Last week the Tableau Conference schedule came out and our clients have been asking us which sessions we should attend. Instead of sharing that information just with them, we thought we’d share them in a blog post. Enjoy!
Spencer
Since our speciality at Tessellation is driving analytics culture at enterprise levels, it’s no surprise that the session I’m looking forward to most is Honeywell’s Transformation Towards Self-Service Digital Analytics. It is always exciting to hear stories of company’s digital enablement, and I am sure Honeywell’s will be no different. The journey to Self-Service analytics is never the same for any two companies, which is all the more why I am excited to hear this talk. Every industry and company has their own unique challenges in changing their analytics culture, and understanding those challenges is an integral part of finding proper solutions. I am looking forward to hearing the unique use cases, challenges, and solutions that Honeywell encountered in their Self-Service analytics journey.
Contrary to popular belief, I have a life outside of working at Tessellation, which is why I am so excited to see the MONEYBALL! Real Time MLB Analysis using K3 and Tableau. Honestly, I have no idea what K3 is, but part of going to conferences like these is gaining exposure to concepts and tools you’ve never heard of! The topic is right up my wheelhouse and the things they are doing with Tableau as it pertains to Major League Baseball is sure to provide me with some inspiration.
Lastly, I am headed to the #SportsVizSunday – LIVE session, and you should too! I, along with Simon Beaumont and James Smith, are the co-founders of #SportsVizSunday, a Tableau community sports-based visualization initiative. This session will include interactive quiz games and viz challenges that will be sure to entertain. This session is not only meant to be a good time while learning about Tableau, but it is a great way to connect with fellow Tableau and sports enthusiasts. This is the end of my shameless plug. See you all in Vegas!
Alicia
One session I’m really looking forward to is Beyond Design–Secrets for Creating Engaging and Effective Information Experiences with Lilach Manheim and Mike Cisneros. Lilach and Mike are both highly skilled data visualization practitioners who have received well-deserved accolades for their work. They are also engaging and thoughtful speakers who freely share ideas and solutions.
I’m looking forward to being inspired and taking some tips and tricks back to our clients. I was just talking to a fellow Tessellation colleague today about the importance of taking time to consider the goals of the dashboard before building it. A developer can know how to “point and click”–but if the charts are ineffective (i.e., they don’t make sense, they’re not answering the questions the viewer has) then they are lacking value. I’ll be able to make an even stronger case for this after hearing their talk.
Luke
When I’ve been asked which sessions someone should attend I always provide a caveat of “it depends”, particularly it depends on what someone’s goals are. If they are looking to connect with the Tableau community a bit more, I suggest Workout Wednesday. This is something I co-lead with other Tableau Zen Masters and Ambassadors and from previous years there is a great community there to support and meet others in the community. The session is hands-on and requires users to replicate a business-ready visualization in about 30 minutes.
I also recommend one of the last sessions of the entire conference: 3, 2, 1… Go: two minute tips and tricks. This is a session I’m co-leading with Tableau Zen Master Jeffery Shaffer. In the session were focused opening the curtains on some more elaborate visualizations and how you can build them faster. These tips combine art-of-the-possible with challenges most of us face on the day-to-day.
I’ve also got to recommend the speed tipping session led by Ann Jackson and Lorna Eden.
Finally, and more generally speaking, I really, really enjoy going to the sessions that are focused on building analytics centers of excellence. These sessions are great at highlighting the dirty work that is required to take an organization’s investment in Tableau as an analytics platform and scale it! I know one great example of this will be the Bank of America Workforce Analytics Teams session.
Baxter
There are a few key areas I’m interested in gaining a perspective. The first is AskData. I will be attending the Introduction to Ask Data session to get a high level overview of this new functionality. The second, is around sales channel analytics. I will be attending the Comcast: Measuring and Visualizing Sales Excellence to understand their holistic methodology around sales analytics. Lastly, in the spirit of fully understanding the value of the Salesforce/Tableau acquisition, I will be attending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Analyzing Salesforce Data with Tableau.
Shaun
Two areas that limit the reach of your dashboards once you have the basics down are design and performance. If your dashboard doest focus on action and takes a long time to load, your audience is likely to go elsewhere for the information or worse yet, send you an email. I’m excited about these sessions, with beginner and intermediate options, to help you deepen your skills. Check out these sessions (links require TC19 registration)
Performance:
- Beginner: Vroom! Vroom! Performance Tuning Your Dashboards
- Intermediate: Best Practices for Dashboard Performance
Design:
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