Get ready for Tableau Conference 2023 | Virtual and in person.

0:00With a week to go before tablet conference

0:02it's time to dial in, set up and figure out

0:04what you're

0:05going to be doing for tablet conference. In

0:07this video I'm going to help you out and

0:08make

0:09sure you're ready whether you're attending

0:11virtually or in person. As ever let's get

0:13stuck in.

0:13Okay so we've only got a week to go before

0:15conference and what I wanted to do is walk

0:18you through how to make sure you're set up

0:20whether you're attending in person or

0:22virtually. For full

0:24disclosure I can't attend in person this

0:26year, everyone's been asking me this, I

0:27unfortunately

0:28can't go, I just had surgery over a month

0:30ago and I'm really not clear to travel so I

0:33won't be

0:33coming this year but next year my word will

0:35be coming out big. But for now I want to

0:38make sure

0:38if you're attending in person this year I

0:40can help you out make sure you're set up. I

0:42've been to over

0:43five, six, seven conferences in my lifetime

0:45, I've been very fortunate to have been

0:47supported to go

0:48to these conferences so if you're going for

0:50the first time it's almost a duty for

0:52anyone who's

0:53been to conference before to help you set

0:55up because as a first-time conference goer

0:58it can be daunting

0:58even if it's your second or third time it's

1:00not until your fourth one where you really

1:02get into

1:02the stride and understand how conferences

1:04work. Now one other gem I'm going to

1:06recommend right

1:07before we get stuck into this session is

1:09Sarah Bartlett's Tableau Conference Guide

1:112023. Sarah

1:12does these every year, she does a little

1:14bit of a blog post to show you what to go

1:16to, what to know

1:17before you go and it's a great place to go.

1:19It really details everything about the

1:21location, what

1:22you can expect, the keynotes, how

1:24everything is structured, what these events

1:26are in a much more

1:27detail than I've even gone into in this

1:29video. So instead of just you know

1:31repeating what's on this

1:32blog post go ahead and check Sarah's

1:34content out it's absolutely fantastic I'll

1:36link to it in the

1:37description of this video so you can check

1:39it out. Let's hop into the video. So the

1:41first thing to do,

1:42the first thing you have to make sure you

1:44do is you have your details all lined up.

1:46Now you would

1:47have probably lined this up when booking

1:49the ticket but it's an easy mistake to make

1:51, it's easy to get

1:52the date wrong and turn up in the wrong

1:54place at the wrong time. I know people who

1:56've done that so

1:57make sure number one your flights,

1:59everything, check all your details, triple

2:01check your hotel

2:02bookings, make sure you've got the start

2:04dates and end dates all dialed in so you're

2:05not going to miss

2:06a thing. Once you've done all that you

2:08should have registered essentially for the

2:10conference and

2:10there's two ways of registering essentially

2:12if you're buying a ticket you'll have

2:13registered and

2:14bought the ticket that way but if you're

2:16not actually going there's a way to

2:18register for

2:18the virtual conference I'll come to that

2:20very shortly and you can find links to

2:22everything

2:22I'm talking about in the description below.

2:26Now once you've registered you should, let

2:29's just go

2:29over here, you should have a page that

2:31looks like this. This is pretty much once

2:32you've logged in

2:33you'll have a page that looks like this.

2:35Obviously I'm not going to, I've asked a

2:37friend if I could

2:38get their login details to show you how to

2:40navigate this page and set everything up.

2:43The number one thing you want to do is

2:44check all your details are correct. The

2:46number two thing you

2:47want to do is start planning your sessions

2:48ahead of time and the way to do that is to

2:50go to the

2:51sessions tab. Now the sessions are super

2:53important because really when you go to

2:55conference

2:56I always encourage people to go to sessions

2:58that they can't otherwise see virtually or

3:02in person

3:03very easily. What does that mean? Well they

3:05're going to be sessions that are recorded

3:07and then

3:08put onto Salesforce Plus, they're going to

3:10be sessions that are recorded then put on

3:12YouTube

3:12and there'll be sessions that have been

3:14done before and are just being repeated at

3:16this

3:16conference and therefore you can kind of

3:18catch them in previous back catalogs of

3:20conference

3:20content. It's a controversial thing to say

3:23but I actually think don't go to those

3:25sessions because

3:26you can catch them any other place. The

3:28sessions to go to are the sessions where

3:30they're only

3:30happening at this conference, you're really

3:33looking for something valuable from that

3:35specific session

3:36and you want to take something actionable

3:38from that session immediately after. So

3:40go ahead browse the whole session database,

3:43it's really quite robust and you can

3:45bookmark and save

3:46things to your agenda while you're here. So

3:48if I'm not sure about a session I can

3:50bookmark it.

3:50What I'd always say is always underestimate

3:54your skill level for the sessions and that

3:57sounds like

3:57a weird thing to say. If the session says

4:01intermediate or beginner, just if it says

4:04intermediate assume you're not advanced

4:11basically. Because often what happens is

4:15that you'll see a

4:16session, so it will say beginner, you go to

4:17it and actually you learn a bunch of stuff

4:19you didn't know

4:20and so if it says intermediate I think you

4:22should be going to that. Assume that

4:24actually that's an

4:24advanced session and you should be dialing

4:26into that and again if it says advanced

4:28assume it's

4:29like you know S-tier level content and you

4:31should be going to that to learn even more

4:33about it. That's

4:34sort of the best way to sort of move

4:36yourself forward in a conference but also

4:38not miss out

4:39on the really useful small sessions that

4:41you can slot into. The other thing about

4:43sessions is you

4:44want to overbook the sessions. The reason

4:46this is is because you might find yourself

4:48in the wrong

4:49place at the wrong time for the session you

4:51planned to attend. So by having additional

4:53sessions that you can go to it gives you

4:55options in lots of different places. So I

4:58tend to overbook

4:59by about three or four sessions per slot.

5:01That way if I'm in the wrong place and I'm

5:03you know

5:04trying to find what can I do instead I have

5:06some other alternatives. The other reason

5:08you might

5:08want to do this is if the session is full

5:10you don't waste time waiting for the next

5:12round of

5:13sessions you're actually better off walking

5:14to another session. It will only miss the

5:16first five

5:17to ten minutes and you'll still get all the

5:18valuable good stuff that comes normally

5:20towards

5:21the middle and the end of a session. So go

5:23ahead and browse all the sessions you've

5:25got different

5:25filters you can browse by role, you can

5:28browse by industry, by product, by there's

5:31literally

5:32everything in here. It's sort of

5:34interesting that it says by product because

5:36you you'd think product

5:37and tableau product are the same thing but

5:39it almost feels like two separate hierarch

5:41ies.

5:42Just kind of interesting. You've also got

5:44topics, session levels, so this is what I

5:46was saying if it

5:47says beginner and you think you're a

5:49beginner you like to downgrade yourself a

5:52little bit and go to

5:53to the session that would be at that level.

5:55So if it says advanced you know downgrade

5:57your knowledge

5:58to intermediate and go to the advanced

6:00session. If it says intermediate downgrade

6:02your knowledge a

6:03bit say think of yourself as a beginner and

6:05go to the intermediate session. It's a

6:07really sort of

6:08useful trick and I've been to conferences

6:10where you know it I've gone to what is an

6:12intermediate

6:13session as someone who's quite advanced and

6:15learned a ton of stuff and creative ways of

6:18using the product that I would have never

6:20otherwise realized. So not to murder the

6:22point

6:22overbook your sessions get these all done

6:25and what you should then be able to do is

6:27as you build out

6:28your agenda you should be able to add them

6:29to your calendar and then make sure you've

6:31got them on your

6:31phone calendar on some sort of calendar

6:33that you can check because when you're on

6:35conference floor

6:36the data's poor you want to be able to

6:38quickly pull another source of information

6:40so you can

6:41even go to your phone calendar look at the

6:43location and then use the conference

6:45signage

6:46to get yourself from A to B. Super super

6:48handy. Now the other thing to be aware of

6:50if I go to the

6:51schedule are the what I would call the

6:53headline events. Now the headline events

6:55are pretty much

6:57dictated so the key ones are the keynote

6:59which is to this year like last year

7:01together with

7:02devs on stage so keynote and devs on stage

7:05are one thing. You've got ironviz which is

7:07another sort of

7:08keynote item and then you've got the

7:10keynote speakers essentially. So the

7:12keynote speakers

7:12are guests that have come to the Tableau

7:14conference to essentially talk about data

7:17or the culture

7:18around data in their respective industries.

7:21So if you go to this schedule you can see

7:24what those

7:24high level sessions are. So on Tuesday you

7:27've got registration, Tableau Doctor and

7:29then you've got

7:30here main keynote and devs on stage. So

7:32while those are happening nothing else is

7:34going on.

7:35Sessions are not planned around those

7:37events. So if you were planning to skip a

7:40keynote and

7:40do something well don't just go to these

7:42sessions they're really super valuable. Now

7:44trust me you

7:44will see something super useful. The other

7:47thing to bear in mind is where lunch is and

7:49when and how

7:51you should sort of plan your time around

7:53those sessions. Now you'll see that lunch

7:55is actually

7:55from 11 30 to 1 30 but there are sessions

7:59that can run into that specific window and

8:01so if you

8:02want to sort of organize yourself make sure

8:04that you pay attention to those lunch and

8:06food slots

8:07and then if you need some specific help

8:08with certain things for example the Tableau

8:10Doctor

8:11make sure that you put enough time in to go

8:13and do that. With the conference being one

8:16day shorter

8:17this year there is a small risk that

8:18actually you have to compress what used to

8:20happen over four days

8:22into three days. So just be sure you leave

8:23enough time to do everything. So if I go

8:26through the

8:26different schedules here you can see there

8:28's lots of different bits and bits of

8:30information. You've

8:30got the data nights out, you've got ironviz

8:32, data for good keynote. So there's a lot of

8:35things

8:35happening all throughout conference. So

8:37really build out your schedule. I can't

8:39obviously show

8:39you mine and I don't want to mess with Ravi

8:42's here. So I can't build a schedule here

8:45and sort of

8:46you know show you what you should do. This

8:48is really up to you and once you've done

8:49that you're

8:50golden. You're pretty much good to go. Now

8:53if you're going virtually there's still

8:56some

8:56opportunity for you. So let me just open

8:58this up and you'll see that it actually

9:00opens up a new

9:01portal and if I go to this portal it's on

9:03Salesforce+. Now Salesforce+ is the

9:06equivalent

9:07of the streaming platform for Salesforce

9:09and of course Tableau is now part of the

9:11Salesforce family.

9:12This is where you can watch the events live

9:14and so what you can do is you can register

9:16for free.

9:16If I go ahead and hit register you can go

9:18ahead and sign up for free. Now what this

9:21will do is

9:21it'll throw you off to this login and you

9:23'll see that I'm already registered with

9:25Salesforce+

9:25cloud. So I'll go in log in with my google

9:27it will get my details. We'll go ahead and

9:29log in

9:31and then what this will allow me to do once

9:34this is up, let's wait for it, is that it

9:38will add it to

9:38my sessions. Now it's May the 9th to May

9:42the 11th so you might be wondering well how

9:45do I go in and

9:46start to book sessions. Well what I

9:48personally do is put it into your calendar.

9:49It's already in my

9:50calendar for goodness sake so I'll go ahead

9:52and save it and then come out of that go

9:54back to the

9:55event and then we'll go up and close all

9:57these pop-ups that are popping up

9:58everywhere and what

9:59you can see is you can see the sessions

10:01here. So you can you've got the actual

10:03schedule and if I go

10:04over here to the schedule you can see that

10:07all of these sessions are actually dialed

10:09in. So if you're

10:10attending virtually this is what you want

10:12to make sure you dial into and the thing to

10:15bear in mind

10:16is that everything is set up I believe in

10:18your local time. So can you see that it

10:20says 5 45 to

10:226 pm GMT plus one this is because I'm in

10:24the UK. So these are your actual timing so

10:28don't make the

10:28mistake of thinking this is 5 45 in the US.

10:32No this is your local timing this the site

10:34is sort

10:34of smart enough to do that. So go ahead and

10:37sort of figure out what you want to do here

10:40if you want a

10:40specific session you can add it to your

10:43calendar so you can go ahead add this

10:46particular event to

10:47the calendar. If you want to I don't know

10:50go to one of these other events that say

10:52career connection

10:53community let's go to that you can see you

10:56can add those specific sessions to your

10:59calendar and

11:00yeah just keep browsing all the content.

11:02Now the thing to bear in mind here is there

11:04's a different

11:05toggle for each day so make sure you go

11:06through each of the days and you really

11:08sort of try and

11:09find what you're looking for the ironviz

11:11keynote these are the main events but do

11:14remember that

11:14there are some sessions that are only going

11:16to be available in person so you won't get

11:18as full a list

11:19of all the events that as you'd expect they

11:21're only going to be certain things there.

11:23Now if you

11:24go to on demand you can see that basically

11:26once the conference is over there will be

11:28sessions

11:28that you can access after the event and

11:31here the keynotes are essentially think of

11:34it as like a TV

11:35episode so when I click on the series it's

11:37going to show up as these are coming soon

11:39so as soon as

11:40the session is finished they're put on here

11:42and you can watch them after the fact

11:43instead of going

11:44to youtube or something you can come here

11:46and sort of check them out and it's got a

11:47bunch of nice

11:48sofa keys that you can check out you can

11:51bookmark this page but I do recommend just

11:54getting familiar

11:55with this sort of site and just getting

11:56your bearings because one of the things

11:58about this

11:58is sometimes it changes small things and it

12:01's difficult to know okay you know where am

12:03I going

12:03to find that piece of content where am I

12:05going to find that specific talk and if you

12:07can't find it

12:08on here then you know that it's maybe not

12:09being recorded and you can ask ahead of

12:11time rather

12:12than expecting something and then finding

12:13out at the last minute that it's not

12:15available. Now the

12:16other thing I'm surprised I haven't seen is

12:18a slack community I don't know if this is

12:21sort of

12:21intentional but in the past there has been

12:23a slack that you can join and can kind of

12:25get involved with

12:26but I can't see that here and I can't sort

12:28of it's not mentioned anywhere in the FAQ

12:31and it's one of

12:32those things that actually works really

12:34really well at conferences has worked a

12:35Tableau conference in

12:36the past it's also worked at other

12:38conferences dbt conferences admittedly not

12:41the same scale but I

12:42actually think the slack worked really

12:44really well there so it's a super

12:45interesting sort of space

12:47but nevertheless this is how to get

12:48involved virtually. Now I'm also going to

12:51be doing the

12:52usual roundups unfortunately I can't I don

12:54't think I don't think I can do a live

12:56stream of the keynote

12:57I might be able to do a live stream of devs

13:00of sorry ironviz and some of the other sort

13:03of

13:03keynotes but I can't do the keynotes on t

13:05uesday itself for personal reasons so I'm

13:08just not going

13:09to be available so unlike in previous years

13:11I won't be able to do those but I will be

13:13able to

13:14do rundowns and in fact I'm going to sort

13:16of turn it up to 11 to make up for the fact

13:18that I'm not

13:19doing the live stream we're going to do

13:21little short snippets about all the

13:23features so if you

13:24tune into my channel you'll be able to get

13:27two to three minute long updates just

13:29detailing small

13:30bits of information that have come out of

13:31conference and things you can look forward

13:33to

13:33over the next year there'll be four videos

13:35there won't be shorts I do shorts

13:37separately if that

13:38makes sense so don't panic if you think I'm

13:40going to be flooding the stream with shorts

13:41I'll do four

13:42videos and shorts separately anyway that's

13:44it I just wanted to make sure everyone's

13:46ready for

13:46conference and make sure you get stuck in

13:48thanks for watching and I'll catch you in

13:50the next one.

13:51you

13:51you

14:01[ Silence ]