This was my first year attending the
Tableau Conference. Luckily for me, the event was held in my hometown of
Seattle, just a few blocks from the office. The event turnout surpassed
previous years by far, and provided for a lively atmosphere. Originally kicking
off 7 years ago with 180 people, the conference had grown to 3000 last year,
and then to 5500 attendees this year.
The keynote speakers at this year’s
conference had some great choices, consisting of Niel DeGrasse Tyson, Hans
Rosling, Michael Lewis, and John Medina. It was interesting to hear from such a
diverse group of individuals, for whom much of their successes stem from data
analysis. Of the bunch, Michael Lewis seemed to have been the least relevant to
the conference, as he only wrote books on other individuals who were
revolutionary in their data analysis, and stated that he did not care too much
for the actual data himself. On the other hand, the remaining three work with
data on a day-to-day basis, and were able to speak a little bit more
passionately about what analyzing it meant to them. I suppose Michael Lewis is
one of the more famous of the bunch and provided a celebrity factor to help
lure attendees.
There were over 270 breakout sessions that comprised
of hands-on training sessions for various features in Tableau, demonstrations
of how various companies such as Netflix use Tableau for data analysis, as well
as a variety of other types of sessions regarding Tableau. The conference
agenda did a good job of specifying the skill level, content type, user type,
and industry that the various breakout sessions were targeting. This helped me
determine which sessions were most relevant to my interests. Tableau also
released the Data14 app, providing a very convenient way to keep track of the
time, location, and any changes or cancellations for the breakout sessions.
A downside to the breakout sessions were
how quickly they filled up. Showing up 5 – 10 minutes before a popular session
often meant you were too late to get entry. For those that are planning
attending next year, I’d recommend arriving at the sessions you want to get to
at least 20 minutes early because they fill up fast. Leave other sessions 5 –
10 minutes early if you have to in order to do this. Perhaps Tableau will do a
better job of estimating the turnout for the popular sessions next year and
plan accordingly. Another thing I noticed was the limited number of
opportunities to socialize with fellow event attendees. Aside from possibly
striking up a conversation with someone over lunch, there was only one
organized socializing event. It would’ve been nice to get to know members of
the Tableau community a little better.
All in all the conference was an enjoyable
experience and I look forward to next year’s conference. See you all same time
next year in Vegas!
No comments:
Post a Comment