A Look 'Behind the Scenes' of the DATAcated Conference - FEB 2021

It was about 2-3 weeks after the first-ever DATAcated Conference went live (October 2020) that I decided there will be another DATAcated Conference early in 2021. The first event was so much fun (even though it was only 4 hours long), that I couldn't wait to do this again!

The goal for the next conference was to include more speakers and cover more topics; this meant that the event had to be longer. I decided that instead of a 1-day event, we'll have a 3-day event; with each day focused on a specific topic. The dates of February 9-11, 2021 were selected because it was right before the winter school break, there weren't any major holidays, and I didn't see any other data conferences scheduled.

Setting things up

On November 12, 2020 I set up the registration form on ConvertKit form & started asking potential speakers if they were interested in participating in the event.

On November 16, 2020 the conference was open for registration and I announced this on social media. Additionally, due to an influx of interested speakers, I designed a speaker form to help capture the data centrally and selected speakers that fit well within the themes for the various days of the conference. If you're interested in speaking at future events - please use this form.

That week I started working with community partners such as KD Nuggets, The Ravit Show, SuperDataScience, and more - to get additional media exposure and giveaway prizes.

The day after announcing the conference, I saw that over 250 people had signed up - I was excited to continue the planning phase. By this point we had finalized the first eight speakers, Scott Taylor, Susan Walsh, Mike Wimmer, George Firican, Mico Yuk, Harpreet Sahota, Christina Stathopoulos, and Ken Jee.

Registrations slowed a bit during the Thanksgiving holiday week and it was early December when Scott Taylor reached out to me with a LinkedIn voice note saying that I should have a one-click opt in for existing subscribers - basically a link trigger to auto subscribe them without them filling out the same form again. After sending this option to my email list - I saw a huge spike in registrations - the on-click opt in worked!

A lot of my time preparing for the conference included gathering information from speakers, sending out DATAcated t-shirts & swag, scheduling sessions, and planning giveaways.

December 7, 2020 - we hit 800 registrants. This was around the time that I began discussions with sponsors. I'm very grateful to have partnered with DataRobot, ThoughtSpot, and Pyramid Analytics for this event. Amazing partners that are doing brilliant work in the data space. The event filled up quick and garnered so much attention that unfortunately we were unable to take on additional interested sponsors (but there's always the next event) :)

December 10, 2020 - we hit 1,400 subscribers - that was really quick growth and kept growing up until the next holiday season (around the end of December). Together with Ravit Jain (from Packt & The Ravit Show) we hosted the DATAcated Holiday Book Party - this was a great way to showcase the great work Packt was doing and promote the upcoming conference.

Around this time I also designed Speaker Cards that the speakers can use to promote their talks on social media. I'm so grateful to everyone that helped promote the event.

Fast-forward to the end of January - I went live on Susan Walsh's live show a day later I went on Ravit Jain's live show and a few days after that I joined Scott Taylor's live show. It was so much fun talking to data friends and spreading awareness about the DATAcated Conference. I was also lucky enough that Kirill Eremenko had asked me to be on the SuperDataScience podcast again (this time interviewed by Jon Krohn). Additionally the podcast episode on DataRobot - More Intelligent Tomorrow - had aired - again amazing experience - thanks to Ben Taylor.

I began the giveaway activities with community partners which really helped grow registration numbers and it felt amazing providing courses, books, and more to those in the community; while helping the community partners increase brand awareness in the process.

On February 1, 2021 one of the amazing speakers that I was really looking forward to hearing from notified me that she had to step down from speaking because her baby was coming early! She's truly amazing and I'm hoping to have her speak at another event - she was so kind to even put the DATAcated t-shirt on her newborn on the day of the event :)

Huge congratulations Ann K. Emery on the most adorable baby!!!

Jordan Morrow - from Pluralsight jumped in to save the day and gave a great talk on data storytelling for the c-suite.

On February 2, 2021 - I was scrolling around Jordan's articles on LinkedIn (to help him decide the topic for the talk - because I'm impatient haha) and somehow stumbled upon an invitation from LinkedIn - to write my very own LinkedIn Newsletter! This was about a week from my event and I was BUSY but decided, hey - what's one more thing, and decided to accept their invitation - setting up this DATAcated Feed. I'm so glad that I did this because apparently newsletters on this platform get a lot of views and engagement - exactly what I needed toward the last week of the event - for the big push!

On this same day, I was able to finalize the agenda for the conference - something that truly put me at ease - I knew everyone's speaking times, and could start planning the flow of the conversations. This is also the moment we hit 4,000 registrants!

When planning a conference - life goes on...

During the planning phase of November to February (2.5 months) - plenty of other things fought for my time and attention. Existing client work, homeschooling, designing, recording, and launching the DATAcated Storytelling course, as well as my 100-day fitness challenge, took up a lot of time and effort.

Note: The 100-day fitness challenge began on January 1, 2021 and includes a variety of exercises to do every other day. The days that I'm not training, I run a 10k (6.2 miles). This means I run every other day (rain or shine, or SNOW). Up until today I've completed 21 10k runs in the past 6 weeks. Some of the toughest runs were during the snowstorm and on Day 1 and Day 3 of the conference - because at that point I was so exhausted and overwhelmed with the list of to-dos. The challenge also included growing a brand new Tik-Tok account on which I just hit 10,000 followers (had 0 on January 1, 2021) - which actually added a bit of fun to the past 6 weeks :) The other part of the challenge is to READ at least 20 minutes per day - which was something I looked forward to and was able to complete a few books and learned a lot!

On February 7, 2021 - we hit 5,000 registrants and (with only 2 days left until we go LIVE). At this stage my time was spent on finalizing speaker bios, and conducting walkthroughs on how to use StreamYard. I also sent out emails to the amazing individuals that submitted a talk but were not selected due to capacity limits.

On February 8, 2021 - I decided that since I had one 20-min opening in the speaking sessions on Day 2 (which I left open to use as a transmission break or something else) - I'd run a trivia contest. I didn't have questions written up until the morning of Day 2 - and didn't get a chance to practice timing or anything but it actually turned out great and people seemed to have had fun with the session. We had great giveaways from our partners and I'm really thankful.

February 9, 2021 - It's Day 1 of the conference - woke up at 5am and started preparing for the day. It's interesting that I'm less stressed out about the conference this time than last time - it's as if the stress is parsed over three days because it's not all on day 1 :) I also decided to STAND for all three days of the conference - this allowed me to release more nervous energy - because speaking to thousands of people can cause some stress - and also allowed me to sort of move around and project better while speaking - really glad I made that decision.

February 10, 2021 - it's Day 2 - we hit 6,000 registrants this morning - so excited. There was also a glitch during the stream that gave me some panic. I had an error message pop up about halfway through the event notifying me that LinkedIn has disconnected the stream!!! It stayed there for about 10 seconds but I kept going because we were streaming on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter - in addition to LinkedIn - and the issue somehow resolved itself and didn't actually disconnect. That evening I took the time to start editing the recordings of Day 1 and Day 2 to design a unique YouTube video for each speaker - for easier consumption by those that missed it or those that want to watch it again.

February 11, 2021 - it's Day 3 and I'm even less nervous than I was on Day 1 or Day 2 - had such a great time - even thought our last session faced technical issues with a speaker's mic not working for the first few minutes of the event.

SPEAKERS: Thank you so much to all of the amazing speakers that participated in the conference. None of this would be possible with out each of you!

After the conference I ate lunch and did a pre-k evaluation with my daughter (teacher meeting). Then went for a 10k run and continued editing the conference sessions for the YouTube Playlist. Our final registration numbers are over 6,100!

SPONSORS: Thank you to our sponsors for the support.

• DATAROBOT: DataRobot is the leader in enterprise AI, delivering trusted AI technology and enablement services to global enterprises competing in today’s Intelligence Revolution. Its enterprise AI platform maximizes business value by delivering AI at scale and continuously optimizing performance over time. Learn more at datarobot.com. Additionally, check out their great podcast - More Intelligent Tomorrow.
• THOUGHTSPOT: ThoughtSpot is reinventing how companies make decisions by putting the power of their cloud data in the hands of every employee through search and AI-driven analytics. Customers can take advantage of ThoughtSpot as a SaaS offering through ThoughtSpot Cloud, connect and query cloud data warehouses directly with Embrace, and stay up to date on their business with the ThoughtSpot Mobile app. Companies like Walmart, BT, Daimler, Medtronic, Hulu, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of the West, Siemens, and Nationwide Building Society rely on ThoughtSpot to empower employees at every level and transform their organizations. Check out this eBook - Transform Your Business with Cloud, Search, and AI.
• PYRAMID ANALYTICS: Pyramid Analytics is the Trusted Analytics Platform? that connects your teams drives confident decisions and produces winning results. DATAcated attendees get instant access to white papers as well as an introductory webinar. Access downloads and see Pyramid in action at pyramidanalytics.com/DATAcated

COMMUNITY PARTNERS: Huge thank you again to the amazing community partners - your kind generosity is helping several members of the community.

DATACATED MERCH: Several people have asked where they can pick up a DATAcated T-shirt, mug, etc. - here's the link to the merch.

FEEDBACK FORM: A great way to learn about what people are thinking after an event is to ASK THEM. This is why I'm including this quick feedback survey; if you haven't received and and attended the conference - I highly encourage you to share your feedback here.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE: I'm still blown away by the positive comments and messages that we received from the conference. This is all thanks to the amazing speakers, sponsors, and community partners and I'm extremely grateful. I've taken several screenshots on my phone from the extremely kind feedback that the data community has provided - I treasure this and again am very thankful that people have enjoyed the event. Here are some of the comments that stood out.

At the end of Day 3 - I received a package- right as I wrapped up the conference - it was a beautiful bouquet of FLOWERS - sent by Susan Walsh, Scott Taylor, George Firican, and Ravit Jain. Wow I was so surprised and couldn't stop smiling. It's such a kind gesture and completely knocked me off my feet. Thank you again for the amazing gesture!

RECORDINGS: Several people have asked about the recordings of the sessions. If you would like to watch the full event on LinkedIn, please use these links:

LinkedIn Day 1 of DATAcated Conference

LinkedIn Day 2 of DATAcated Conference

LinkedIn Day 3 of DATAcated Conference

If you would like to watch the full event on YouTube, please use this link to view the full playlist that enables you to watch specific talks.

THANK YOU: Hope you enjoyed this sneak-peak behind the scenes of planning and hosting a conference. I look forward to engaging with you all virtually and maybe meet one day in person!

Stay DATAcated!

Kate Strachnyi

StorybyData.com