The end of January has become a ritual for me, namely catching up with friends in Austin, Texas for Data Day Texas. As always, it was amazing. What I like about this event is the homegrown and genuinely down-to-earth vibe. Free of pretension and vendor bullshit, attendees and speakers can focus on what they care about most - all things data.
There were too many talks to name, and I couldn’t attend them all, so I’m going to play nice and say - all of your talks were amazing! And I truly mean that because the speaker selection process is tight. I play a role in it, but Lynn Bender (the organizer and host) is no joke. He’s very tight about who shows up. There were no weak links in the entire roster. Data Day Texas always has one of the most stacked rosters in the world for data-speaking talent.
About the town hall…some history and context. The Data Day Texas town hall came about in 2023 when Matt and I were supposed to deliver the closing keynote. There were a few obstacles. First, a closing keynote is hit-and-miss. People are tired of being talked at and want to grab a drink and chat with friends. Second, there was an open bar outside of our talk. Who in their right mind would show up to a keynote when they can get free drinks in the hallway and chat with friends? Third, Data Day Texas is the who’s who of the data world. Plus, the audience is there, who had to listen to these speakers all day. What to do?
Thankfully I used to work in nightclubs for years (former professional DJ - seriously), so I thought - what goes well with drinking? Talking! So, we instantly pivoted to a “town hall” where we’d bring up some topics, and the audience would excitedly talk about the topics (alcohol definitely helps). It was such a success, we did it again last weekend. It was even better! Matt kicked off the event with great questions, as he always does. Very lively debates and fun times followed. Toward the end, we had to kick people out of the event. You can get an idea from the image above, courtesy of Lisa Cao (thanks!). Anyway, Data Day Texas is a ton of fun. As Lynn Bender says, it’s a party masquerading as a conference.
What does this have to do with indie data conferences? Quite a bit. I speak at a LOT of conferences, and quite a few of them are vendor-driven. Vendor-driven conferences have their vibe, and you know what to expect - lots of vendor pitches from the vendor and their partners. Everything is very tightly controlled and orchestrated. Nothing wrong with that, because the game is to sell what the vendor is about, and what they’re up to. It is what it is, and it’s fun in its own right.
Indie conferences are a different flavor. They’re often organized by a person who’s putting up the capital and risk. Often, their livelihood depends on the conference’s success. That’s much different from a vendor conference. Indie data conferences are vital to the data community because we want a pure experience where we can hang out with peers without vendor noise. None of us like to be sold to, and we want to hear from our peers in a non-commercial environment instead of a talk that has been curated for months by the vendor’s legal department. As a reminder, Matt and I chose to do a town hall at Data Day Texas on a whim! that minute. That would never fly at a giant corporate event. And that slight change made Data Day Texas that much more special. People love that event, which happened organically.
I hope you can attend as many meetups and indie conferences as possible. Support the people who are supporting the scene of real-world practitioners who have a lot to say, and need a venue to say it in a vendor-agnostic way. This is how we grow as a data community.
Shoutout to Lynn Bender and Alex Law for putting on this event and keeping the scene alive. I’m already stoked about next year’s event.
Listen to the audio clip above on this topic, which is also my 5-Minute Friday on Spotify.
Cool Weekend Reads
Here are some cool things I read this week. Enjoy!
Tech, AI, Data
What Data Modeling is NOT (Practical Data Modeling)
Shameless plug - I discuss some examples of what I think data modeling isn’t…because it’s as important to know what something is as what it is not.
It’s no secret that the era of 0% interest rates meant a bonanza in the tech sector. Now that the money is gone, getting and keeping a job is hard. Really good analysis as always from Gregerly Orosz.
Becoming Data Driven, From First Principles (Commoncog)
“Data is important to the competent operator because data gives you such knowledge. In simple terms, the purpose of data is to give you a causal model of your business in your head. If reality changes, the figures in your business should show it. At which point you get to update your knowledge.”
I’m a huge fan of Cedric Chin’s writing, and he delivers his very well thought out ideas on being “data driven.” Pour a few ups of coffee for this one, because it’s LONG.
Biz, Culture, Other Randomness
“Due to the diversity of stakeholders we serve, their competing strategic priorities, how they get compensated end of year, and personal agendas, its nearly impossible to please all and pick use cases based on Business Value alone.”
Sol brings the heat with her short essay on why Business Value (whatever that is) on its own is a bad way to assess projects and use cases. Sol is one of the smartest and most experienced people I know in the data industry. When she speaks, you should listen.
THE RISE OF TECHNO-AUTHORITARIANISM (The Atlantic)
“Our children are not data sets waiting to be quantified, tracked, and sold. Our intellectual output is not a mere training manual for the AI that will be used to mimic and plagiarize us. Our lives are meant not to be optimized through a screen, but to be lived—in all of our messy, tree-climbing, night-swimming, adventuresome glory. We are all better versions of ourselves when we are not tweeting or clicking “Like” or scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.”
Amen. If you’re sick and tired of techno-elites who behave like they know what’s in society’s best interests (usually the elite’s interest), read on.
HP CEO Makes Up A Whole Lot Of Bullshit To Defend Crippling Printers That Use Cheaper Ink (TechDirt)
As someone who owns an HP printer and uses 3rd party ink, this is a bunch of bullshit.
New Content, Events, and Upcoming Stuff
Monday Morning Data Chat
Coming up…
Michel Tricot, Scott Taylor, and more
In case you missed it…
Benn Stancil - 2024 Predictions, GenAI and Product Development, etc (Spotify, YouTube)
Dave Langer - Dave Langer - Excel in Python, Data Science Without "Data Scientists" (Spotify, YouTube)
Joe Reis & Matt Housley - Ask Us Anything (Spotify, YouTube)
Alex Gallego - Alex Gallego - The Streaming Data Renaissance, Open Formats, More (Spotify, YouTube)
Mike Ferguson - Top Key Trends in Data Management and Analytics (Spotify, YouTube)
Sol Rashidi - Getting Business Value From Data, the CXO Playbook (Spotify, YouTube). Very popular episode with nearly everyone. - PINNED HERE.
The Joe Reis Show
Coming up…
Andrew Meister, Steve Hoberman, and more…
This week…
Roy Hasson - Career Progressions in Data & Tech, Open Table Formats, and more (Spotify)
5 Minute Friday - Data Day Texas, Practical Data Modeling Updates, and More (Spotify)
In case you missed it…
Ari Kaplan - Data Intelligence, Evangelism, and More (Spotify)
5 Minute Friday - Outputs vs Outcomes (Spotify)
Jordan Morrow - The OG of Data Literacy (Spotify)
5 Minute Friday - How I Define Data Modeling (today) (Spotify)
Steve Nouri - Building a Global Data Community (Spotify)
Sol Rashidi - The Rogue Data Executive (Spotify)
Bill Inmon - History Lessons of the Data Industry. This is a real treat and a very rare conversation with the godfather himself (Spotify) - PINNED HERE.
Events
Chill Data Summit (NYC) - Tuesday 2/6 - Register here
Paris - TBA, February 27
Skiers in Data (Switzerland), March 1-3 - Register here
Deepfest (Saudi Arabia) - March 4-7, TBA
Data Universe (NYC) - April, TBA
GenAI Conference (London) - May, TBA
On the Beach (Malaga, Spain) - May, TBA
Gitex (Morocco) - May, TBA
DAMA Days (Vancouver, BC) - June, TBA
(Taking the Summer off)
Australia - Fall, TBA
Europe - Fall, TBA
Asia - Fall, TBA
Would you like me to speak at your event? Submit a speaking request here.
Thanks! If you want to help out…
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You can also find me here:
Monday Morning Data Chat (YouTube / Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts). Matt Housely and I interview the top people in the field. Live and unscripted. Zero shilling tolerated.
The Joe Reis Show (Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts). My other show. I interview guests, and it’s unscripted with no shilling.
Fundamentals of Data Engineering (Amazon, O’Reilly, and wherever you get your books)
Be sure to leave a lovely review if you like the content.
Thanks! - Joe Reis
Totally jelly! I'll have to try and get in the next one. Reminds me of the first Hadoop Summit I went to years ago. Felt like being on a college campus, and so cheap. Quickly became a $3K conference price and very vendor focused 😖
Seriously this is the best data conference!