As an organization, it was great to organize a weekend for the fifth year in a row for so many different CRO experts where knowledge sharing is central (but also enjoyment is certainly not lost sight of).

The purpose of Conversion Hotel is to constantly improve our knowledge within the CRO market by sharing it with each other, creating a network that takes the vision and working method of validation and optimization further into the world.

And we are convinced that we also succeeded in achieving this goal last weekend. We look back on a weekend full of beautiful moments, instructive talks and interesting encounters:

Day #1: Trustworthy Experimentation

After everyone was settled in one of the three hotels on Texel, it was time for the kick off of Conversion Hotel 2018 in the keynote hall on Friday afternoon at exactly 2:15 pm. Ton Wesseling opened the event and Annemarie Steen complemented this opening by getting all participants ready for a weekend of experimentation, play, socializing and learning.

The rest of the day followed 7 (!) more speakers, each of whom shared his or her own knowledge about reliable experimentation: what are the pitfalls of confirmation bias (Michael Aagaard), which statistical ghosts to consider (Lizzie Eardley), how does your CRO program grow from the crawl phase to the fly phase (Alexander Fabijan), why and when do you use digital Random Controlled Trials (Chad Sanderson), how to welcome new users (Lisa Pierson) and finally, why do you win when you put your users first (Karl Gilis)

After the final session in the keynote hall, it was time to join all your new contacts and fellow participants in toasting the first day and ushering in the first night on Texel while singing and dancing to the music of Dames Draaien Door.

Day #2: Psychology, team effort and Trump

The amount of knowledge from Day 1 was quickly surpassed on Day 2 with a total of no less than 35 sessions! Thus, the morning and early afternoon alone were filled with unconference sessions in 6 rooms, 8 1.5-hour workshops and 2 open-to-all sessions in the keynote hall.

After a short break (a good time for a nice walk on the beach with hot chocolate), it was time for the keynote by Cognitive Neuropsychology professor Margriet Sitskoorn. And as if there wasn't enough knowledge shared that day, the evening program started with a presentation by the TU Delft Solar Team which proved once again how important the role of the team is within an optimization process in which you continuously strive for gold.

To process all the new information from that day and end with a smile was Greg Shapiro with his keynote “The World of Trump” invited to the stage. And when the many laughs, beers and dances to the music of The Coronas weren't enough there was a special Digital Marketing Pecha Kucha (or Powerpoint Karaoke) at 02:30 especially for the real diehards from Waldorf & Statler.

Day #3: From theory to practice.

During the last day of Conversion Hotel, everything came together. Lea Pica gave a keynote on sharing insights, Erin Weigel shared her experience as a UX'er at Booking.com and Nir Eyal presented how to convert one-time behaviors into habits.

And the same way he opened the fifth edition of Conversion Hotel, he closed Ton Wesseling #CH2018 off by translating all the theory from the weekend into practice: How do we as Conversion Hotel participants take all the insights we gained from the past weekend further into the world? How to ensure that every organization validation Make part of the work culture?

We believe this is only possible as a shared effort. We spent 3 days together listening, sharing, dancing and experimenting: let's use the strengths of this Conversion Hotel Tribe to put experimentation on the program in every organization!

Thank you for a fantastic #CH2018!