Fast forward three years and what I saw was troubling.

First; there appears to be a huge drop off in attendance levels. At the key note addresses, TDWI use to fill the one of the largest of the conference rooms at Caesars. In comparison, over the span of the two keynote addresses this year TDWI barely filled a room that was a third of the size that it use to fill. The first key note was pretty flat in it’s content and didn’t really go anywhere. The second, presented by Russel Glass (LinkedIn), was great, but there was barely anyone in the room.

Second; every session I attended was sparsely populated, to the count of less then half full in most cases. Rooms were set for 40 -50 people in my sessions and the largest was 35. The draw to that one was Wayne Eckerson, and what he was talking about was a book he wrote 3 years ago.

Third; the sessions I attended were a bit dated, and basic. Maybe it was poor choices on my part, but this was my experience. Data Integration featured nothing new… ELT, Master Data Management, and Data Virtualization. The innovation sessions I attended were okay, but they need refined. They tried to cover a lot of content at a high level, but it needed to be a deeper dive on one or two methods. Most of us left feeling unfulfilled and the content got repetitive. Wayne Eckerson’s class was a discussion about the book he wrote three years ago. To prove the point of how dated that was, none of the people profiled in the book still worked in that role or that company any longer.

Lastly, the vendor situation was abysmal; 2 partners of TDWI were in attendance out of a possible 15. The vendors that are here are all just entering the market and trying to make a name for themselves. It’s great those small vendors are here, but without the major vendors and players there is a lack of excitement. When you have the major vendors skipping your conference it sends a very clear message that the relevancy for them was no longer present and there was no value in their attendance.

On a side note, TDWI tried to get people engaged via social media with a hashtag and twitter giveaway, but the population of tweets came from about 20 people where weren’t associated with TDWI or the vendors who were present. It’s worth noting that at a glance the average attendee at TDWI is over 45 (with a few exceptions) and active social media activity and engagement may be beyond the average attendee’s generation.
One of the major themes of the TDWI World Conference was “Innovation” and I’m thinking TDWI needs to put some innovation in to practice.

So how does TDWI, a subsidiary of 1105 Media, evolve to get data professional engaged again? How do they reengage the vendors to make them see the value in the conferences? How do they remain relevant in a rapidly changing landscape that is all about the data? There are more data professionals than ever before, both technical and business people alike, so how does TDWI tap in to that pumping vein of data passionate people?

TDWI was and is known for their educational content, but it seems to be a bit of “retread” now. Same instructors, with the same classes, with the same technologies. I realize that TDWI prides itself on being agnostic when it comes to vendors and platforms, but one possible solution would be providing vendor slanted walk-through or hands on sessions with these platforms. The trick with these would be to force the vendors to not sell the product, just walk use through use cases and teach us the ins and outs of the product. I liked the Short Sessions concept, but the instructors kept running over. They have to tighten up the content and stop on-time. The injection of some new blood in the instructor ranks wouldn’t hurt either. Let’s get some of the leaders in the industry TODAY in the rooms. Get the folks who are blazing the trail in Big Data, Cloud, Data Visualization and Predictive Analytics and have them build a curriculum around their successes and pitfalls.

The receptions and lunch formats needs to change.  I think the “Sticker Grand Prix” needs to end. I realize it’s to encourage people to mingle with the vendors, but let’s face it; if people want to talk to vendors they will, if they don’t they won’t. The other problem was with so few vendors it was a lot of “hello again, give me a sticker” by the third vendor session. I did appreciate the lack of drink tickets in favor of an open bar. If the vendors and TDWI want to give things away, give them away; but you must be present to win. There needs to be more focus on the networking and social aspect of the receptions; that’s really what they are for… but people didn’t attend.

Perhaps on the night of the vendor reception the vendors should set up “hospitality rooms” and get people moving around like they did in previous years. Maybe some live entertainment to encourage people to attend the reception. In years past Microsoft set up a few Xbox 360’s with Kinect and people came in and played games and socialized.

Maybe it’s time to flip the script and TDWI should have a booth at vendor conferences and events to advertise and reach a new audience. But if they are going to make that investment, they need to be ready to meet the needs of the new data professionals, not the old guard still arguing Kimball vs Inmon.

With that said, the bottom line is people aren’t going to come back to a conference that isn’t evolving and valuable, regardless of age. In a day and age where budgets are tight an expensive conference that is showing me the same stuff I’ve seen previously isn’t a high value proposition.

I did share this feedback with TDWI shortly after the conference, but I wanted to share my thoughts publicly now that some time has passed.

TDWI sponsored the contest, using analytics, to predict the opening weekend for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. HUGE, was not an acceptable answer, so I started to formulate how one would predict such a widely variable number. Here was my thought process, based on the data available and in the end, what I felt in my gut.

I first looked at the past openings for the Star Wars franchise; removing the special editions and re-releases, Using the number of theaters each movie opened in, and what the average ticket price was by year. I also approximated the number of tickets sold ( for an average theater size).

Looking at comparable films (i.e. “Blockbusters”) for this year, I estimated the number of theaters (about 4200) that SW:TFA would open in, and this year’s average ticket price (> $8.15 a seat).

This brought me to a figure of about $176M, which I felt really low. A small sample size of only 6 movies will do that…

Next, I looked at opening weekends for this year, with Jurassic Park being the largest at just over 200 million. No way Star Wars isn’t beating Jurassic park. No way. So where would the difference come in and make this opening remarkable, considering the Disney Machine of Marketing plastering ST:TFA on EVERYTHING.

The last tweaks in the numbers were guesses really.

• Cost different between standard and 3D; I guessed more 3D views would push the average ticket price up.
• Number of repeat viewers, guessing 40%, maybe higher depending on how good it was… but I went with 40%
• Social Influence, if it was good people telling their friend may push the box office $ up. This would be negligible at best
• Generational “Drag-Alongs” (Gen X and Gen Y, who are dragging their kids along for nostalgia). This would only be first views, not multiple in most cases.

• What did the franchise do in the past?
• What have competitors and others in the industry done recently?
• What marketing/awareness efforts are in place and how effective are they?
• What does the customer’s sphere of influence look like?
• What does brand strength do to the bottom line?

Business Analytics
Leadership &Management
Data Analysis & Design
Data Integration

The certification required a series of three tests (minimum) with the first two being the same for all the “tracks” of certifications. The first of the common tests is the IS Core, which tests a broad base of knowledge for general IT/IS laborers. These questions range from needs of a financial reporting system to decoding binary. If you haven’t been in IT organizations for very long you may have a tough time with this test. The second of the common tests is the Data Warehousing Core, which tests general knowledge about data warehousing. Here you will find questions on Kimball and Inmon, full life cycle awareness and general terms and topics as they relate to the practice. The last test is your specialization test, of which you can choose 1 of the 4 listed above, or take all four and get multiple certifications… the choice is yours. I took the Business Analytics test, so that’s the only one I can speak in confidence about. That test focused on OLAP, visualization techniques and data presentation.

I passed my certification tests at the Data Warehouse Institute’s World Conference in Las Vegas in February of 2011. I sat for all three tests during the week, which on top of sitting in the sessions all day, and the fact the conference was in Vegas, made it a challenge in and of itself. Each test lasts a maximum of 90 minutes during which you must answer 110 questions. You also have the option to have the tests administered remotely for an additional fee if you cannot attend the conferences. To actually pass the certification exams you must score a 50% on all three exams (not an average of 50%). If you score 70% or more on all three exams (again, not an average) you will obtain a mastery certification. I scored 61% on my IS Core, 74% on the Data Warehousing Core and 71% on the Business Analytics. I have the option to retake the IS Core to get my mastery, but I don’t think I would fare any better on that test if I were to retake it.

The big question that I get asked is “How did you prepare for the tests?”

Well, I started by ordering the CBIP Preparation Guide from TDWI, but I will tell you that the only thing that it really prepares you for is the testing format because it includes practice exam software. The guide does give you an idea of the types of questions that will be on the test, but as far as strict guidance on what will be on the test; don’t expect that from the guide.

Each sample test in the guide has a section of references, both internet and books. For example, the IS Core exam there is 3 and a half pages of reference materials. I don’t think you would be able to successfully absorb all the information for three tests and even still, the questions being asked will not match anything that appeared in those resources. Truth be told, I never looked at the reference materials and went solely based on my background for a three tests. For the record, I’ve worked in 6 different industries and been doing data warehouse development since 1997.

The other options for preparation are the sessions that are available at the TDWI conferences, I did attend the session on the IS Core and Data Warehousing Core tests, just as a refresher before I took the exams. These sessions are a good indicator of if you should take the tests or not… if you feel comfortable with what is being talked about, you have a better than average change of passing, if you feel like they are talking over your head, just walk away. These tests are designed to test your knowledge that you have gained during the course of your career, and it is not something you can “cram” for and expect to pass.

If you have specific question please email me as I would be happy to answer them as a person who has firsthand experience with the exam process.