Conference Season of 2022
Let’s say that after two years of involuntary abundance of virtual experiences we all appreciate that we can slowly start to pretend that meeting in person is conventional again. Therefore I am really happy that I was able to attend Superweek and three very different MeasureCamps this year.
Superweek (31ˢᵗ January — 4ᵗʰ February)
I already wrote a whole article about this super-cool event. Quick summary: there is a huge challenge in front of our industry thanks to increased pressure on privacy. Therefore we need to up our game to stay relevant by acquiring new skills to be able to apply data-driven approaches in the post-gdpr post-cookie world. Topics like machine learning, AI and CDPs resonated combined with soft skills to be able to deliver insights in a comprehensible package.
15ᵗʰ Anniversary MeasureCamp London (14ᵗʰ May)
Mecca of all MeasureCamps with its inspiring atmosphere for all the followers across the world took over the baton and hosted many discussions about privacy and the new development of the tooling available. I myself shared a couple of tips on how to select the right digital analytics solution for your company. Aligned with the current state of the market and our industry, the topic with a large representation is obviously the latest development in Google’s stack that drives our focus more into event-based data models, Consent Mode and heavier data engineering and data science tasks in Big Query.
For me one of the main outcomes of this MeasureCamp was also strengthening my connections with the European community and brands that enabled me to secure sponsors for MeasureCamp Czechia that I co-organize.
8ᵗʰ MeasureCamp Czechia (9ᵗʰ September)
Last two years we were despite the Covid still able to organize an in-person event, but the attendance was obviously lower. This year we managed to get close to the pre-covid numbers and with 150 other peers we had a marvelous event in Brno.
The main topics nicely follow the established pattern — privacy, latest developments in the tooling (GA4) and soft skills. On top of that specifically in Brno there were more topics around data engineering (DBT/Data flow, GCP/BQ,…) and GTM Server-Side.
Together with the support from foreign sponsors and I guess also thanks to realization of the opportunities to communicate with the rest of the world regularly (thank you, Covid), we see a positive trend in opening our czech community to the rest of the world. Number of english-speaking presentations grew significantly and the english language was to be heard during after-parties continuing until the late hours.
As the main organizer of this event I am usually not able to enjoy the whole day thanks to numerous issues and tasks that I need to solve to make sure that everything goes according to the plan. But this year I was able to relax myself by sharing one of my latest passions: hitting the stage with my guitar and performing a recognized pop song with updated lyrics. Hopefully this experience didn’t cause any mental health damage to the participants, because I will probably continue doing this in the future.
5ᵗʰ MeasureCamp Bratislava (24ᵗʰ September)
Our fellow organizers from Bratislava struggled to put up the event during Covid, so this year’s attempt for resurrection ended up being a cozier and smaller event. Thanks to that all the discussions were more intimate and thorough, but without surprise the main topics persisted. How do we cope with having less data and where are the red lines in our daily work — whether it is from the legal, technology or ethics perspective.
Conclusion
I strongly believe that being part of this marvelous analytics community thanks to participating in all these events makes me a better digital analyst and a better person as well. Although it would probably help my professional career more if I’d be rather known for my analytics work, I still find it rewarding to do all the crazy and fun stuff. Let me know what do you think about #BottleOfCourage, #SimcemptionSelfies, #AvinashTravels or #CookieWall.
