Despite the mouthful of a name, you really will find that the 150 participants of this conference are from all around the world. During the 5-day conference, I met folks from Belgium, France, Canada, Austria, Germany, Australia, and more — all of these newfound friends and comrades banding together in the name of business value and truth from data. For as a mentor once said: “Data always shows something. It’s never right or wrong. The trick is managing expectation versus what you’ve shown.”
Some immediate questions arise about this conference:
- With over 75% of the speakers having published a book and a star-studded lineup including C.J. Date and Bill Inmon, why is the conference so small? The conference is organized by Data Vault Alliance, the governing body of the methodology (which does the practitioner certification). Those folks have been doing this conference for over a decade and pride themselves on keeping the overall “familial” feel of the week.
- Why is the conference in Stowe, Vermont?? Flights into the nearest major airport, Burlington, aren’t as frequent relative to other potential locations. And even once you land, you’ll need to rent a car or take a 40-minute rideshare. This slight barrier to entry helps ensure that only the people who really want to be here, are here.
- Data Vault has been around since the turn of the century — why haven’t I heard of it? The bottom line: it’s hard to implement and it was ahead of its time. Of the three pillars in Data Vault 2.0, most folks building out a proof of concept usually focus on the “model” and skip the “methodology” and “architecture.” When you have a seemingly successful POC and it comes time to scale, these other two pillars are crucial. Neglecting the people and processes portion of Data Vault 2.0 spells certain doom and a frustrated, distrustful business.