After MeasureCamp San Francisco, there was quite an animated discussion on the Measure Slack regarding the event, pros & cons, strategies and how to get the most out of it.  Eventually Jim Sterne weighed in on the discussion with a comment that was half event description, half advice to others, half story of his experience of the day, half saying nice things and therefore 100% totally Jim.

If you don’t know who Jim is, he basically started the Digital Analytics community.  And he has kindly agreed to let me reproduce his comment from Measure Slack as a blog post here. So, over to you Jim…

I’ve been to a couple of MeasureCamps and think it’s perfect for what it is. It is not a formal, eMetrics-style conference with keynotes and sponsors and an exhibit hall. It is not a DA Hub with its longer sit-down sessions where you are pre-assigned to a room. It is not an Adobe Summit with a crush of people and a rock band.

Instead, it’s self-made, on the fly. It’s chaotic, informative and seriously fun. And by the way, all of these events are awesome because it’s about the community. It’s about keeping in touch with people and making new friends.

But make no mistake about MeasureCamp, the work that goes into preparing for it is astonishing. Due to my early-morning flight, I got there as the truck was unloading and had a hand in schlepping half a ton of signs, stands, food, beverage, tee-shirts, glassware, and more. Running around assembling schedule boards, taping down electric cables and setting up chairs brings home that this is an all-hands-on-deck affair. But the prep work was impressive. It clearly took weeks to put the pieces together and more than that to think of all the contingencies. I put the blame squarely on @prolet for it all going so well and, of course, on @peter_oneill for dreaming the whole thing up in the first place and making it possible to happen all over the world.

Top tips for a MeasureCamp talk, @nicolastrand? Dive straight in – cut all the intro slides. These are analysts in the audience, not neophytes. They already get why, they want to know how. Get straight to the meat because there is no time for fluff. Second? End early. The best part is the conversation so if you have a presentation, give it by all means, but then find out what your peers want to talk about.

Having a lot of choice is great but having the flexibility to carry on into another session is stellar. In the session @mgershoff did, I had a lot of my knowledge reinforced and picked up a thing or two. I always enjoy watching him present, so that was nice. But in the second session, he got serious and I spent the first fifteen minutes writing notes and the rest of the time documenting the stuff I was going to have to look up when I got home. #mindexpanding Having the ability for the group to say: “Yes! We want more!” is soooo valuable.

If you’ve never been to MeasureCamp, you owe it to yourself to snap up a ticket. If you’ve ever produced a MeasureCamp, you have my admiration …  and that’s a professional opinion!