Last week, some of the InterWorks team dropped by Seattle, WA for DRIVE/ 2017 – a conference for professionals in fundraising and institutional advancement, specifically in the higher education and non-profit space. The conference focused on disciplines like visual analytics and data science as a means of driving important work at the attendees’ respective organizations, which is exactly why we were there.
Our Involvement
Over the past few years, we’ve been quietly knocking it out with higher education and non-profit clients. By attending DRIVE/, we wanted to show others in the space how we could help them along their Data Journey – wherever they might be.
As a conference sponsor, we set up the usual booth where attendees could come and chat us up about their data challenges. InterWorks Senior Account Executive Dustin Thompson, Data Engineer Alex Suarez and myself (Enablement Practice Lead) were all in attendance and greatly enjoyed meeting those who stopped by!
The main event, however, was our sponsored session. The panel session, hosted by me, featured representatives from three InterWorks clients who shared different perspectives on navigating the data landscape:
- Michael Torregrossa, Senior Director of Information Technology/CTO, University of Arizona Foundation
- Brenden Goetz, Data Manager, Office of Information Technology, University of Colorado Denver
- Heather Campbell, Director of Analytics & Data Management, Princeton University
In summary, the session followed the Data Journey from beginning to end. Michael of the University of Arizona Foundation started by detailing how they’ve begun their journey through iterative data warehouse development. Further into their journey, Brenden from the University of Colorado Denver focused on business impact and early user adoption through exciting dashboards and a faster pace. Finally, Heather from Princeton University wrapped the session up with insight on the end of one journey and the beginning of another focused on creating a flexible data environment and expanding business intelligence.
We thought the session went exceedingly well, and we thank those who stopped in to listen! Here’s the final slide of the presentation showing the three different paths (might require some zooming):
Keep the Momentum Going
If you met us at DRIVE/ this year, or even of you didn’t, we’d love for you to get in touch with us about doing more with your data. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re looking for the next big thing, we have the knowledge and tools to help. Just drop us a line!
