MeasureCamp Training – An Attendee Perspective

MeasureCamp Training Workshops are on sale now –  Rosie Parkin explains what makes these sessions so unique.

Training is great.

Ah, no, wait… Training for skills relevant to my job is great.

Oh. Hold on a minute… Training for skills relevant to my job with an expert who really knows their subject is great.

No, No. Hang on… Training for skills relevant to my job with an expert who really knows their stuff and is up to date with current trends in digital analytics AND doesn’t cost enough to suck up my *entire* yearly training budget is great…

I could go on, but mercifully I won’t.

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Having worked as a self-trained, lone wolf Digital Analyst in the charity sector for the past two years I am painfully aware of the scarcity of high quality but affordable digital analytics training courses out there.

In the short period of time I’ve been in this role, the world of digital analytics has progressed leaps and bounds with things only set to evolve further. Picking up and refreshing skills is a vital part of the job and there’s only so much that you can learn from Avinash/Simo blogs and Justin Cutroni videos, fantastic as they are.

Those with big teams and big budgets shoot ahead of the game whilst we with big dreams but smaller budgets inevitably fall behind the curve – which in today’s competitive market can be fatal.

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When I came across the Measurecamp training sessions last year I must admit I was ever so slightly shocked and a tad suspicious…

A selection of half day sessions covering subjects such as R programming, Adobe Analytics, and Predictive Analytics delivered by top practitioners for the bargain basement price of £60 quid per session or £100 for two…? This must surely be a scam – right??

But as my line manager said at the time – “for £100 you can’t really go wrong can you” – so I signed up to two sessions, charged up my laptop and hopped on the Victoria Line.

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First impressions – the venue was great and easy to find, the organisers were friendly, and *most importantly* the tea and coffee making facilities were outstanding (we charity bods tend to live for the smaller pleasures in life!).

The morning session on KPI and objectives setting began and we all introduced ourselves. The group was a good size (about 12 of us) with a decent spread of backgrounds there – some client side, some agency side a mix of UK and international attendees.

Alec Cochrane who gave the session knew his content inside out and made sure the key course takeaways had practical applications. There was a good deal of group work where we applied the session principles to our own organisations. By the end of the session I had an entire business objectives and KPI framework to take back to my department. I was going to be popular on Monday!

If I thought the tea and coffee facilities had been good, the lunch just about blew my socks off. If you ever need to locate people who work for NGOs at a conference – you will find them at the free buffet. Even better was the rare opportunity to talk to fellow Digital Analysts from other sectors and gain invaluable insights from their ways of working. Bonus.

After lunch it was off to my second session on R programming for web analysts – an area I must confess I previously knew nothing about. Luckily we were able to really hit the ground running as our excellent trainer Richard Fergie had sent instructions for installing the necessary packages a week prior to the event.

Again there was a mix of backgrounds and abilities in the group, but by the end of the course we all went away with an understanding of the nuts and bolts of R as well as the ability to extract data frames from our own Google Analytics accounts. Armed with comprehensive online course notes – the statistical programming world is now my oyster. Winner!

With brain busting at the seams, the day ended with us all tramping over to the pub for a drink and some friendly networking. Without doubt the biggest selling point of Measure Camp in general is the amazing, open community attached to it. In isolation personal progression can be pretty glacial, but plugged in to such a great wealth of experience you can’t help but instantly pick up a trick or two.

It’s true, training is great. But Measure Camp training is excellent.

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