PASS Business Analytics Conference 2015
On April 20th through 22nd, I and many other speakers will be presenting at the PASS Business Analytics Conference in Santa Clara, CA. This conference is an opportunity for attendees to learn about the intersection of business, technology and analytics.
This is exciting because there’s so much talk about big data, and the conversations tend to omit the business folks; the folks who have to report on the data and make decisions. It feels like a growing chasm between business and the mysterious world of data science.
The BAC Conference is access to empowerment. Business people can see what’s available to them without programming in R or needing to hire a team of data scientists. The Conference is also an opportunity to learn from superstars in their respective fields.
- Lynn Langit: ways to verify business names, addresses and credit status from within Excel
- Avi Singh: PowerView and how it can be used for reporting
- Chris Webb: best practices for collecting and analyzing data
- Jen Stirrup: methods for uncovering the truth, the mysteries and any deliberate attempts to confuse the stories in your data
It’s an honor to be part of this! Also, there’s an overwhelming force of Excel Talent talent in the mix, including:
- Bill Jelen, Mr Excel
- Jordan Goldmeier and Rick Grantham, my ExcelTV co-conspirators
- Rob Collie, leader of the Modern Excel revolution
- Chandoo, the silent tornado
See the image at the bottom of this blogpost.
Click on it and you’ll be taken to the Pass BAC site
to find out who’s presenting and what their topics are.
BACK TO MY ROOTS: BATTLING CRAP DATA
I will be speaking on The Pain and Glory of Data Preparation, that prep work that has to happen before analysis can begin. 
It’s the work that was my introduction to Excel, and the activity that took up most of my time for quite a few years.
This prep work is delightfully grueling.
Reconnaissance
- Investigating data quality
- Identifying and deleting irrelevant data
Strategy & Execution
- Turning messy data into sortable, filterable rows and columns
- Accepting that your data will never be 100% clean, but you still have to run a business
I will be showing how to address some of these data preparation issues and how to use some of Excel’s Power BI tools to reduce time, ease pain and increase accuracy.
If you register for the conference, you can save $150 by using this code: BASPOZ
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s really a blessing to be able to be part of this conference and share knowledge. The drum that I keep beating is that there’s a lot of unnecessary misery, and crap data is the cause of it. Some businesses just plain decide not to do any analysis because they can’t figure out how to get the data clean. So, I thank the PASS BAC organizers for inviting me to speak. And I invite you to register, share this blogpost, and spread the word about the conference so that we can partner in ferocious battle against crap data and its misdeeds.
warrior image courtesy of paintpixel
“It feels like a growing chasm between business and the mysterious world of data science.” Oz, I couldn’t agree more. There is an incredible need for people that can bridge the gap between business people and the expanding data world. Trainers, data analysts, business analysts, etc. I think there will even be new job descriptions in the years to come. On the far end we have brilliant data scientists and programmers who may or may not be able to communicate how valuable their insights are. If they can’t boil down the technical jargon into understandable pieces then they should hire people who can because businesses can be transformed by the proper application of these valuable insights.
KevinLehrbass One thing thing I’ve noticed is that some wiser folks realize that there’s a chasm and find ways to translate or build the bridge–and Excel is wonderful for that. For others, we have to point to the chasm. Their expertise is somewhere else, and we need to guide them through this world of data … over the chasm.