By Dave Mathias, MinneAnalytics
FARCON is almost here and we look forward to seeing you there! The schedule includes more than 50 sessions at FARCON 2017 on Aug. 24 as well as 12 training sessions on Aug. 23. The conference is sold out, but as always we will try to ensure as many people as possible on the waitlist are able to attend.
In case you missed it, make sure to check out Kyle Polich’s guest blog post yesterday previewing his session on Chatbots in eCommerce. As an added bonus Kyle will be interviewing Dr. Joseph Konstan for a future Data Skeptic episode on how machine learning can create better user experiences.
MN Chat Bot MeetUp
After the FARCON Training Session day on Aug. 23 there will be a MN Bot Makers MeetUp at Mall of America from 4:30–6 pm, during which Kyle will provide additional insights around Chatbots and where he sees the industry evolving. Make sure to sign up here if you want to join. MinneAnalytics is co-sponsoring this event.
Community Data and Analytics Groups
As always MinneAnalytics advertises other community events related to data and analytics on our website. However, anyone that wants us to give special attention to an upcoming event/group should send an email to farcon@minneanalytics.org. We may include your event as part of our informational deck in each of the conference rooms.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Quick shout out to the amazing people that help put FARCON together. Make sure to personally thank them. As they say, “it takes a village” and for MinneAnalytics events maybe “it takes a city” is more appropriate:
Conference Partner and Community Sponsors
University of Minnesota and the Carlson School of Management – Masters in Business Analytics Program. They have partnered with us on this event from the very beginning and we appreciate it. Thank you also to Mall of America and Minnesota Insight’s Association for being community sponsors for FARCON.
Sponsors
Sponsors, sponsors, sponsors. We love each of you and you help continue to make us able to drive this crazy mission of having free, high-quality, local events, and at same time allow us to aid the broader analytics community whether through scholarships, student competitions, or donating to other worthy groups. Event attendees make sure to thank sponsors in person and check out the quickly advancing solutions that are being developed by them. Reading this but not able to attend FARCON? You can still help us out by thanking our excellent sponsors.
Speakers
There are a ton of amazing people that have volunteered their skills, knowledge, and experience. This year we have over 80 people, and a number of people are flying in from other areas of the country. As a person that presents at conferences there is nothing more rewarding than good audience questions and genuine thanks for efforts we put in to present so take the opportunity to do both.
Conference Chairs
There is a great group of co-chairs we have this year and this event does not happen without them. Because of the breadth of skills and experience of this group, we have been able to continue to enhance FARCON. Thank you to my fellow FARCON Co-Chairs Lee Thomas, Graeme Thickins, Nate Broadbridge, Jean Fasching, Stacia Zembal, Renee Murray, Craig Dormanen and Mark Gorman. I’d also like to thank Yashodhan Dhore and Ryan Marcum who helped the first FARCON go off seamlessly so we can now be doing the third.
Event Planning and Logistics
As always, Jill Atkins and the event staff are doing an amazing job in making things possible and make a free event seem like a high end conference. They put up with crazy asks and this year throwing in a training day is was no easy task. Thank you Jackson Atkins for making sure the communication and digital parts of the event have and continue to go off smoothly.
Our Members
Your participation and engagement with the community makes all of this work. Thank you, and see you at FARCON 2017!
