Alteryx Inspire – Day 1

When I went to the Tableau Conference last year, I felt it was important to spend some time documenting my experience.  Anytime I go to a conference related to my professional aspirations I’m always taken by the wealth of knowledge that’s uncovered.

The Alteryx Inspire conference is a pared down conference with about 2,000 attendees.  It is comfortably housed in the Aria hotel across 2 spacious and open floors.  There are escalators that split between level 3 and level 1 – there’s nice flow to it and plenty of natural light.  Events take place over three days: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Monday is mostly a product training day and the bulk of sessions are the remainder of the week.  Opening keynote is Tuesday.

This year – being my first – I was extremely fortunate to be able to attend and to do the product training track.  This gives me a firsthand opportunity to see how the product company sells and trains on its tool.  Facilitators are typically great at selling the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind something.

Today I sat for a full day going through the introduction to Alteryx Designer.  Not because it was my first time using the tool, but because I believe there’s something very powerful about origin stories.  There’s something you learn in the first 30 minutes that someone who doesn’t have the ‘formal training’ may never pick up.  That happened for me today and it was great to see everything in action.

As an advocate for data-informed decision making the tool is indispensable.  Just by listening to the 100+ in my classroom, it’s scary to witness firsthand the youth that exists with businesses accessing data.  Yes, there have been really great strides, but so many people are just at the beginning.  I chuckle when I hear the typical ‘Excel’ analogies, but the overwhelming majority are nodding with how much they relate to the joke.

I’ve always seen Alteryx as a natural companion for a data analyst.  For anyone out there trying to manage data it offers up a solution.  If only for the single act of being able to see a visual output of the thought process and work that went in to producing a data model.  A data model or report that can be shared, saved, printed (please don’t print), and most importantly: be communicated.  For someone doing data prep, blending, gathering – this is how you explain to your boss what you do.  This is the demonstration of what it takes to be the data wrangler.  This is how you share your critical thinking skills.

I’ve just scratched the surface and have 2 more full days of Alteryx.  One that has already been peppered with amazing collaboration opportunities and sharing of enthusiasm.  The vibe is chill, the people are great, and the mission is achievable.

Tomorrow is another day and an opportunity to take the building blocks and dream of skyscrapers.

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