, who is the VP/Director supporting the marketing committee or June, who is the Director supporting the membership committee.

Seth