Our own Dave Mathias shares some of the sessions he is looking forward to at our Dec. 3 Financial, Retail, and Marketing Analytics Conference.

By Dave Mathias

As both MinneFRAMA chair and a member of MinneAnalytics Board of Directors, I am excited about our upcoming MinneFRAMA lineup on Dec. 3 at the Science Museum of Minnesota. This is the joining of two of our longstanding events, FARCON and MAMA, and it is also our first MinneAnalytics event in St. Paul.

These events take a lot of effort to make happen and this includes MinneAnalytics staff, fellow board members, and day-of staff and volunteers. Putting together a great lineup of thought leaders like this is only possible through the effort of a great group of event chairs, so thank you Graeme Thickins, Renee Ernst, Stacia Whelan, and Bethany Klebanov!

You will not go wrong attending any MinneFRAMA session. With that being said, I am highlighting my personal top 10 list. I did not include either of the sessions I am involved with (even though they will both be awesome 😉). To avoid showing bias among sponsors, I have also omitted sponsor sessions, but I can say that the already-announced sponsor sessions would make my list.

1. Arlene Birt’s session “Visual Storytelling: Putting Data into Context” is definitely one to catch. Arlene is a professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and has a storytelling and data visualization practice focused on sustainability. Earlier this year she spoke at the Twin Cities Data Visualization Group with positive feedback and now she is sharing her talents at MinneFRAMA. If you want to learn more about Arlene beforehand then checkout out a TEDx talk she did.
2. Max Humber’s session “Building Better Budgets” is relevant to the financial services part of MinneFRAMA, but also timely for each of us this time of year. Max is the author of Personal Finance with Python and will be talking about how different open-source packages can help you build a better budget and better manage your personal finances. Max presented at ODSC East earlier this year in Boston and he did a great job combining technical insights, business know-how, and humor in his session.
3. Jennifer Roberts’ session “Augmenting reality at law firms with AI – oh my!” is more relevant as companies are looking to augment their people with machine learning. Jennifer is the head of research at a Silicon Valley startup called Intapp which leverages machine learning to augment professional services providers like law firms, accounting firms, and financial services firms hopefully resulting in both more affordable and effective professional services.
4. Jay Myers’ session “Leveraging Knowledge Graphs for Better Voice Experiences” is especially relevant with the increasing importance of knowledge graphs and voice experiences. As Best Buy’s product manager for voice assistants with experience in knowledge graphs, Jay has a unique and insightful perspective.
5. Dr. Joe Konstan is coming back to MinneAnalytics and this time talking about “Recommender Systems: Algorithmic Fundamentals.” Joe spoke at FARCON 2017 and had a highly rated session that you can check out on YouTube. This time Joe is taking it to the next level and getting more technical on state-of-the-art recommender systems!
6. Dr. Scott Ernst’s session “Agile & Beyond” should be informative and engaging. The effectiveness of data science teams and integrating agile, DataOps, and more has often been a struggle and Scott brings lots of expertise in this area to share. Plus, Scott was our highest rated speaker at FARCON 2017 so you know it will be a great session.
7. Devi Kyanam’s session “Marketing Personalization using Machine Learning: Harnessing Consumer Engagement for Better Outcomes” will be insightful. Devi formerly of Target and recently of United Health Group is an expert in this space and will shed light on how individualized personalization algorithms can harness consumer engagement for marketing efforts.
8. Mitchell Grewer’s session “’But I’m not a data person’ Creating a Data Culture at Cargill” is vital to for any person hoping to influence or create a data culture at their organization. Cargill is one of our local companies that is at the forefront of what a data culture could be.
9. Gary Angel’s session “Getting to the Heart of the Customer” is vital for organizations as the space of customer experience analytics is more important than ever. Gary presented at FARCON 2017 and SPORTCON 2018 and was one of our top speakers at both. He has agreed to make the trip from San Francisco to provide his insights around customer experience analytics with his specialization from the retail sector.
10. Erich Axmacher, Timothy Nagle, Melissa Krasnow, and Brad Hammer’s session “How Data and Analytics Opportunities Can Co-Exist with U.S. and EU Privacy Regulation” is a hugely important topic for those in the analytics space. Hear the perspective from two Chief Privacy Officers (Timothy Nagle of U.S. Bank and Erich Axmacher of Securian Financial Group) and two attorneys with data privacy experience (Melissa Krasnow and Brad Hammer) in this quickly evolving space.

Now that you’ve got my top 10, take the time to pick your top sessions if you are registered for MinneFRAMA. This helps us organize rooms based on demand.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and hope to see you at MinneFRAMA on Dec. 3 at the Science Museum of Minnesota!

Dave Mathias
MinneFRAMA Conference Chair & MinneAnalytics Board of Directors