Vlog #4: Certification and Welcome drinks, Conference Day 1 (Tableau conference 2016) #data16
Day one of Tableau Conference 2016: three-hour certification, packing light, badges, merch and even a dance-off at the drinks reception.
- Day one of Tableau Conference is mostly hands-on training, certification and meetups rather than full sessions
- Getting the three-hour certification exam done early frees up the rest of the week, though results take two weeks as it's marked by committee
- Pack a light bag with space to collect merch and badges, plus a pass-through battery pack so you can charge a device and the pack simultaneously
- The expo halls and fringe pub events are the best ways to network and see how others use Tableau
- Grab multiple badges and as much merch as you can while at conference
0:00So day one is normally about kicking off
0:03conference, there's normally no sort of
0:06sessions per se, it's all about hands-on
0:08training, certification and basically
0:11learning. I've got certification this
0:14morning, it's a three-hour exam, it's an
0:16absolute joy kill but I wanted to get it
0:18out of the way on day one. You can do it
0:21during the week or you can do it at the end
0:24of the week but personally I'd
0:25rather get it out the way in advance.
0:27Before heading into conference you need
0:30to pack a bag so I'm gonna take you through
0:32my bag. I like to pack really
0:34light and lean, I like to leave a lot of
0:37space to pick up stuff during the day. So
0:40first up, wallet, very very important and
0:44then I'm obviously vlogging this
0:45conference so I have two things which don't
0:48make my bag light at all. One of
0:50these sort of flexible tripods you can
0:53basically attach them to anything these
0:55legs sort of bend and go around and then
0:58one of these proper sort of
1:01like handles which basically allow you to
1:04angle and hold your phone in any way.
1:07It's also got an extensible stick here so
1:10it's quite handy for doing very basic
1:13shots and keeping the camera far away from
1:16you but also stable so I use that.
1:19Later on I'm actually getting quite a cool
1:22new toy and I'll show you that a
1:24little bit later on. Laptop, I carry a
1:27Surface Pro and then the bag. In my bag I
1:30have two charging setups. I have one of
1:34these Tableau charging
1:36pedals and have some headphones. I also
1:39have another battery pack in there
1:42that's concealed that comes around with an
1:44external sort of charging area. So
1:46this is cool because I can actually charge
1:50this and charge another device at
1:51the same time. It's got this thing called a
1:54pass-through so it will first charge
1:55whatever device is plugged into that and
1:57then charge the battery pack. So if I
1:59ever find any power I just plug my bag in
2:02and off we go. And the rest of my bag
2:05is actually pretty empty there's nothing
2:07else in there I've just basically got
2:09empty space and the whole idea is to
2:11basically make sure you have space to
2:13pick up stuff during the day. So that's it
2:16I'm off to conference I'm getting a
2:18taxi into town it's about a 10-minute ride
2:20I'm getting some breakfast then I'm
2:22going straight into certification so I'll
2:24probably be doing my next video
2:26just before certification and after.
2:30[Music]
2:51[Music]
3:01Okay so I'm just outside the certification
3:04room I'm about to go in
3:05have to switch off everything so I'm doing
3:07a video just before I go in and I
3:09had a great experience I just put money
3:10into the vending machine and it took my
3:13money you should never use a vending
3:14machine at a conference but I didn't
3:17want to mess around with time so went to
3:19use it lost one dollar fifty anyway it's
3:22just for a KitKat it's ridiculous.
3:25[Music]
3:41So I picked up quite a few badges it's
3:44always good to get a good spread I've
3:46got about eight here I've actually got
3:47three of each in my pocket so I don't just
3:50grab one grab some for college as well a
3:52really fun really nice way to show
3:54you're part of the community and some of
3:57them are just cool.
3:58[Music]
4:26[Music]
4:50So that's it that's day one and there's a
4:54few gaps in the vlog so I'm going to
4:55cover those now. Number one is
4:57certification and I think it went well
5:00there's a three hour exam I was in there
5:01for about three and a half hours there's
5:04a bit of setup time understanding what
5:05needed to be done and then I just got on
5:08with it. The results come back in two weeks
5:11with this one you don't get a
5:12result straight after it's marked by
5:13committee so that's an interesting one.
5:15I think it went well we'll have to wait and
5:18see. The other thing about today is
5:20there not many sessions most of the
5:21sessions today are meetups and actually
5:24wants to go to the makeover Monday meetup
5:25but that was a full an hour before
5:28the actual event so it was actually quite
5:31you know difficult to go but there
5:33were fringe events in pubs and so on and so
5:35forth so I still got a good chance to
5:37meet people network and also connect with
5:39the community. Apart from that the
5:41rest of the day was great the reception
5:43drinks were perfect it's a good
5:45opportunity to meet people bar chat was
5:47full in both expo holes and was good to
5:50have a look at both and if you're at
5:51conference and you may be watching this
5:53and it's maybe Wednesday or Thursday go to
5:56expo hall it's really good way to
5:58meet and see what people are doing with
5:59Tableau how they're using it how they're
6:01integrating it and doing stuff. Last but
6:04not least some crazy stuff happened
6:06today not least a dance-off yes a dance-off
6:10at the drinks reception.
6:22Absolutely crazy right and yeah I also got
6:26lots of merch so I've got this hat
6:28from Alteryx it's nice t-shirt and there's
6:30a bandana somewhere in fact I
6:32posted a photo on Twitter with all my merch
6:35on so make sure you get as much
6:37merch as you possibly can once you're at
6:38conference and it's the best way to sort
6:41of get free stuff. So that's it for day one
6:45and once again I'm a bit behind with
6:47the vlogs these are coming out sort of
6:50slowly but we'll catch up eventually and
6:53hopefully you're enjoying the experience
6:54please subscribe to the channel if you
6:56like what's going on I won't just be vlog
6:57ging I do video tutorials as well
6:59and hopefully see you soon.
7:02How many days conference?
7:04It's four days.
7:05Four days?
7:06Yes four days conference so started today
7:08today's day one and we finish on...
7:11Where are you coming from?
7:12I come from London UK.
7:13Oh London?
7:14Yeah.
7:15Very nice.
7:16Yeah.
7:17Use the Lestry.
7:18I've been to London once only in the
7:20airport.
7:21Okay.
7:22Transit yeah.
7:24Transit rate.
7:25Good stuff.
7:28Also it's very big airport.
7:30You should come visit.
7:32[Music]
7:37Your faith will always be part of your life
7:38.
The very first day at conference. Mostly about settling in, discovering the venue and connecting with the community.