Looking for a conference on Analytics in higher education? Don’t miss the early bird deadline for SIM Tech!

UPDATE (August 31, 2010 at 12:22PM ET): Eric Olsen from Lewis University is the winner of the SIM Tech conference pass. Congratulations, Eric!

Fall is always a busy conference season (very similar to summer, actually). Once we’re done with the mandatory “break” from mid-August to mid-September to welcome students, things get usually very busy in October and November.

This year is no exception with Higher Ed Web in Cincinnati, OH (Oct 10-13), Educause in Anaheim, CA (Oct 12-15), SIM Tech in Las Vegas, NV (Oct 20-22), eduUI in Charlottesville, VA (Nov 7-9), the AMA Symposium in San Diego, CA (Nov 7-10) and a few CASE conferences.

So, why am I talking about SIM Tech in this post?

As I explained in my email newsletter last Tuesday, this year’s SIM Tech conference is a must-attend for anybody who is serious about using web analytics in higher education.

Avinash Kaushik, the guy who actually wrote THE book (actually 2) on how to use web analytics and coined several of my favorite phrases about analytics (I love his definition of bounce rate: I came, I puke, I left) will be giving the keynote. As soon as you’ve learned a bit about Analytics, you understand that this great expert has made a tremendous contribution to this field. He is the real deal. Believe me.

I’ll have to follow in his footsteps – I’ll be speaking about a topic dear to my heart: the higher ed analytics revolution I’m trying to nurture (well, fuel might be a better term for a revolution) – and I cannot tell you how stressed and excited at the same time I feel. Imagine talking about a project to walk on Mars after a keynote on the topic by Neil Amstrong. Fortunately, Shelby Thayer from Penn State University – who has been working on the revolution as my lead expert and presented several webinars about the nitty gritty of Analytics for Higher Ed Experts – will offer some support and expert insights. The goal of my session is to give you the talking points, tools and resources necessary to get you started and rolling with Analytics in a higher education context.

Jessica Krywosa from Suffolk University and Rick Allen from Babson College will co-present a session on how to get from your “business” (or institutional if you prefer) goals to the success metrics you’ll need to track. They will talk about strategy and how analytics can give the answers to the questions that matter for your institution.

Joshua Dodson from Lincoln Memorial University will show and tell all the nitty gritty advanced options to use Google Analytics to its fullest and automate some of the work.

If you attend SIM Tech this October, you’ll leave Vegas with all you need to not only get started with analytics in higher education but to go really far.

And you know, what’s even better about this conference?

You’ll also get to hear about other big topics in higher ed web communications and marketing (content strategy, facebook, Foursquare and Cie, etc.) in just 3 days.

I hate to say that (because it’s organized by a vendor – and if you’ve been reading this blog for some time you know how I love to stay away from higher ed vendors especially on this blog – blame my previous-life journalistic background) but this is the kind of conferences I would have like to put together. The speakers are hand-picked for their expertise or their insights – and that’s exactly what I try to do when I design a webinar series for Higher Ed Experts. It’s probably not a coincidence that several of Higher Ed Experts current and past speakers will be at SIM Tech: Tim Nekritz, Dave Olsen, Michael Fienen, Karlyn Morrissette, Nick deNardis and Shelby Thayer.

Have a look at the speaker line up and the program, you be the judge.

If you decide to go, try to register before tomorrow (August 31st – it’s the end of the early bird).

And, if you can fly to Las Vegas and book your hotel, post a comment below to enter today’s conference pass give away. I got a single pass to offer to the readers of this blog (that is if you made it thus far, I guess ;-).
No need to tell me anything special to get a chance to win, just post a comment. I’ll do a simple drawing and post the winner name tomorrow at 12PM ET at the top of the post.

Disclaimer: You should know I’ve tagged the links to the conference website mainly to walk… my talk – hey, I’ll be speaking about analytics – and not because this post is a piece of hidden advertising (I’d also like to find out if what I tell you push you to act in any way). While I was asked if I could mention the conference in a blog post, I chose to do so because it looks like this conference – especially with this year’s focus on Analytics – deserves it. If it doesn’t, I’ll make sure to blog about it to let you know ;-)