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Dave Wells

Quants vs “accidental analysts,” up close

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In just two meetups of data analysts, Dave Wells has seen the quant-versus-accidental analyst rivalry surface.

He is the former TDWI education director and now a consultant and based in Seattle. He’s taken an interest in the last few years in data analysts.

The quants are by far the smaller group, but they’re loud. At the meetups of his group Business Analysts Collaborative, they amount to less than 10 percent of the 150 who’ve attended either event. These are the ones with training, the ones who squeeze all the meaning anyone could possibly find out of data. Their findings are solid.… Read the rest “Quants vs “accidental analysts,” up close”

People who analyze data, collaborate!

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In business, we’ve got data scientists, we’ve got accidental analysts, and we’ve got a million variations in between. Dave Wells thinks they can learn from each other. To help that start up, he’s forming an organization he’s calling Business Analytics Collaborative.

The diversity and fragmentation that challenge those trying to reach this market are the reasons that community building is difficult. Our conclusion is that we need to build the community from the ground up – taking a sort of grass roots approach that begins with local meetups. By stepping away from digital overload and starting locally and face-to-face we can move away from fragmentation while at the same time finding value in the diversity of the analytics space.

… Read the rest “People who analyze data, collaborate!”

What goes on at the Weasku Inn

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If you’re out for networking in the BI industry and keeping score in sheer numbers, you still attend TDWI or Strata. But to go deep with smaller numbers, you try to get into the tiny Pacific Northwest BI Summit, held every July in remote southern Oregon. There’s room for about two dozen people, including press.

It sprang from publicity consultant Scott Humphrey’s file of clients and friends 11 years ago. Then year after year, almost all of his attendees returned. Once you have a seat, you don’t give it up. It’s turned into the BI industry’s Bohemian Grove.