Every year, for the past 16 years, something amazing has happened in Austin, TX around this time. And this year hopes to be no different as Austin gears up for its annual South by Southwest Interactive technology conference – an event which can only be described as one of the largest, most exciting, most comprehensive collections of marketing and social web entertainment and technology this side of the Internet.
In what amounts to five days of epic conversations, presentations and social media events disguised as a “technology conference,” the world (and all of Twitter) tunes in to see the Internet trends of the last year scrutinized and the trends for the next year laid out in incredible, Apple-Keynote-quality detail.
How far can testing go?
This year, MarketingExperiments will not only be tuning in, but will take part in this conversation to discover not just what works in email and landing page optimization, but what is working in social media and other areas of the Web as well. In addition to small and large business owners, how are bloggers, designers and the social media crowd testing, measuring and collecting results? What’s working, what isn’t, and what’s to come in 2010?
If there’s ever been an ongoing topic of conversation here at MarketingExperiments, it’s the ever-present question of how far we can go in testing. How do we improve and build upon the tools we have to increase ROI, discover new insights and push the boundaries of online testing to give us more accurate, more actionable results? How will social media continue to change the way we hold conversations and gain trust with our audience online? How will we measure and apply what we learn?
See you in Austin
What better way to seek out the answers to these questions than by employing SXSWi as my backdrop for a discussion on how the Internet will continue to evolve to the tune of testing and optimization, as well as hear first-hand how other marketers, bloggers, and Internet fans in general see online testing influencing the design and execution of ideas on the Web.
And if you happen to see me there, be sure to stop me and tell me your thoughts on these issues as well. Also, ask me for one of my “split test” business cards. More on that later…
