Alteryx Grand Prix 2012 - Latest Update

[AdamR_AYX]

Well it is now less than a week until the Alteryx Grand Prix at Inspire 2012 and we wanted to share with you some updates about the event.

This Year's Competitors Line-up

We are pleased to announce the following drivers who will be competing in this year's Grand Prix:

1. Binod Adhikar - Archon Group
2. Drew Brighton - TargetSmart Communications
3. Jason Dunkel - Environics Analytics - 2011 Defending Champion
4. Mark Frisch - Experian
5. Geri LaRose - Dick's Sporting Goods
6. Steve Pasetti - Virtual DBS, Inc.
7. Cameron Steele - Intalytics
8. Jarrod Thuener - Marcus & Millichap
9. Justin Tischler - Intalytics
10. Andy Verostek - Del Taco
11. T-Ryx

Grand Prix Hot Seat

Didn't manage to sign up in time for this year's main event?  Or maybe you are not sure if you are quite ready for the full Grand Prix experience?  You still have the chance to test drive the Grand Prix experience with this year's exciting  new addition: The Grand Prix Hot Seat.  This will be a 12th driver's station in addition to the main 11 drivers where you could compete for a single round of the competition and show off your skills against the main competitors.  Beat all of the other competitors in the round you compete in for guaranteed bragging rights and a small spot prize (Hot seat competitors are not eligible to win the grand prize).  There is a hot seat position available for the first four rounds of the competition so we have space for four competitors.  If you are interested then you can register using our online Wizard on the brand new Alteryx Now website.  If you are selected we will be in touch before the event to let you know which round you will be competing in.

T-Ryx

In addition to the 10 client competitors there is an 11th driver this year: T-Ryx.  T-Ryx is the ultimate data artisan; T-Ryx knows Alteryx like nobody else and will be showing just how fast these Grand Prix laps can be done.  But the biggest mystery is that although T-Ryx has been using Alteryx for a very long time, nobody knows who he or she is!  In fact it seems that nobody has ever seen T-Ryx out of that helmet and T-Ryx never speaks...  All we do know is T-Ryx is fast, very fast!

It's worth noting T-Ryx will not be eligible to win the grand prize of a weekend trip for two to Las Vegas; that just didn't seem fair.

Question Format

This year sees a new question format from previous Grand Prixes.  We wanted to put the emphasis back on how fast the drivers can use Alteryx and move a little away from some of the 'enigma' style questions of last year's Grand Prix.  So the new format will see a fixed time for a given round with a number of Alteryx tasks to be accomplished within that round.  Each task is worth a certain number of points (from 1 point for  a simple Alteryx task up to 5 or more points for more complex tasks).  Drivers can choose which tasks to attempt in the given time and what order to tackle them in.  So if a driver doesn't know a particular part of Alteryx functionality they can skip that task and move onto one which they have stronger skills in.  Having said that we wanted to keep one of "last year's" style question with a fastest module runtime element to it.

So the rounds will look something like this:

Round 1 - Data Artistry.  This round is the new format described above and covers standard data artisan tasks in Alteryx.  Concepts covered include: Summarize tool; Formula tool; Datetime functions; Connecting to different data sources (including SQL and XML data sources); Demographic Analysis Tools; Spatial Tools.

Round 2 - Reporting. This round is also the new format and involves report building in Alteryx.  Concepts covered include: new Map tool functionality; Charting tool; Table Tool; Reporting Layout tools.

Round 3 - Population Optimization.  This round is more like some of the exercises we had in last year's competition.  There will be a single problem to solve and 15 minutes to build your module to solve that problem.  After the first part we will supply you with a new set of input data which will be run through your module without any changes.  The driver whose module solves the second part with the fastest module runtime will win that part with points being awarded to the other drivers on a sliding scale.  If you are a confirmed driver for the Grand Prix or interested in competing in this round as a hot seat driver we strongly recommend you take a look at our example question at the bottom of this page.

Round 4 - Wizard Creation.  This round is also the new format and involves wizard building in Alteryx.  Concepts covered include: Building Wizards; Error handling (the new message tool might be useful for this).

Round 5 - Alteryx Private Cloud.  Round 5 is a race to the finish line to see who can upload and run their wizard from Alteryx Private Cloud in the fastest time.