I’m on top of the world – Omniture Summit ‘08

In the world of marketing there is “impressive” and then there is IMPRESSIVE. I can honestly tell all of you that of the dozens and dozens of trade shows and conferences that I have attended, I have never seen one so well managed, organized, empowering, inspiring and well, impressive, at this year’s Omniture Summit ‘08 in Salt Lake City.

Leaving the opulent and grand setting of the Grand America aside for another discussion, the show’s content, professionalism mixed with the “family” culture of the Omniture Organization makes this event a never to be missed. This culture, the caring of an entire organization that every customer achieves the highest level of success by using their products and services, is undoubtedly why this company – recently chosen as one of the Top 50 Most Innovative companies in the world – attracted the throngs of people it did with 2,000 people in attendance. In fact, it was the largest EVER user conference for online marketing and web analytics professionals in the world.

Now take all that information and technology and applications and mix it with inspiring key notes from Lance Armstrong and Seth Godin and you leave wanting to change the entire world – your world at home, work and play. At the end of his talk, Lance was presented with a $50,000 check from Omniture for his foundation on behalf of all us attendees as well as another $100,000 pledge by the entire Omniture executive team. In closing, Lance challenged everyone in the partially teary-eyed audience to get involved, make a difference and be part of the cure – for whatever aspect of life or community that you see is ailing.

That next morning, Seth Godin entertained, dazzled and as always awakened the crowd with lots of new ideas from his new book Meatball Sundae which “explores the 14 trends that are changing the world and how organizations can either embrace them or be punished by them.” On a more personal note, I had the chance to re-introduce myself to Seth after these many years since first engaging with him when he served on the Board of Directors at Ofoto.com. Some of you might recall that my very first Internet job was as Ofoto when I joined that incredible start-up as employee #20! I had the very distinct pleasure at that time to meet Seth a few times back then and be schooled by the master himself. I credit much of the success I have achieved these past many years to those times when he would he openly shared his Internet perspectives with our management team. So do make sure to read his newest book Meatball Sunday as it is yet another “must read” from this industry genius.

So what do you do next when you have been to the top of the technology mountain these past few days, well you go climb – or ski – a mountain of your own. And so I did, I skied the slopes at Snowbird all day with my dear friends at Omniture, Derek Bryce, David Blake, and Todd Trippany, soaking in the unparalleled vistas, great conversations and fantastic friendships.

Before I sign off, I must say how great it was to see the enormous success that all my friends at Omniture have achieved these past five years, since I first became a client of theirs while at Wine.com in 2003. So hats off to Josh James, John Pestana, Mark Dillon, Mark Stock, Don Cash, Chris Harrington, Brett Error, Mike Herring and the rest of the incredible team there. But special recognition must be made to Gail Ennis and Stuart Gold who put on one heck of a show!