This month’s Stats Society NSW meeting will also contain the national AGM. It will take place Tuesday 23rd at UTS. Details of the talk, on web analytics, appear below. The timing is slightly later than usual to accommodate the AGM at 5.30. Cheers, Michael === Time: 6:15pm - 6:45pm: Refreshments 6:45pm - 7:45pm: Lecture 8:00pm onwards: Dinner (at a nearby restaurant) Venue: Room 430, Level 5, Building 4, University of Technology Sydney (this room is also known as the Maths Grid Room CB04.05.430). Directions: Building 4 is located on the corner of Thomas and Harris Street, Ultimo. The best entrance to use is on the Harris Street side, the one immediately beside the ActiveFitness gym. Speaker: Rod Jacka, Managing Director, Panalysis Title: Why web analytics needs statisticians more than ever Web analytics is all about understanding and analysing behaviour - what people do on websites, on mobile devices and how they engage with marketing efforts. Digital advertising is now mainstream with an ever growing level of complexity and the key reason web analytics needs statisticians now more than ever. Tools like Google Analytics and many others have brought the concepts "data driven decision making" and "a/b testing" into the mainstream but the end users of these tools often lack the skills associated with data analysis, hypothesis testing and grounded statistical literacy. During this talk Rod will discuss what web analytics is in more detail, why its practitioners desperately need more formal statistical skills and tools, and why statisticians should consider this as a potential specialisation. Biography of Rod Jacka Rod Jacka is the Managing Director of Panalysis. He is one of the leading experts in web analytics and marketing optimisation and his company Panalysis was the first to achieve the coveted Google Analytics Certified Partner status in Australia in 2006 and was one of the first companies in the world to do so. Rod specialises in helping people to implement data-driven decision-making processes in their marketing and has made a deep impact on many businesses, government departments and educational institutions.