If you are anywhere near San Francisco on Aug 19, 2010, you should not miss the one-day Conversion Conference event, part of SES and Connected Marketing Week by Clickz.

In my session, titled eCommerce Optimization, you will see case study examples of eCommerce landing pages and catalog sites that have had huge lift in sales through Conversion Optimization testing.

Can’t wait until then?
You should check out some of our latest Conversion Optimization case studies now.

We opened the event on Wednesday night with the WiderFunnel kickoff party and the next two days was one of the most content-packed conferences I’ve seen. With over 50 speakers and less than 150 attendees, the content ratio was high.

The first day saw five sessions about Conversion Optimization. They included: SAP / WiderFunnel 154% ROI case study presented by Christine Mykota of SAP and Raquel Hirsch of WiderFunnel; Making Testing Sexy at Victoria’s Secret by Jonghee Jo; Tom Leung with Google Website Optimizer; and Zaaz showing their Conversion Optimization ROI calculator (what they call Monetization).

I started the second day with a Conversion Optimization panel discussion with Mark Wachen of Optimost, Eric Hansen of SiteSpect, Pedro Sostre of Sostre & Assoc. and Mona Ellesseily of Page Zero Media. There were excellent questions by the audience, showing that Conversion Optimization is getting past the ‘What is it?’ stage to more interesting implementation questions.

The most interesting part for me was the follow-up workshop where I got the audience involved by using our Landing Page Influence Function for Tests (LIFT™) to evaluate a landing page and create hypotheses for testing. The interaction was great and everyone had fun. As promised, I will provide an overview of the LIFT Analysis tool on this blog in the next few days, so sign up for updates here so you don’t miss it:

Today, there has been an excellent turnout, with most sessions standing-room only. Here are some of the highlights:

• William Azaroff of Vancity spoke about the power of the web in mobilizing volunteerism and social responsibility at a micro level with Vancity’s uber-successful ChangeEverything.ca – and the bonus of finding themselves with a stronger brand and increased revenues on key product lines

• Darin Sarlabous of Aeroplan presented the positive impact on the organization their Unica implementation has delivered: better partner accountability; ability to segment the file to increase offer relevance; the benefits of automating mundane and non value add marketing tasks, increase campaign frequency…all with a decrease in their unsubscribe rates!

• Tom Leung, as usual, did an amazing job in his Google Website Optimizer presentation, totally engaging the audience – making people wonder how they ever made decisions on web changes *without* testing…

• We presented our SAP Case Study and we areso very appreciative of Christine Mykota, our client, who actually came in from her two-week sailing vacation to do the presentation!

The best part for me is the buzz I am hearing about TESTING! This rocks!

At 3:20 on Day 1 (September 11), Christine Mykota, Channel Marketing, Americas Marketing, SAP and I will be co-presenting a case study, “Learn how SAP increased conversion rate by 30% and achieved 154% ROI with landing page testing”

And at 9 am on Day 2 (September 12) Chris will be moderating the Conversion Optimization panel, Panelists include: Mark Wachen, Interwoven; Frans Keylard, Widemile; Eric Hansen, SiteSpect; Pedro Sostre, Sostre & Associates and Mona Elesseily, Page Zero Media

Plus (Chris is busy!), at 9:30 on Day 2, Chris will also be leading the Conversion Optimization Workshop

Here is a summary of what’s to come (I think they are almost sold out but worth checking on their site):

SPEAKERS

The list of speakers and companies represented is quite remarkable:

Tom Leung, Google; Bob Page, Yahoo!; Eric T. Peterson, Web Analytics Demystified; Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo, Capulet Communications; Xavier Casanova, Liveclicker; William Azaroff, Vancity; Gary Angel, Semphonic; Jon Husband Wirearchy Network; Anil Batra, Zero Dash 1; Ali Asaria, Well.ca; Lauraleigh Cairns, WebTrends; John Hossack, VKI Studios; Gary R. Beal, Stickyeyes; Jason Burby and Rich Devine, ZAAZ; Andre Charland, Nitobi; Jonathan Weber, Lunametrics; Stefan Eyram, ExactTarget; Jonghee Jo, Victoria’s Secret; Shannon Ryan, President and CEO non-linear creations, Inc; Darin Sarlabous, Aeroplan; Shawn Neumann, Domain 7

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

In addition to Chris’ session, there are many other panel discussions:

• Writing for the Web with Crawford Kilian, author of “Writing for the Web 3.0; Elizabeth Southall, Powerhouse Copy; Jim DeLaHunt, Jim DeLaHunt & Associates; Tom McNamara, McNamara Communications; Monique Trottier, Boxcar Marketing. Moderator: Michael Straker, VKI Studios

• Online Advertising with Jonathan Cohen, Shapiro Choen; Bennet G. Kelley, Internet Law Center; Tiffany Feltenberger, Omniture; Kate Tune, Cole & Weber United; Xavier Casanova, Liveclicker; Bill Barnes, Enquiro; Ellerton Whitney, Earthbound Media Group. Moderator: Jason Billingsley, Innovation Elastic Path Software, Inc.

• Search Engine Optimization with Alexandre Brabant, eMarketing 101.ca; Omar Al-Hajjar, Magnet Search Marketing; Ellerton Whitney, Earthbound Media Group; Gary R. Beal, Stickyeyes; Lyn Wilson, 6S Marketing; Bill Barnes, Enquiro. Moderator: Rodney Bartlett, Reachd

• Social Media with Warren Sukernek, Wunderman; Jacqueline Voci, Soya Marketing; Julie Wisdom, Babcock & Jenkins; William Azaroff, Vancity

WORKSHOPS

• Writing for the Web with Michael Straker, VKI Studios

• Online Advertising with Jason Billingsley, Innovation Elastic Path Software, Inc

• SEO with Rodney Bartlett, Reachd

• Mobile Marketing with Matthew Snyder, ADObjects

• Social Media with Patrick Schwerdtfeger, Tactical Execution

TOOL DEMOS

• SEO Browser, presented by Jeff Nelson, Anduro Marketing

• Website Grader, presented by Erin Colbert, HubSpot

• ProtoShare, presented by Blake D. Johnson, Site9

• Amacus

• Vovici, presented by Jeffrey Henning

• ActiveConversion, presented by Fred Yee, FoundPages

• Eloqua, presented by Keith Burrows, Eloqua

• Omniture Survey, presented by Tiffany Feltenberger

WOW! There is a lot to do/see/learn! I am bringing my runners (well, not really).

Co-organizers Lennart Svanberg and Lars Johansson have attracted an incredible roster of speakers and participants from Europe, the United States, Canada, and Asia who are traveling to Vancouver, BC, Canada to take part in the conference.

Here is a sampling of the speakers and companies represented, to give you an idea of their caliber:

• Tom Leung, Google
• Christine Mykota, SAP
• William Azaroff, Vancity
• Jonghee Jo, Victoria’s Secret
• Bob Page, Yahoo!
• Jason Burby, ZAAZ
• Darin Sarlabous, Aeroplan
• Mark Wachen, Interwoven
• Jacqueline Voci, Soya Marketing
• John Hossack, VKI Studios
• Michael Straker, VKI Studios
• Shawn Neumann, Domain 7
• Eric T. Peterson, Web Analytics Demystified
• Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo, Capulet Communications
• Xavier Casanova, Liveclicker
• Gary Angel, Semphonic
• Jon Husband, Wirearchy Network
• Anil Batra, Zero Dash 1
• Matthew Colebourne, coComment
• Gary R. Beal, Stickyeyes
• Andre Charland, Nitobi
• Robbin Steif, Lunametrics
• Stefan Eyram, ExactTarget
• Shannon Ryan, Non-linear creations
• Sheldon Gilbert, Proclivity Systems
• Crawford Kilian, author of “Writing for the Web 3.0″
• Elizabeth Rose, Powerhouse Copy
• Jim DeLaHunt, Jim DeLaHunt & Associates
• Tom McNamara, McNamara Communications
• Monique Trottier, Boxcar Marketing
• Mark Ogne, Acxiom Digital
• Frans Keylard, Widemile
• Josh Manion, Stratigent
• Jonathan Cohen, ICANN
• Abe Mezrich, Didit
• Bennet G. Kelley, Internet Law Center
• Jason Billingsley, Innovation Elastic Path Software
• Alexandre Brabant, eMarketing101.ca
• Omar Al-Hajjar, Magnet Search Marketing
• Amy Mischler, dotMobi
• Warren Sukernek, Wunderman
• Patrick Schwerdtfeger, Tactical Execution
• Matthew Snyder, ADObjects
• Rodney Bartlett, Reachd

Plus, your friends at WiderFunnel will be presenting as well: I will co-present along with our client Christine Mykota, Channel Marketing, Americas Marketing, SAP – “Learn how SAP increased conversion rate by 30% and achieved 154% ROI with landing page testing” and Chris Goward will be moderating two Panel Discussions on Conversion Optimization!

Whether you’re an advertiser, a marketer, or a business analyst, I am sure you will get valuable and actionable knowledge, not to mention a great opportunity to network with peers and meet new ones.

BONUS!- If you join the IIMA you can save $200 on your conference registration.

See you there!

Rochelle presented Donat’s work as part of Virtual Lower East Side. Thankfully she clarified that it was based on New York’s artsy Lower East Side, and not Vancouver’s heroine-addicted Lower East Side, which would have been a much different experience.

Alan from Smak showed shots of a very cool internal marketing project they ran for Future Shop last year for the company’s top performers. I told Claire Lamont (the other partner in the company) that I’m sure they have the funnest (most fun?) jobs in the city. I’d be jealous, if I wasn’t such a Conversion Rate Optimization addict (I know, how geeky can I be?!)

I showed a case study of a recent Conversion Funnel Optimization experiment we did for Safe Software that delivered 270% Conversion Rate increase through the funnel. That’s why I love what I do! With only 8 minutes to present, I didn’t give it justice, but if you want more you can read the case study here.

Thanks Cinci for organizing the event and to Scribblewiki for sponsoring. And, kudos to Miss604 who liveblogged the whole event and managed to stay awake through all the conversion rate numbers flying at her.

Also, I should mention that I tried to meet as many of you as I could and was particularly trying to connect with the web designers in the room. WiderFunnel is always looking for web design talent (particularly now when we have open job postings) so please send us an email if you’ve got a competitive attitude and great design skills.

If you’re not familiar with Case Camp, it’s billed as an “unconference” along the lines of BarCamp, etc. The agenda and attendee list is built on a wiki so you can sign yourself up by editing the page yourself.

In addition to my little talk about something to do with Landing page optimization, conversion optimization, etc., will be Thao Ngo from Marqui, David Gratton from Donat Group (sounds yummy!), Alan Bedingfield of Smak fame (always interesting), and something about Twitter from Colleen Coplick.

If none of that sounds interesting enough, grab a pint at the Lamplighter and talk to some of the interesting folks that’ll be there.

The event happens:
Date: Wednesday, February 20th 2008
Time: (arrive early for a drink) 5:45pm & 1st Case @ 6:15pm
@ the Lamplighter

Tom Leung

Tom’s session is titled “Google’s Proven Truths About Online Marketing” and is sponsored by WiderFunnel, of course.

The event will be highly interesting and interactive and will sell out.

I’m not bluffing about that. We sent out an email invitation to a few (well, more than a few) of our close contacts yesterday and we just found out that they’ve already sold 25% of the seats within the first 24 hours. The event organizers told us that they “have never seen so many come in so quickly.” We may have to get a bigger room.

You can get all the event details and get tickets before they’re gone at bcaim.org.

AND, almost as exciting as meeting Tom, WiderFunnel will be giving away a free full-service Conversion Rate Optimization Experiment (up to a $10K value) as a door prize! Yes, full-service means we take care of everything from experiment planning to execution and results analysis with no additional workload for your hard-working marketing and IT teams.

You don’t even have to be at the luncheon to win, so sign up to win a free Conversion Rate Optimization Experiment now.

Here are the details from Google:

The first online seminar, Introduction to Website Optimizer, will be geared towards those who are unfamiliar with website content testing and optimization. Tom will discuss the importance and benefits of optimizing your website design and content, and he’ll provide a detailed introduction to Website Optimizer and review the product’s latest features.

The second online seminar, Website Optimizer: Creating & Launching Experiments, builds on the first and is designed for those who have previous
experience with Website Optimizer or other site testing tools. Tom will deliver a step-by-step demonstration of how to successfully launch multivariate and A/B Split experiments, and he’ll also answer your questions.

Schedule and registration information:

Introduction to Website Optimizer (New or inexperienced users)
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 10:00 – 11:00am PDT
Register to attend.

Website Optimizer: Creating & Launching Experiments (Intermediate and advanced users)
Thursday, November 1st, 2007 10:00 – 11:00am PDT
Register to attend.

Then when you want to develop a Funnel Experiment™ plan to maximize GWO’s potential

Contact one of our Google Authorized conversion rate optimization experts.

You may also want to check out our free resource downloads.