MIMA Summit 2007

So we joined the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association last week, and attended the 2007 Summit today.

(Check out our photos here. And our tweets here.)

Over 630 people showed up. The event was sold out. We got there a bit late and missed the first keynote. But overall, we had a really good time. Our highlights:

"Quantifying the Overall Value of the Web Channel"
Jason Burby, Chief Analytics & Optimization Officer, ZAAZ (Seattle, WA)
Interactive/digital work is inherently measurable--it's unescapable--which is both a blessing a curse. Because on the one hand, we finally have a basis for understanding what works and possibly why. On the other, we've got a massive responsibility to do something with the information. Burby's presentation was a solid exercise in understanding the role of metrics as a foundation for monetizing user behavior -- and then figuring out what to do about it all. We'll be buying ZAAZ's book on the subject.

"Unconventional Collaboration: Insights Gathered from Three Years of Collaboration at 37signals"
Jason Fried, Founder, 37signals (Chicago, IL)
We use Basecamp from 37Signals, so we were biased in favor of this presentation. It was really nice to discover we share many of 37Signals' operational practices: Working apart--working virtually, no (or extremely few) meetings, focusing on smaller decisions that can be solved quickly versus the paralysis of large problems. Plus, Jason sounds oddly like our friend Dmitri Cavander. What Jason proposes is powerful stuff, and it clearly works--the challenge is in scaling the methodology up to larger entities. But an awesome presentation, nonetheless. And we're buying 37Signals' book as well.

We weren't nuts about the huge bottleneck to get to the free lunch, so we ate across the street at Subway. But the open bar at the end was nice. One comment: Seems like a vast majority of interactive marketing people in Minnesota have very well-designed eyewear.

We'll be back.