Last week, Collibra hosted its inaugural Data Citizens Conference in New York. It was a whirlwind two days, chock full of insightful conversation focused on the various ways enterprises are using data governance to help them unlock data so they can realize new levels of value and competitive advantage.
We hosted more than 200 data citizens at the Conference — people just like you — who are tackling the challenges of driving organizational change in how data is used, nurtured, and governed. After all, if you use data to do your job, then you are a data citizen. Here are a few highlights from the event.
Day One
Collibra Co-Founder and CEO, Felix Van de Maele, kicked off the event and officially unveiled the new Collibra logo. This evolved branding is a strong reflection of the leadership role Collibra is taking in the growing data governance industry.
Our conference keynote speaker was the well-known author, data journalist, and information designer, David McCandless. In his session entitled, “Data is Beautiful,” McCandless discussed the value of presenting data in visual forms to increase its impact on viewers, sharing many interesting and amusing anecdotes along the way.
It was the Collibra data citizens themselves who took the conference from good to great. We were honored to welcome Collibra customers from organizations including Flagstar Bank, George Washington University, Priority Health, Capital One Financial Services, Johnson & Johnson, and EMC. Data citizens from these leading enterprises participated in conversations and shared best practices about important data governance topics such as “Driving Enterprise-Wide Data Governance Adoption” and “Advancing Big Data Governance.”
In between sessions, attendees had the opportunity to visit the Collibra Partner Village and interact with companies from our ever-growing partner ecosystem. Partners shared insights, ideas, and inspiration focused on all things data governance-related.
Day One wrapped with a roundtable featuring the Collibra co-founders: Felix Van de Maele (CEO), Stan Christiaens (CTO), Dr. Pieter De Leenheer (VP, Research & Education) and Benny Verhaeghe (VP of Sales). I moderated this session. The roundtable recounted the founders’ journey to building Collibra and their vision for how the company will continue to be a data governance pioneer. We also heard Felix make a bold prediction: “Like a CFO has SAP or a CRO has Salesforce, the CDO will have Collibra.”
Attendees shared some laughs when I displayed a relic I’d found: the Collibra team’s first-ever bright green branded shirt, worn to a well-known analyst event in Florida. Guess this proves that Collibra has always been about data governance, coming and going!
Day Two
The second day of the Data Citizens Conference featured product, business, and technology workshops where attendees could learn in detail about the various ways to leverage the Collibra platform for competitive success. Customers locked arms with our product management team in an early-morning session where they shared ideas and guidance on a new feature for the product. And experts from Collibra University led attendees through hands-on activities in areas such as operating model design and integration.
Data leaders from Collibra customers EMC and Charles Schwab along with Collibra partners played an important role in sharing real-life data governance opportunities and processes with attendees.
Since we know not all of you could make it to last week’s event, we’re making videos of some of our most popular sessions available on the Collibra Data Citizens Conference website. Some will be available later this week and the remainder within the following two weeks, so be sure to check back soon.
I want to send a big THANK YOU to all our customers, partners, and other data citizens who made this first-ever Collibra Data Citizens Conference such a provocative, useful, and fun event. The world of data governance is nascent, fast moving, and something that Collibra believes will be increasingly critical in today’s business world where the flow of data is accelerating exponentially.
See you next year, data citizens!
