Register soon for the Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference in Seattle on October 6th-8th. Why? I can only tell you that last year's event was spectacular, and this year's appears to match up well with the previous conference - at least on paper.
Sure, it has all the geek-out that any other Microsoft conference would have. But I must say that the 2007 version was absolutely geared towards the "business" track. I was literally kicking myself for not even trying to get anyone from the business side of my organization to go. If you can possibly get there yourself to learn about Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence, do so - it's not just about Microsoft's stack. If you can get a "business" guy to go with you - or even instead of you - DO IT. Having them go is much more important than having you go.
Last year's (February) conference was an eye-opener for me. I was just starting to scratch the surface of DW/BI, and didn't even have all the concepts in my head at that point. I'd signed myself up for the MS conference because I was starting to get interested in the technical merit of BI, it looked interesting, it was close (no flight), and relatively cheap. Then my boss signed me up for the Cognos show the week after (because he couldn't go, and found out I was interested in the subject). Well, so much for "starting easy" - I was in for a full-steam ahead experience.
The entertainment to kick off the event was great, but irrelevant. The conference (like most) was arranged into a "general session" to start the day, then breakouts following. The first half of all of the general sessions were informercials for Microsoft's stack. But the second halves were OUTSTANDING. Michael Treacy and Dr. Robert Kaplan were captivating, direct, clear, and unwavering in their presentations that BI can make or break your business. Excellent - and that's where I started kicking myself.
The breakouts were good too - I mixed up some technical with some more business-oriented sessions. Even at that point, I knew I had to fill my brain with an arsenal of "Why do we want BI" answers to bring back to my company. (FYI - I'm still doing that, and won't give up.) I enjoyed the non-Microsoft, non-sponsor ones the most - except for the BI Power Hour, of course. Being new to DW/BI, I thought Microsoft did a very good job of explaining the "problems" that BI intends to solve, the techniques geeks and "the business" can use to solve them, and where Microsoft's products fit in to help.
Going the very next week to Cognos' event, I expected to hear some of the same things with regard to the "problems" and "techniques". I was gearing up to learn more on those topics, sure that I missed some things at the MS conference solely due to the newness of it all. I also expected to learn about Cognos' stack and how it compared to Microsoft's, in order to make a semi-educated prediction on what might work best for my company. On that issue, I was sorely disappointed in Cognos. No session, no brochures, there was nothing at all that told me what constituted a Cognos DW/BI solution. Sure, I heard about "Cognos 8" and "Controller" and their BI appliance, and ... I can't even remember. But nothing that tied it all together - or even told me how they fit together. Of course I understand that it depends on the scale of the solution, and what's desired - but not even a stack chart that shows what pieces address what aspects of the problem? I can't tell you if Cognos has an ETL solution - I don't think they do. (Maybe now they do, being part of IBM.) I can't tell you what "Cognos 8" has in it, or where "Controller" fits. On top? On the side? A precursor? Enough ranting...
This year's Microsoft conference looks equally as good as last year's - but different. This year, they don't have Micheal Treacy or Dr. Robert Kaplan - they have Ben Stein. That made me scratch my head. Sure, he's an economics expert, but most know him as a comedian/actor. It will be interesting to see what he says, for sure - but I question whether whatever he says will be respected by the "business" guy I was able to rope in this time. I sure hope so. Balancing the potentially underwhelming keynotes... the wealth of solid breakout sessions. Every track is filled with what looks to be very usable and informative sessions.
Given all that, I'd urge you to go if your job revolves around BI and touches the Microsoft stack - or has potential to do so.
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