EMDAY2021 : the summary of THE emailing event in France.

Sunday, November 07, 2021

9:46 AM: my big girl just threw up her lunch. A friend I met during the weekend had some kind of gastro. I hesitate to call Jonathan to tell him that it smells bad, and not only that... But let's let the night pass.

Monday 08 November 2021

06:47, am: the alarm clock rings, no particular problem during the night. Everything seems to be going well. It's the big day! The Day of EMDay 2021After a session 2020 postponed for a trifle, I will not dwell on that.

08:23, am: I'm desperately trying to print these p*taaaaaaaaiiinnns of sheets to have a written support for my presentation on Dark Mode in emailing, but my printer takes 15 minutes to print a single page. The wheel is turning.

09:55, am: Régis Bacher, organizer of the event, calls me to inform me that my PDF file crashes the machine for the prez... I take a Xanax.

09:56, am: I discover the message on WhatsApp from Jonathan, telling me that he won't be able to be present at the event after all, and that he counts on me to replace him on the iOS 15 conference and caching... 1TP4StressMonté 1TP4I'm going to change my lesson

10:45 am: There will be no bus transportation for me, I take my car and here I am at 145km/h on country roads. No, I'm kidding, I can't even reach that speed with my car.

12:16 am: Arrived at the beautiful castle of Cély, I park on the Golf's parking with my polo 1.4 TDI, neon tuning out. I don't know why, people look at me strangely.

12:19 am: I enter the reception room, where I find Régis Bacher and Bruno Fridlansky who reassures me: the PDF presentation works! Finally so much the better, because my conference starts in a few hours, and I still haven't eaten, so good... A very good first meal, where we talk about social networks content, email strength, strategy... And this is only the beginning!

1:00, pm: First plenary conference of the day on the topic "Expiration dates in emails, where is the project at?", animated remotely by Jonathan. What a pleasure to see this project carried in front of experts and the main people concerned by the subject! The enthusiasm seems to be there, it's cool! I'm drinking an energy drink to relax... It's relevant. And this Jonathan, what an ease, what a presence, even from a distance, it's crazy !

2:00, pm: Second conference, this time of Gabriel Gastaudfounder of the solution ViaRetinaon "Visual Attention & Conversion - from opening to clicking, decipher the user experience". Exciting, in a word. Gabriel is very comfortable on the dance floor, and the bar is high. However, no Limbo on the horizon. I take the opportunity, as a transition and to get used to the looks of the audience, to ask a question about the Dark mode and the evaluation of the design change with the possible modifications on the developed solution. Trick question, I am petty, but Gabriel is imperial.

3:00, pm: This is my turn. I breathed into a plastic bag a few times just before, to relax, and here we go. The topic? "The dark side (all about dark fashion and email)". The audience seems to be receptive to my jokes, and I get a few questions from behind the scenes. I'll skip the details, it will be the occasion to write a new article in the next few weeks.

3:45 pm: break, coffee or pee, it's up to you. We start chatting in the sun, exchanging and sharing... And my God, I love it!

4:00, pm: "ISP Open Forum: what we want from advertisers and why". Yves-Marie Le Pors-Chauvel is at the helm to lead this round table on deliverability around Mathieu Girol from Validity in video (I hope that your dog is better), Stéphane Decamps from Vade (I hope your leg is better)Arian Journiac of La Poste, Alain Doustalet from Orange (I hope your retirement is going well)and Minh-Ha Nguyen from Signal Spam. Very instructive, a constructive and well-shared exchange, questions to the tequet ... The foot!

5:00, pm: "Open forum for routers: everything that has happened in the last two years". Still Yves-Marie at the mic management, and a more technical subject, much more oriented to deliverability, with Simon Bressier from Sendinblue, Stéphane Bricard from Dolist, Axelandre Zibrick from Mailjet-Pathwire, Laurent Garnier from NP6 and... A big surprise! Laura Villevieille from HCL Unica. I admit that all the specificities discussed are a bit more complex for my mere mortal mind, but boy does it swing! And at the end, I take the opportunity to ask 1 question (not at all on the déliv', Off-topic, 6-0, 6-0, checkmate) Why do routers modify the HTML/CSS code imported when creating an email from scratch? Well, I didn't get it. Too bad, I'm still plugging the Github repository we created on this topic.

6:30, pm: relaxing moment. I take the opportunity to go back to my room, call Jon' to understand the subject to be discussed the next morning, and take a shower. No time for the swimming pool, but there are some johns available... So, you know everything. I miss the Speed Dating... Thank you Jonathan, I counted on packing well though, I had already planned my question cards and everything... Ah, I am told in the earpiece that we are not talking about the same type of Speed Dating...

8:00, pm: It's time for an aperitif! Aperitif, aperitif, aperitif! I find Philippe Carron from Cifea Marketing with whom I talk music. Because yes, we don't only talk about email at the EMDay. But also, Kenza Zahraoui from Release. What a joy to find her! But still Dominique Vrignaud and Karine Weber from Ouest France. Dominique's passion for email fascinates me... It's like being in Inception. We take the opportunity to talk of the Boss, the email builder of BadsenderThanks to Dominique, we're all set until the end of 2022. We also had the opportunity to meet Leslie Ranchon from MetaThinker, EMDay supporter: but time flies, and it's already time to eat.

20:30, pm: See you soon! A good souplette, beautiful people (I think so)and the dinner turns into a passionate debate: good delivery practices, tips and tricks to know, sharing experiences (good or bad)and then private discussions that will remain... Private. What happens in Cély must stay in Cély.

10:00 PM: It is left for a moment of relaxation: well yes, we worked well nevertheless, it is necessary to admit it. For me, it will be billiards. Where I take a beating against Jean-Carol, Kevin and William (respect guys)Stop it, I see where you're going with this, don't start me on that sandy slope. For others, it will be karaoke (I know Ronan PellegriniI know... Shame on me ! ;))Or darts... Or bar. I finally end up in front of the Netflix channel "Feu de bois", posey, throwing a ball and betting on the red "OOOOnnnzzze" without ever winning. Special dedication to Dominique and Karine, who will know what I mean.

Tuesday, November 09, 2021

01:30, am: I walk back to my room, in the wet and penetrating cold of a November night. What do you mean "already? Hey, I have to sleep a minimum, I have a prez' to ensure me in less than 8h00 ! And I'm not an expert on the subject I'll have you know! Oh!

08:10, am: waking up in a hurry, a coffee, two chocolate rolls (or chocolatine, it's up to you, I'm for inclusive writing, nothing to do with unique son...)And here we go, my dear!

09:30, am: "Privacy and caching by iOS15 / Applemail, the impacts on marketing". Fortunately Mathieu Marnat from SendinblueI'm a quiche, so I'm co-hosting this conference with me. But so be it! That's life! If you want to know a little more about the subject of the arrival of iOS 15 and Mail Privacy Protection in Apple MailJonathan had written a very complete article on the subject. Mat' explains how Sendinblue tries to warn its users about the subject, and how to think differently about the opening statistics, how to manage its assets/inactifs... Frankly, a good time, with a guy who is good at it!

10:00 am: "Are email KPi's reliable?". Big topic. And a real lesson in occupying space by Ardavan Beiguiwho is very comfortable with the subject, who makes us participate, who makes us question ourselves, as to the real usefulness of the figures that we have the bad used to use. It's a crazy thing, it's really fun to discover the new KPi's that Ardavan proposes to use. Even if the subject seems to be debated! Maybe we'll make a separate article about it...

10:30 am: a quick coffee, an energy drink, some candy... My sugar level is at its peak, my teeth are fucked, I'm going back!

11:00 am: This time, it is Bruno Florence from Pinion enamel who developed a video conference entitled: "Churn management, an essential element of outbound marketing". Slides full of examples, and advice above all, a joy! In addition, we've talked about it so many times on our blog (here, here and here). Well, to conclude, I'm getting carried away and asking the following three questions: "With the 102kb limit on Gmail or 155kb on Orange, is my email still RGPD compliant if my unsubscribe link were to be truncated?" - "Why is the unsubscribe link in email builder platforms usually positioned at the bottom of the email all of a sudden?" - With phantom clicks from spam bots, is it better to plan a multi-stage unsubscribe if ever the robot clicks on the link of desabo? And what's more, they took the time to answer me. What more could you ask for?

11:30 am: Last plenary conference before the workshops: "Can we make money with editorial newsletters? Yoann Lopez from Snowball, Eric Dupin from Citronium, Edmond Espanel from Brief.meand Jean-Philippe Godement from Webedia. It is Bruno Fridlansky this time, which animates and relaunches the debate. The sharing of experience of these enthusiasts is very rewarding! We had discussed a little on the theme in one of our lives on the return of the newsletter. Anyway: I leave there saying to myself that "well, why not Badsender? No, I'm just kidding, don't panic, we stay on the current format...

12:30, am: It's lunch time ! I fill my belly with pasta to stay attentive for the afternoon workshops... Is this the right method? I don't know, I'm not a nutritionist.

2:15 PM: First workshop, which seduced me to the highest point! First of all, because the subject interests me a lot: "Innovation & Minimalism in email". Secondly, because the 2 people leading it are Damien Devisme and Thomas Leroyfrom Dartagnan. And having met them the night before, I already love them. All I have to do is share a Get 27 and I love people. That's just the way I am... And the content lives up to my expectations! A few tips and examples of email minimalism with campaigns from Galeries Lafayette, polished to perfection. A slightly more technical section on carousels: I've written an article on carousels in emailing by the way, the world is a very busy place! And a permanent exchange during the workshop, with questions coming from everywhere! So, it's already the end, and I would have liked to exchange so much more...

3:15 PM: So in fact, the workshop "Preparing and optimizing the deployment of your international campaigns" of Leslie Ranchon from MailThinker I was interested. But I won't lie to you, I didn't go. How lazy I am! It's bad, but I sat down for 5 minutes, to check my emails and work. Then to talk with the organizers about the next EMDay session. But I only got positive feedback about the missed workshop. Maybe we should invite Leslie to a live session on Thursday to talk about it? What do you think?

4:30, pm: A last coffee (I must be at 2.5 liters, my blood pressure is at its highest)A cookie, and it's already time to say goodbye. The buses are there, some cabs sometimes. The pile of travel bags is getting smaller. I hold back my tears. I have the impression that it is the end of the vacations. But at the same time I am happy that the bell rings. Because let's not kid ourselves, we're finally at work. A few right-to-left checks, and I take the road again in my carriage which, surprisingly, was not considered at its right value... (Voiturieeer!? Where's the Polish shot?). I leave with a head full of ideas about emailing. My notebooks filled with diagrams and notes on strategy, design and deliverability. My bag overflowing with goodies and bottles of Alsace wine. Emailing, I love you. EMDay, I love you.