5 (More) Reasons I'm Pumped for MIMA Summit 2011

Last week Arik Hanson posted five reasons he was pumped for this week's MIMA Summit 2011. Later that day, Greg Swan followed up with five (better) reasons he was pumped about MIMA Summit 2011. Turns out, I too am excited about this week's 10th annual gathering of one of the largest and oldest interactive marketing associations, so I've put together five (more) reasons I'm pumped for MIMA Summit 2011.

1. First Time for Everything

This year marks my very first MIMA Summit. I've never had the experience of seeing legendary past keynotes such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Baratunde Thurston or Seth Godin or seen the marvel that is one of the largest gathering of marketing professionals in the state of Minnesota. This week all that changes as I attend my very first MIMA Summit.

2. Avinash Kaushik is Coming to Town

Avinash Kaushik is the Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google, co-founder of Interactive Marketing education company, Market Motive, and author of the best web analytics blog and multiple books on the subject. Avinash gives common sense advice on how to incorporate measurement, accountability and customer centricity into any online marketing endeavor. If you haven't heard of Avinash, then you'll want to pay extra close attention to his morning keynote.

3. Learning and Blogging about Search and Social

I'll be covering the Measurement, ROI and Search track of Wednesday's breakout sessions for the MIMA blog, which will focus strongly on the measurement of social media as it relates to content and search marketing. This track includes incredible industry thought leaders such as Chuck Hemann, Marty Weintraub and Rand Fishkin (check out my interview with Rand on the MIMA blog!), and promises to be full of information on the ever-evolving space of search and social media.

4. Workshops, Workshops, Workshops

Many conferences are light on content and heavy on self-promotion. MIMA Summit 2011's Tuesday Workshops promise to bring a healthy dose of hands-on instruction to the thought-leadership and networking portions of the agenda. As a Google Analytics nerd, I have my eye on the Beyond Traffic in Google Analytics session, presented by Jeff Sauer. Jeff is partner at St. Paul's Three Deep interactive marketing agency, one of the state's few Google Analytics Authorized Consultants and #6 on the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal's recent Fast 50. These workshops are sure to give immediate tactics in addition to strategic insights.

5. Something for Everyone Interactive

There are experts across many disciplines of marketing set to speak at the MIMA Summit 2011. From local experts such as Arik Hanson, Greg Swan, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, and Lisa Grimm to national names such as Wired's Chris Anderson, Facebook's Sarah Cancilla, and comScore's Brian Hayes, I continue to be amazed by the number of big names set to speak this year.

Are you going to MIMA Summit 2011? There are still tickets left if you want to register. What reasons do you have for going? Let me know in the comments, and I hope to see you there!

Comments

[Jeff Sauer]

Thanks for the shout out Josh - feels weird to be mentioned in such elite company. Looking forward to seeing you at the Summit!

[Josh Braaten]

They really did an amazing job putting the speaker list together this year, didn't they? I'm looking forward to seeing you too, Jeff!