# S3 E9: Byte: Tableau Conference 2020 roundup

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2024-04-22
- **Format:** Video · 57 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Industry trends, Tool strategy, Data visualisation
- **Tools:** Power BI; Tableau (ask data, cloud, extensions, public, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/s3-e9-byte-tableau-conference-2020-roundup
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GZjwA8n5dg

In this Datum byte, Ravi and I give our roundup of the remote Tableau Conference 2020. We dig into why the feature announcements felt underwhelming on the surface but signalled a clear shift towards browser-first, cloud-hosted Tableau, debate whether dashboards are a failure of user research, speculate on what Salesforce ownership really means, and finish on the lacklustre Apple iPhone 12 launch.

## Key takeaways

- The 2020 keynote lacked a single blockbuster feature, but reading between the lines every announcement pointed to a browser-first, cloud-hosted future for Tableau.
- Tableau Online is becoming the best place to use Tableau because it is always up and gets every new feature instantly, while on-prem servers can't scale resources to match new browser-based features.
- Performance worries belong to the platform, not the user or server admin; a cloud model that scales on demand should make those questions disappear.
- Building a dashboard can signal incomplete user research; the goal is to meet users at their point of insight and deliver answers, not catch-all dashboards.
- Real value from a Salesforce merger comes from 'tier three' integration that creates something new, not just bolting Tableau onto Salesforce 360 for existing CRM customers.

## Chapters

- 0:01 Home offices and webcam lighting
- 1:15 Experiencing conference remotely
- 2:34 Iron Viz was pre-recorded
- 6:48 Why the features felt underwhelming
- 8:18 Browser-first and the cloud direction
- 11:33 Performance, on-prem versus cloud
- 14:59 Four generations of Tableau users
- 18:55 Are dashboards a failure?
- 24:38 Augmented analytics and modular APIs
- 29:06 What Salesforce ownership should mean
- 39:22 The real end goal of data strategy
- 42:35 Apple's lacklustre iPhone launch

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/s3-e9-byte-tableau-conference-2020-roundup

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena