Alter.Nation
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A wise wizard once said, “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”
Last month I was fortunate enough to share the love for Alteryx amongst a couple of hundred colleagues across the United States. Starting off with a local Grand Rapids Alteryx User Group (AUG), with a mix of flights and driving I traversed more than 5,000 miles hitting Chicago IL, Irvine CA, Minneapolis MN, Fort Wayne IN and Cleveland OH. As a guest to each site, I was honored to present a mix of INSPIRE recaps (look-forwards), CReW macro tips and new tools awaiting release. But beyond the AUG’s platform for presenting, they also set a stage for receiving of information and ideas.
The most striking observation that I made on this recent journey was the number of folks who did not attend Inspire. These individuals missed out on “The Magic Kingdom” for Analytics. Proudly wearing my pins from Inspire’s past, you can see me flaunting my love for Alteryx. It is hard to imagine the FOMO and regret of not attending these educational, provoking and invigorating conferences. As Alteryx promises, it alters everything.
Take your career into your own hands and develop your technical skills along with your ability to become a thought leader. My advice to all is to create goals linked to your investment of time and energy into developing analytic skillsets. Get certified! It is free! Prove to your boss, but more importantly prove to yourself that you can learn and apply your knowledge. Set aside a small amount of time to take the interactive training and schedule a certification test. Don’t put this off. Do this before things get crazy around the holidays. Assert yourself and commit to this milestone. Demonstrate to your employer that you have the motivation to learn and to apply these concepts to your work. The next step is to explain the training and certification opportunities that exist at Inspire. Plan now for the budgetary ask and show your personal investment in the process. I’ll see you in Nashville next June if you take this advice seriously.
Another theme for me is to encourage others to engage in the Alteryx Community. Structured training provides the foundational skills necessary to create results. Once you are familiar with the tools and processes, tackle business process that you are familiar with. Next tackle the unknown. Weekly challenges provide you with a structured problem. With a growing Library of challenges, you can see how others before you have addressed the same problem with a variety of solution paths. If you get stuck, there is help. Three things are certain: You’ll solve the problem. You’ll solve the problem uniquely. You’ll be able to solve more unknown problems with your growing confidence.
I think that the number of AUG meeting locations that I’ve hit so far is 8. I have my sights set on 2 more in the coming weeks. On my wish list are Orange County, Dallas, Seattle, Phoenix and Sydney to name a few. Whenever I have business travel, I look to see if there is an AUG scheduled. I missed the Amsterdam meeting by only a few days. My friends in India scheduled a meeting to coincide with my trip. Wherever I go I am certain to hear new use cases and uncover new tips and tricks that users bring to these sessions. The energy and networking opportunities make attendance a worthy value to my time spent there. While writing this blog, I was briefly interrupted twice by emails from folks in Ohio and in Minnesota whom I met on my journeys.
The ethos of the Alteryx Community is giving. Whether it is the giving of time to help the advancement of others in their analytics journey or the contribution of energy into Alteryx For Good (AFG), the community members that I’ve met share a wonderfully giving characteristic. Even when asking for help in a community post, these actions actually contribute to the growing knowledge base.
What’s next for MarqueeCrew? I’m going to InspireEU18 in London! If all things go as planned, I’ll be able to attend AUGs in Orlando and London before Inspire begins. I don’t see any meetings in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, or Hawaiian Islands. While exotic locations would be nice to visit, each of the Alteryx User Groups that I’ve been to have been warm and have had their own charm.
Cheers,
Mark
P.S. Here's a quick recap of my User Group adventure.
MarqueeCrew