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John Santaferraro

The value of small industry events

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Any run-of-the-mill industry event calls itself a failure when just 24 attendees show up. An audience of that size tempts any keynote speaker to flee. The so-called “welcome” reception seems more like a wake for an unpopular deceased. Throughout, a deadly calm fills every room.

Some events of that size, though, sparkle with life. Potential for real, meaningful contact is rich. Interesting conversations last longer. You get to know people better.

The Pacific Northwest BI Summit, held every July in Grants Pass, Oregon, is my prime example. It is the Bohemian Grove of the business intelligence industry. I attended as press for the third time this summer.

“The Summit” really is a summit. For three days in rural Grants Pass, Oregon, attendees are among a few of the BI world’s most interesting experts and some interesting vendors. Four formal discussions take place in the conference room with, this year, four media representatives. Information Management held a live webinar. You’re one-on-one with anyone: on the deck at meals, floating on the Rogue River, croquet on the lawn, or poker at night.

The value is not in numbers, but in the elemental human comfort one finds from prolonged and varied proximity to others. During serious discussions, you notice some who talk a lot without much to say, and others who speak only when there’s something to add. I pay full attention whenever certain people clear their throats, and I catch up on notes while others fill the air. One person in particular is worth watching to see what makes him stop surfing on his iPad.

There’s also croquet on the lawn, and it counts. Did your opponent let you take that shot again? Floating down the Rogue River counts, too. You see the two CEOs reveal their inner pirate. You see the businessman on the beer raft year after year, revealing his inner merchant. You notice who floats in packs, as most do, and who paddles alone. Before long, it’s time for dinner, and you notice a new comfort with those who’d been strangers. Whether you’re actual friends or not with any, your feel for who’s who is better. Familiarity breeds rapport.

The event sprang 12 years ago from the bulging Rolodex of public relations consultant Scott Humphrey. Year after year, counting all experts, vendors, and press, he’s held the number at 24 — which has to do with the Weasku Inn’s capacity, so old world that Clark Gable vacationed there.

At any event afterward, you spot people from The Summit first in any crowd.

This year, it didn’t take long for me to see that recognition at work. The day after Summit closed, a new small event opened. SPARK!, on the northern end of Silicon Valley, is the second in a series from Radiant Advisors — first in Austin, TX, and over the next weeks or months also in Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. It’s low on exotica — none but a faint French accent at the Hotel Sofitel registration desk — but it shows big promise.

For one thing, it’s got what sparked the Summit: good friends. There in SPARK!’s first session was Shawn Rogers, the popular ring leader of several industry institutions and the Summit’s poker dealer. Other Summit regulars showed up, too: John Santaferraro of Actian and Robert Eve of Cisco.

We sat outside at the end of the first day with a new acquaintance, Linda Sharp, author of Customer Relationship Intelligence. We asked about her book, and talked for a while in simple, unhurried comfort.

Radiant intends to keep it small. People more easily ask questions, connect with people who might otherwise float in bubbles they’ve brought with them, such as from the office. Ad hoc communities form for a day, which makes all kinds of discovery easier.

Perhaps most refreshing, Radiant wants to look further ahead than one usually finds at big, established events, to the future of BI. I say throw gasoline on that “spark.”

I take the small-event ethic with me now: One acquaintance made stronger is worth countless fast-forgotten handshakes and five-minute chats. We all promise to be in touch soon, but many of these promises evaporate before the name hits the address book. Instead, give me two or three days with people I don’t know and I may come up with someone I actually remember and talk to again.

This is the heart of business. Sure, big data and the other things we talk about in this industry are things to behold. But conversation is the glue. That just works better at small events.

Getting over the ‘P’ word to expand BI horizons

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Many in the business intelligence industry talk about organizational problems getting in BI’s way, but few talk about them very much.

Scratch the surface of most presentations and conversations — such as last week at the TDWI conference in San Diego — and you find people problems bobbing right up alongside data problems: indifferent executives who undermine BI, short-sighted silo keepers, and IT people who enrage business users with paternalism, to name a few top quirks. If only data were all we had to transform!

One business manger at last week’s TDWI conference in San Diego told me that one of his most daunting tasks during a recent data warehouse implementation was persuading silo managers to release their death grip. For this task, he was on his own. Couldn’t someone have briefed him on the objections he was likely to hear? Or tactics to overcome resistance?

One organization that seems to have solved its people-problem was Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City. Their impressive success with Hewlett-Packard tools was based on commitment to data for strategic advantage and shrewd orchestration. They also had a steady, guiding hand from HP. For example, as Blue Cross Blue Shield built new structures, it avoided upsetting stakeholders by leaving old structures in place for 18 months. (I hope to have much more on that story in the next couple of weeks, thanks to John Santaferraro, HP senior director of marketing, business intelligence.)

Several people in the BI crowd do talk often and thoughtfully about organizational problems. Maureen Clarry, CEO of CONNECT: The Knowledge Network and longtime TDWI instructor, teaches “Power, Politics, and Partnership in Business Intelligence Projects” at every TDWI conference. Participants see for themselves how position shapes behavior. Those short-sighted silo keepers, for example, could flip into data-sharing maniacs if assigned a different position.

Jill Dychè, partner at Baseline Consulting, teaches “BI from Both Sides: Aligning Business and IT,” with strategies to avoid or pave over organizational potholes. She suggests, for example, dodging the perception that BI is “so much data loading and report provisioning.” She writes in email, “We find that the extent to which BI is viewed as a program — with platforms and tools merely components — is the extent to which BI teams are productive and visible in their companies.”

Wayne Eckerson, director of TDWI Research, also addresses these issues, most colorfully with his idea about “purple people.” They are a little bit business-blue and a little bit technology-red, and the purple coloration they acquire lets them traverse the IT-business rivalry.

Wayne spells out some important characteristics for this job, such as maturity and knowledge of technology and business domains. The best are “switch hitters,” by which he probably means to imply that they’re persuasive wherever they stand. In fact, “purple” sounds like a euphemism for another “P” word that Jill actually spells out: politician.

Bad word or not, it’s a critical function. A good politician’s essential function is to coax rivalrous parties into agreement. If that’s the kind of function Wayne sees for the purple people, then they really are, as he says, “the key to BI success” — at least at one level.

Purple may not help much at higher levels. Wayne’s knowledge of of business intelligence is far deeper than mine, but my experience elsewhere makes me think these people are just one of many keys. When I was a sort of purple person myself — in the late ‘90s, bridging an arrogant Web development group and a couple of marketing groups accustomed to full control of their media — my own skill at listening, negotiating, and arm-twisting was only one key. Another key was my boss. At first I had a strong one, later I had an indifferent one, and even later I had virtually no boss at all. I felt like my district shifted boundaries each time, my agenda with it.

One friendly executive suggested I stand up and promote the Web project around the company at any meeting that would let me. He said, “Show ‘em how great it is, and the credit will rub off on you.” Just like a politician running for office.

If I were a purple person today working in BI, where would I go after I’d exhausted training by Maureen, Jill, and Wayne? Most likely, I’d turn for inspiration to books on politics and influence, such as biographies by Robert Caro. Actually, I’ve gone there already, but only because to me politics is a good word. No, you don’t want to emulate Caro’s subjects, just clean and adapt some of the principles they used.

One thing seems clear to me: If purple people, would-be purple people, red people, and blue people are to expand the BI horizon, conversations have to go longer and deeper into the people problems. We start by ending the prissy avoidance of that word that at its best connotes people, perceptions, and compromises: politics!