Aaaand that's a wrap on SuperWeek 2025 - only it's not over yet. Read on!
SuperWeek lives up to its name and well deserved reputation. 2025 was a strong year for real, actionable content. The organisation is a masterpiece, from the pickup at Budapest airport, to the welcome at the hotel, the food, rooms, spa, and the content.
Content
This year saw an excellent split in numbers between client side, vendor and agency side. There's a great balance between business, and technical content - a broad range of interests catered for with deep expertise on show.
The content is light on hype, and heavy on quality.
Observations
AI is not hyped. When the topic came up, it's real world, sensible, actionable take away insight that's offered. For example, Maciek Stanasiuk described practical uses for LLMs, as well as their limitations.
We talk about data collection - not data capture. It may seem like trivial wordplay, but it matters. Considering the ethics of what we do in analytics, respect for users and their data starts with how we address data ingest.
Bandits - the talk on bandits from Matt Gershoff and Ezequiel Boehler (Conductrics), was one of the clearest explanations of multi-armed bandits I've ever heard - thanks chaps, superb work.
Server side has clearly emerged as the de facto standard for data collection. Client side still has its use, but robust measurement cries out for server side data collection.
Best practices are flimsy and don't work. Mandatory, enforced standards are the way forwards. Stop messing about: get it done right from the start, and always.
Standout Superstars
ALL speakers deserve hearty congratulations and thanks for sharing their experience, wisdom and expertise.
Two speakers struck me as particularly impressive. Both presentations were well researched, and well presented. They were both immensely practical. Krista Seiden, ex-Googler, and now successfully running KS Digital. Krista shared a wealth of experience and multiple lessons on working with large enterprises. This struck multiple chords.
Hey, we're doing it right at Duga Digital!
I found myself in violent agreement on multiple occasions. This was a great talk for ideas, inspiration as well as being a huge validation of how we work, and what we do.
See Krista's SPWK TV chat on the talk here. Elena Nesi,The Fairy Codemother, and 2024 Golden Punchcard winner shared an amazing presentation on how we can reduce our environmental impact by working differently, and smarter.
Seriously, how you code in Python does have an effect on the environment. The information technology world is as polluting as the aviation industry in so many key measures - still no where near animal agriculture or oil mind you but every action has value.
Maximise your SuperWeek
I recommend going for the full 5 days. Max out on learning, networking - don't do half measures.
Use the spa - make time to refresh, digest, reflect, and take it all in.
Dietary requirements are well catered for. Talk to the SuperWeek crew before the event. Are you GF, plant based, vege, pesci, restricted by intolerances? Fear not, you won't be hungry, and you will be healthy and looked after.
Document the talks - take notes. LOTS pf notes. Share your learning with your team. Amplify the value to your company. We have a Google drive folder with a pageless document per day with each talk, and slide pics added. Link to the YouTube channel where appropriate.
Golden Punchcard
If you're going to enter, here's some pointers:
Open Source is favourable
Free is good
Pitches suck
Record your demo before hand
Don't make last minute changes to your solution
Broad appeal increases utility - avoid vendor specific solutions if possible
Be ON TIME!
Yes, you ARE good enough
Ignoring most of this advice, Doug offered a server side GTM tag template as we'd just used it to get out GTM certification - didn't win, but we're still pleased to represent and share. The solution provides GTM governance with no extra tagging. There's FIVE integrations in one tag:
GTM
BigQuery
FireBase
PubSub
Slack
And yes, because a message is pushed onto a pubsub topic, many other integrations are possible to power post GTM publish workloads.
Consent Mode without the tears
Heralding the beginning of the end, Doug opened Friday, with our story about how we developed a framework for testing Consent Mode without impacting production data.
Yes, it's possible. Yes, you can quantify the impact on your data - everyone will experience different impacts and all your users are different. The point is to be intentional, methodical and use empirical data to inform your decision making. This isn't legal advice, it's technical advice to help you explain the details to your stakeholders - legal being one of them.
And so to next year
I'd love to see you there! I'm excited to see more SEO represented. It's a data discipline that is in constant flux - highly dynamic - loads to learn - there are some awesome speakers (and DJs!) who'd command a room easily.
Fireside chat - whatever topic comes up, I'd like to see a live stream chat to invite anon questions and points - it'll have to be moderated but that's okay. We'll make sure we have an intimate, cosier setup to encourage participation where through live chat or on the mic.
I hope the vendor/agency/client side split works out again - that's good. I hope to see a broad gender representation too. Everyone is welcomed, appreciated, and supported.
I must try to have only one meal at meal times - THE FOOD IS JUST SO GOOD with so many options! Hard to resist.
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