In a previous life I attended some unofficial meetings of professionals who got together once a year to share their best tips, tricks, and practices with each other. Sort of a "here's the coolest thing I know how to do, here's how to do it, what've YOU got?" kind of an event. It was really helpful for this group of professionals who tended to be few and far between. The list of topics was pulled from things people submitted. It was a GREAT learning and networking event because it was 100% information that people found useful in their own practices.

I'd be willing to organize something similar for advanced WebTrends users (and anybody else) if there is any interest. People would have to find the funds to travel to some central location.

Any interest out there?

This will be a great idea !
Depending on the location and time of the year i can decide on attending this.

Chris, I like this idea as well..."WUG", WebTrends User Group.

I am the heaviest WebTrends user within our organization, but I do not consider myself an advanced user. However, I'm confident I would benefit from such a forum.

I like the idea of the forum being presented by users for users versus a vendor/third party product presentation/forum.

It might be beneficial to ask WebTrends to support/sponsor the forum in some way.

To help save on travel costs, consider using LiveMeeting.

There's interest here as well...

I too am interested! It would be an excellent knowledge-sharing and networking opportunity either as a live and in-person event or as a web meeting. Perhaps we could have our first event as a web meeting just to get started?

There is a Webanalytics Yahoo! group that does this sort of thing. Does anyone here receive those mails or participate in that group? Perhaps there could be some synergy between this Webtrend-specific group here and the Webtrends users of the Webanalytics Yahoo! group!?

Regards,
MitchellT

That's an interesting thought. Eric's WA people (who are about half vendor representatives by the way, or were back when he was giving out demographics) rendezvouzed at E-Metrics one year. That's about the only centralized venue I can think of for people like us now that WebTrends isn't doing yearly user conferences. But E-Metrics is so expensive (over $2,000 just to attend, plus a very expensive hotel) that I don't have much confidence it could be a good destination.

I'm kind of invested in the face-to-face idea just because, in my experience, it works far better. I think a combination would work really well - those who travel can meet and others can attend by LiveMeeting or WebEx.

But anyway this bit of interest from you four is encouraging. I hope some more people jump in and say something.

good idea. I am also trying the Web Analytics Wednesday idea per Erics WA board. That way, we get exposed not only to WebTrends, but other Analytics solutions as well, which can only improve us. I am hosting the one in Dallas, and I know there is one in NY. Check his site. Of course, Dallas is centrally located, and nice weather in the winter and spring as well

I'm going to do one in the Detroit area also. That's a great thing to bring up, Mike.

Hey everyone,

I just joined up, would love to attend something like this. Is there some sorta secret handshake to attend something like this? I'm in Austin, TX and could probably go to Dallas.

Thanks,
jeff

Jeff, you are sure welcome to come, but that's a long drive! I know there have to be people in Austin who would be interested. Here's my suggestion: you are welcome to come to the Dallas one next week. But, you could get on the Web Analytics forum and arrange for one in Austin instead, and see what happens. I am in the process of chnaging our location to something closer to the airport, check out the Eric's forum for the update. Feel free to call me or email me. It should be fun. No secret handshake, just look for the Web Analytics book(s)!

I would be very interested in a WebTrends specific mini-conference.

Chris, are you planning to attend the Troy, MI Web Analytics Wednesday? or will yours be a different one?

I will be in Ann Arbor that day, so I would love to come.

Michael Helbling

Well, this sure sounds intriguing, but I'm out in Toronto.

Are we talking about a coffee-and-chat kind of get together, or were you thinking of something more structured?

I'm up here in Midland, Michigan and would love to get together with anyone in the State.

Just thought I'd let everyone know a good time was had by all at the WAW in Dallas. I was disappointed the WebTrends folks didn't show, but we had people from Travelocity, IBM, and others show up. Good company and interesting talk regarding the WA industry. And, it was good to meet Raj who is a truly engaged individual when it comes to WA.

WebTrends was not at WAW at all? ????

Hey K Kaiser I'm in Ann Arbor and sometimes go north ...