Brion Hickey | C Level Optimization

Brooks Bell Interactive (BBI) held an optimization conference in mid June (Click Summit, Sponsored by Google). If you don’t know BBI- you should www.brooksbell.com. If you never met Brooks, make it a point to introduce yourself. Brooks is pretty easy to find completely ingrained into the analytics/optimization world, ensuring she is on top of every new technology and technique. Her agency is located in Raleigh, North Carolina, and you will find Brooks and her team to be equally as charming as Raleigh itself.

I was invited to speak at Click Summit only to find out the format was surprisingly unique. Sessions for each topic were not the typical, speaker speaks, visitor listens, few nervous questions and out you go (with all the interesting questions being asked, never answered or shared as people funnel out). Moreover, the exact opposite is what took place as my speaking engagement began. Brooks requested that each speaker ask questions to the audience with the speaker guiding the discussion sharing his/her expertise briefly.

Initially I was thinking- An hour and 30 minutes of just asking questions…um? What I ended up experiencing is about 5mins into the first question, everyone realized they were free to address any issue, question or advice relevant to the topic, and it turned into a landslide of information. I had slated about 10 questions, I only reached 6 and our session time went over. We could have easily continued for another hour. By the end of the session, everyone knew each other by name and were familiar with their experience and interest with regards to optimization. The result simply left everyone comfortable, friendly, and engaged, and this continued throughout the day.

The true value for anyone who attends BBI’s Click Summit is, no matter the range or specific expertise one might have, the summit can easily adjust and provide enormous amount of quality information. The takeaways are not flyers, unanswered questions or additional confusion, but a true learning experience for the speaker and the audience.

Click Summit, hope to see you there next year.  (Want to learn more about the summit? Click Here and Here)

Brion Hickey

~ by brionhickey on July 25, 2010.

Posted in Website Optimization