Flying into Arizona for Data Modeling Zone 2025 was a long but beautiful and exciting experience 

The view of the mountains and the landscape was amazing ,both left me wishing I had made time for hiking up the Camelback mountain or a visit to Sedona, Flagstaff  and the Grand Canyon! Surely one for a future trip.

I got to experience the Waymo driverless car which was a surreal experience and further bringing the reality of the strength of data to the fore. If you visit Arizona, I recommend giving Waymo a go! For a business like Waymo, running autonomous vehicles, you have got to have your data right.

A driveless vehicle relies on the accuracy of data available to take the right turns, stop at the traffic lights and get the passenger to the correct destination.

One of the stories I heard about the autonomous vehicles was that it couldn’t find its way around the airport to drop off passengers. This immediately sounded like a data issue to me, perhaps the coordinates were mapped incorrectly? Thankfully this seemed to have been resolved at the time of my visit as I took a chance on Waymo and the vehicle successfully drove me to the correct terminal for departure. I was also impressed by the sensitivity of the vehicle to pedestrians. The vehicle stopped to allow pedestrians cross the freeway in instances where other drivers carried on driving. Some incredible data work is being done to enable the success of this fantastic venture. “The vehicle was data driven” – pun intended!

Data was all the subject of this conference. 

The 3 day conference was exciting and packed with lots to learn from data modeling , data storytelling , to data governance and Artificial Intelligence to name a few. There was a lot to keep the data mind engaged at this conference.

Hearing from Steve Hoberman about data modeling, having interesting conversations about what happens when putting together a data model, experiencing data modeling tools such as Hackolade and Casetalk, learning about engaging with stakeholders, common challenges and pitfalls was all very rewarding. It was reassuring to find that we had similar experiences tackling data at various clients and I was happy to glean from what had worked for others and how I could apply this to my clients

One of the keynote speakers, Isabella Maldonado, was also a great storyteller inspiring attendees in their data storytelling journeys having become an author herself from a previous law enforcement career.

Lots of sessions with industry leaders and experts in attendance including Bill Inmon, widely know as the godfather of data warehousing who provided some insight into the world of text and how text poses a new challenge in the data world

There was the fun filled casino evening with lots of engaging games, one of which I spent most of my time on was the Roulette where a few of us had a crash course in how to play the game. Some of the players started to wonder if the strategy used at this event would work in the real world at Las Vegas!

Maybe, but we may never find out however I wonder if anyone would be brave enough to try it after all, it is all about data and strategy- no encouragements were made though! It was interesting to see the game of probability play out at this game of Roulette . I strategized and hedged my bets most of the time and as a statistician, you’re bound to apply probability theory to the game. The catch is knowing when to stop. Gambling isn’t one of my strong pursuits which is just perfect !

There was a raffle at the end and having cautiously exited a brutal game of poker, I banked my left over tickets and managed to win an infinity gauntlet in the raffle. Good enough to keep my teen ecstatic.

It was a fun, insightful and engaging data conference where I learned a lot and expanded my data skills. Certainly looking forward to future conferences!