How to attend Tableau Conference 2022 virtually & free

0:00Hey, Tim here. In today's video we're going

0:01to be covering how to get ready for the

0:03virtual version of the Tableau conference

0:06in 2022.

0:07Now for the first time Tableau is running

0:08both a virtual and an in-person conference,

0:11but I'm just going to be focusing on the

0:12virtual conference in this video.

0:14In a separate video after conference I'll

0:15talk about conference in general.

0:17Before we get stuck in, I'm actually going

0:19to be doing a live stream of the main

0:21keynote and possibly a couple of other

0:23sessions as well, not least iEnviz and also

0:25the devs on stage sort of rehash.

0:29So be sure to check that out. I'm going to

0:30be joined by a previous guest, Andre.

0:32Last year we did it with Ravi, but Ravi is

0:33going in person. I'm staying virtual, so I

0:36'm going to be butting up with Andre to

0:37cover all the sessions we're going to be

0:38doing in real time.

0:40We're going to be doing a very interactive

0:42session over on YouTube.

0:44We're going to try and also simultaneously

0:46stream it to Twitter and Instagram where

0:48possible, but nonetheless if all you do is

0:50watch our session then go ahead and catch

0:52us on YouTube.

0:53You can find that on the main channel page

0:55as an upcoming stream. Just hit remind me

0:57and YouTube will ping you. We'll try and

0:59ping you when we go live as well, so be

1:02sure not to miss out on it.

1:03Now when you head to the Tableau web page,

1:05if you just go to Tableau.com, you can't

1:07miss a Tableau conference. It's right on

1:09the home page.

1:10Go ahead and click register and once you're

1:12there you'll get this page and in this page

1:14you can just go ahead and register.

1:16If you're already signed into your Tableau

1:17account, it will be able to register you

1:19with those details, but if you're not

1:21registered then of course it's going to ask

1:23you to create a Tableau account.

1:26Then you can register for conference. That

1:28tends to be how those two things work.

1:30Once you've registered, you should have a

1:32page like this. This is essentially your

1:33personal information. It will have the

1:34details about your attendance.

1:37The virtual conference is free so there's

1:38no fee to pay. If you are attending in

1:40person, then this page will look the same

1:42except for you will have had to pay for the

1:44conference to get that sort of confirmation

1:46.

1:47Once you've got everything registered, you

1:48can of course head to the conference and

1:50you can just do that by clicking this

1:51button here that says Tableau conference on

1:52the right hand side.

1:54Click on that, it opens up a new page and

1:55you're pretty much ready to set yourself up

1:57for conference.

1:59Now I'm going to walk you through how this

2:00page works. It's really quite simple. It's

2:02very similar to last year so if you took

2:04part in the virtual conference last year,

2:06you can finish watching this video here.

2:08There's nothing new to watch. There's only

2:10a couple of things that have been omitted

2:12from this conference so I'll try and cover

2:13those a little later on.

2:15I'll put something in the timestamps titled

2:17"What's missing from this year's virtual

2:19conference".

2:20Now when you head to this page, as you

2:21scroll down you've obviously got a summary

2:23of everything that's going on.

2:25Here are the key things to pay attention to

2:26. First of all, there are three different

2:28time zones.

2:29It's very similar to last year but you have

2:31the specific dates and times for each time

2:33zone.

2:34And actually the time zones make a lot of

2:36sense but my feedback to you here is if you

2:38can at all help it, watch the American

2:40version.

2:41The American version is happening

2:42simultaneously with the live conference and

2:45therefore you won't be missing out on

2:46conversations as they take place.

2:49It's no surprise that of course the people

2:51attending tend to be quite vocal in the

2:53community so if you're going on Twitter and

2:56you're watching it maybe with a day lag or

2:58two day lag,

2:58you'll get this sort of weird experience

2:59where most of the conversations have

3:01already been had because a lot of the

3:02community members, even those from your

3:05home country who talk about that topic,

3:07will have attended the conference and so

3:08they'll be doing it in the American time

3:10zone.

3:11So definitely try and watch everything in

3:12the American time zone. I'll show you how

3:14to understand which time zone the content

3:16is in once we start to look at the schedule

3:18.

3:19The sessions to look forward to, these are

3:21always a must in my opinion.

3:23iInvis, the keynote and the keynote speaker

3:25which this year is Hannah Frye who's a

3:27mathematician here from the UK but she's

3:29going to be doing a session in London.

3:31You've got the Tableau Doctor sessions and

3:32then you've got the ability to connect with

3:34people.

3:35Let's break each of these down. First let's

3:37start with the schedules.

3:38Now when you're planning your schedule

3:39there's two ways to do this. There's the

3:41session program and the session library.

3:43If you go to session program, think of this

3:45as a TV guide. It essentially has all the

3:47sessions running at any given time but it's

3:50mapped to your time zone that you're

3:52currently in.

3:53And it's essentially reading that time zone

3:54from your computer. So the time here 5 p.m.

3:57is my time zone here in the UK.

3:59If you visit this in another part of the

4:00world, this time will reflect your

4:02particular time zone.

4:04And so it shows you the relative time for

4:07the content across all the regions against

4:10your time zone.

4:12So here you can see that the American

4:14session starts on May the 17th at 5 p.m. UK

4:17time.

4:18In the American schedule, if I just go back

4:20to the page, let me go back to the home

4:21page here in another tab, you can see that

4:23it's actually a 9 a.m. start.

4:25So these sessions are showing you

4:26relativity if that makes sense.

4:29And if you've added something to your

4:30session, it shows up as blue. You can see

4:32this session here is blue.

4:34If you haven't added something, you can see

4:36that it remains sort of this darker shade

4:38of blue.

4:39And what you can do is you can just browse

4:40the sessions like this, a bit like a TV

4:42guide.

4:43And you can sort of say, OK, I want to go

4:45to this session on data culture.

4:47I want to go to this session on all things

4:50data.

4:51And I want to go to this session on the

4:53tableau economy.

4:54And you can keep going down. I hate that it

4:56kind of takes you back to the top every

4:58time you pick something.

5:00Kind of makes it for a painful experience

5:01getting to the very bottom.

5:03But thankfully, there's not that many

5:04sessions each day. So it's quite easy to do

5:06that.

5:07And you can sort of get to the bottom of

5:08the session. I'll also add this last

5:10keynote here as well from Hannah Fry.

5:13Now, when you get to the end, you see you

5:14get the end of the first broadcast.

5:16And of course, on the first day, there's

5:17only the American broadcast.

5:19If I go to the next day, just over here at

5:21the top, you'll see that the next day

5:24starts at least in the UK at 2 a.m.

5:27And this is the Asian specific broadcast.

5:29And of course, you've got the keynote again

5:31.

5:31The various sessions we've just seen again.

5:34And then we get the beginning of the

5:36European session at 9 a.m. UK time.

5:38And so you get the third running of all of

5:40these.

5:41So I'm not subscribing to any of these

5:42because I'm going to try and catch all of

5:43this using the UK time zones and American

5:47broadcast.

5:48If that makes sense. So you can go ahead

5:49and add everything here and it's pretty

5:51easy.

5:52Now, the other way to add content, if you

5:54go back to the homepage, if you go to the

5:56sessions and this time you go to the

5:58session library.

6:00Now, the session library is a bit more like

6:01a search experience.

6:02If you go down here to roll, you can

6:03essentially filter the sessions to the

6:05particular sort of background you're in.

6:08And you can pick a topic as well. Let's say

6:10you want to learn more about the Tableau

6:13exchange.

6:14You'll see it filter sessions for the

6:16analysts that are about the Tableau economy

6:18.

6:19And you can see all of those sessions are

6:20there. And then you can go ahead and add

6:21them.

6:22Now, if you want to add them to a specific

6:24time zone, you can then go ahead, select

6:26the broadcast region, pick the specific one

6:28you want.

6:29I'm going to go for the American ones. And

6:31now I'm not seeing duplicates of the

6:32session.

6:33So you can go ahead and add a live Tableau

6:35accelerators jumpstart.

6:37And let's look at Spotlight as well that

6:39will build that session there.

6:41So now you've had this experience, you've

6:43sorted everything, you've put everything

6:44into your schedule.

6:46Now you might want to look at your schedule

6:47. The fastest way I can think of doing this,

6:50if you go to the MyTC page, it actually

6:52does show you like a schedule of just the

6:54sessions that you've selected.

6:57You can see it's not quite got the same

6:58sort of timetable as we saw before, because

7:01this is just the content that you've said

7:03yes to.

7:04So you're kind of filling up these slots

7:06like a calendar and you can sort of see

7:07them in one place.

7:09You can also download the calendar so you

7:10can go over here to the download option.

7:12And if I do that, I'm actually just going

7:14to save this to my desktop.

7:16You can see I've actually already done this

7:17once or replace the one that was there.

7:19And then if I go to my calendar of choice,

7:21which in this particular case is Fantastic

7:23Al, I can actually open this particular

7:26event.

7:27And let's just add this in. I'll import it

7:29to this untitled calendar. We'll put 11

7:31events and let me open it up on screen.

7:34So there you go. And you can see that I've

7:36actually got my sports calendar showing

7:38here as well, but you can see all the Table

7:40au conference sessions that I've essentially

7:42added here.

7:43Just let's just exit that. All the Tableau

7:46conference sessions have just been added in

7:48this sort of large space.

7:50I keep trying to add another event. I don't

7:52know why I'm doing that, but you can see

7:53the events are just here on the left hand

7:54side.

7:55So it's a really good way of doing this.

7:57Each of these sessions will have a link as

7:59well.

8:00So if you double click any of them, you can

8:01obviously just select a link. It will take

8:02you straight to the event and you'll see

8:05that they are all pretty much on point.

8:08Now, when the event is running, this page

8:10will change so slightly. So you'll be able

8:12to see all the currently running sessions

8:15and you'll be able to sort of log into

8:16different channels that are running these

8:17sessions.

8:18The way to think of this, if I go back to

8:19the session program, is you'll essentially

8:22have multiple channels.

8:24So you'll have six channels, one, two,

8:26three, four, five and six. So these

8:28vertical columns represent channels.

8:32And so you want to make sure that you go to

8:33the appropriate channel for the appropriate

8:36bit of content.

8:37So all things data, for example, is going

8:39to be running on channel three.

8:42The customer 360 analytics content and the

8:44Tableau economy content is all going to be

8:47running on channel four.

8:49And so that's a pretty sort of general

8:51overview of how the scheduling works. Now,

8:54the last thing you might want to do is to

8:55connect with people virtually.

8:57Now, one of the ways you can do that is

8:58during the sessions, there's actually a

9:00Slack channel that's created specifically

9:02for that session.

9:03So you can go ahead and click on this and

9:05it will launch the Slack for Tableau

9:07conference.

9:08It will ask you to log in, review some

9:09community guidelines. Once you've agreed,

9:12everything is good.

9:13You should be able to go straight into the

9:14Slack experience. And from here, you can

9:16just start talking to people.

9:18So this is happening in Slack. You can

9:20actually add this in your Mac or Windows

9:22version of Slack if you have the desktop

9:25app already or if you use Slack already.

9:27So rather than having to go through the

9:28browser, you can just hop in and you'll see

9:30that the channels already set up.

9:33So the six different channels are already

9:34set up. The get help channel is already

9:35there. People are already posting things in

9:37here, but it's mostly Tableau.

9:41And of course, people have hopefully

9:42started to introduce themselves. So no one

9:44's introduced themselves just yet.

9:46But there's a bunch of sort of basic

9:47content. I think at the moment the channels

9:49have been disabled. So that's why no one

9:51has said anything.

9:53So once conference starts, hopefully you'll

9:55be able to start to add to this content in

9:58the future.

9:59But if I head back, the other way you can

10:00connect is the Tableau community. This is

10:02not a new thing. You can do this at any

10:04moment in time.

10:05Tableau just signposting you to this in

10:06case this is the first time you've

10:08discovered this.

10:09So check out the Tableau community page. It

10:10's a little landing page that talks about

10:12all the different things that are going on

10:14in the community, the different ways you

10:16can get in touch, the different ways you

10:17can take part, whether it's user groups,

10:20forums.

10:21All of those are detailed here as well. So

10:23you can absolutely go and check those out.

10:25And then there's obviously the other ways

10:27of connecting. Now, this year we don't have

10:29brain dates and we don't have Tableau

10:32doctors.

10:33Those are purely reserved for the in-person

10:35experience. I get why this has been done in

10:37some sense because essentially I think it's

10:39a bit hard to split resources for this kind

10:41of thing to both manage in-person and

10:43virtual brain date.

10:45And then obviously the platforms need to be

10:47able to separate those experiences. So you

10:49might want to only do in-person brain dates

10:55and you might in some cases might want to

10:56do a hybrid brain date.

10:58So someone in person talking to someone

11:00virtual. I don't know how that would work.

11:03So I think it makes sense that they've sort

11:04of separated it out.

11:05But nonetheless, those are not available in

11:06the virtual experience. So just be aware of

11:09that. You'll see them in the schedule.

11:11If I actually go back to the schedule and

11:13go to my TC22, you'll see the two areas

11:16here at the top.

11:17This is because for those people attending,

11:18they're using the same experience here to

11:20organize their conference.

11:22So the virtual platform is being used to

11:23schedule the whole thing. And in essence,

11:25you'll see the doctor and the brain dates,

11:28but they're not available to you if you're

11:29virtual.

11:30The final thing to do is to go and get a

11:31photo at the photo gallery. So you can see

11:33here there's a photo gallery.

11:35Go in and you can see the photos that have

11:36already been taken. If you want some

11:38inspiration, people are taking photos

11:40already.

11:41I've already seen a meme here, which is

11:43kind of funny. I love that. That's a great

11:46addition. Whoever did that top marks for

11:48creating that.

11:50But if you scroll down, you might be able

11:52to see some familiar faces. I took mine a

11:54few days ago. There I am. That's my photo.

11:57You can download this, muck around with it.

11:59It's pretty cool that they have this

12:00available. And people use this for profile

12:01photos.

12:02It's actually a great way of making sure

12:03you have an up to date conference photo,

12:06because one of the things with conferences

12:07that you want people to be able to find you

12:09want people to be able to network with you.

12:11So people have already been in and created

12:13a bunch of profile photos, which is

12:15absolutely fantastic. So I highly recommend

12:18that you do that.

12:19And then, of course, there's the hashtag

12:21data 22. You can find this across pretty

12:23much all social media platforms. So be sure

12:25to absolutely do that.

12:27And yeah, you're pretty much going to be

12:29ready to go. Now, the last thing I always

12:31recommend doing is the sponsors page.

12:33You don't need to sort of spend a lot of

12:34time on here, but I think it is worth

12:35understanding the different technologies,

12:37the different partners and what they have

12:39to offer.

12:40These tend to be technologies and partners

12:41that work a lot with Tableau. And actually,

12:43if you talk to some of them, you might get

12:45some interesting ideas of how you can

12:47integrate Tableau better in your

12:48organization.

12:50Last but not least, the help pages. This is

12:52a really, really good page. It has a video

12:54that shows you what to do before you go for

12:57in-person and virtual.

13:00But then you've also got some frequently

13:01asked questions, and these actually have

13:03been really well sort of curated. They

13:05pretty much covers everything you'd want to

13:06know about conference, both in-person and

13:08virtual.

13:09So be sure to check that out as well. So

13:12that's pretty much it for this video. That

13:13's everything in a nutshell. Try to sort of

13:15keep that as brief as I possibly can.

13:17A lot of it is similar to last year. So

13:18again, if you went last year, no worries

13:20there. All right. Thanks for watching. And

13:23I'll catch you in the next video.

13:24[Music]