Blog: Jill Dyche

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TDWI Cuts the Mustard: Success in San Diego

In which Jill reminisces about attendees of her anchor class, catches up on the buzz, and congratulates TDWI on another successful event.

Last week’s TDWI conference was a huge success. I know I say that about every TDWI conference, but this one was jam-packed with content. With over 800 attendees (remember, this is a quarterly conference, so that’s big) and an awesome collection of instructors, TDWI has truly claimed its place as the de-facto educational resource for all things BI. And, for that matter, beyond BI (see below).

I taught my BI from Both Sides class on Monday. Out of over 150 people a full third of the audience identified themselves as being on the business side. Actual BI teams from four different companies attended the course together. When teams of developers and end-users attend my classes I often find them reviewing topics at the breaks and whispering between themselves as I present—the latter usually occurs when I make the point that the business side is accountable for cost-justifying BI.

I never get to go to as many sessions as I want to, but I dropped in on the Executive Summit (buzz: Data Integration is the Number 1 area of interest among the business executives attending the summit). I also heard nice things about a new class: Overcoming IT’s Image Problem.

I also sat in on Evan’s class, Beyond the Data Warehouse: Architectural Options for Data Integration. When TDWI first offered this course there was some nervosa since Evan covers a range of technologies—from Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), to Web Services and Master Data Management (MDM) hubs—that could be considered alternatives to squeezing all your data onto a single behemoth EDW. Evan’s audience was large, engaged, and several attendees—obviously in the thick of implementation—kept Evan busy at breaks and lunch discussing their immediate needs. The prolific Scott Davis, President of Eyeris, celebrated Evan’s course on his blog. Scott’s a smart guy in his own right, so this was high praise indeed.

Questions about BI and search, Web 2.0, and data mash-ups indicate that BI is undergoing a metamorphosis. Despite the emergence of new technology solutions and platforms, one thing remains consistent: the extent to which you understand your business requirements is the extent to which the resulting technology and architecture choices will cut the proverbial mustard.

Technorati tags: BI from Both Sides, data warehouse alternatives, TDWI, Evan Levy, Scott Davis

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