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Christian Chabot

Tableau is the new Apple again

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Fourteen thousand people looked on earlier this month as Tableau’s new CEO, Adam Selipsky plodded onto the stage. The stage was 10 times wider than at the first conference, an audience 70 times bigger — and a CEO not even a quarter as fiery as the first one. But he seems to be a good fit for Tableau’s new era.

I’ve watched this show every year since 2008, when founding-CEO Christian Chabot paced the 20-foot stage and put on his first tent-revival style keynote. Back then, I talked to many of the 200 or so attendees in the jammed hallways at the Seattle’s Edgewater Inn and heard story after story — most of which went something like this: We had data we didn’t understand, and then someone in our group said we should try this funny tool he’d downloaded.… Read the rest “Tableau is the new Apple again”

Data industry’s breakthrough starts with a smile

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The tweet stream running from Tableau’s presentation to the Boulder BI Brain Trust on Friday morning reflected one dominant reaction: awe. That’s easy when the product is a new shiny thing, but not so easy for number nine. As I said in one tweet, Tableau demos are always thrilling — no less than it was seven years ago. It’s magic, and it’s about time we give magic its due.

The question is what kind of magic? Is it the magic of a car salesman and his “new car smell”? Or is it an enduring magic that “takes a licking and keeps on ticking”?… Read the rest “Data industry’s breakthrough starts with a smile”

Looking for Kool-Aid at the Tableau conference

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It’s no secret that some people hear about Tableau’s passionate users and wonder what all the fuss is about. Back in June, in fact, one skeptical industry analyst tweeted to a Tableau fan, “Pal, you seem to have had a bit too much Tableau Kool-Aid.”

Tableau users I know just shrug. People who say things like that find passion for data suspicious, and there’s nothing you can do for them.

Then Tableau itself invited a delegation of industry analysts, most of them from the traditional end of BI, to its annual conference at the Encore hotel in Las Vegas. The company hopes for their blessing to make that leap across the chasm from early adoption to early majority.… Read the rest “Looking for Kool-Aid at the Tableau conference”