As in the past, EDW2017 was a non-stop DAMA-fest, with members of the DAMA-I Board having the first of our twice yearly face-to-face meetings over the weekend before EDW, and then hitting the ground running to meet with Chapter Presidents and DAMA members from all around the world for an intense week of networking, planning, and DAMA Data Therapy.
Add to that the fact that we were celebrating 1) 21 Years of collaboration with the wonderful people at DATAVERSITY, 2) over 80 people attending our CDMP preparation workshop tutorial on the first day of the conference, taught by DAMA VP Professional Development, Katherine O’Keefe (DAMA-Ireland) and Certified CDMP Workshop Trainer, Lowell Fryman (DAMA-RMC), 3) DAMA Award winners (more on that later) and 4) the final release date for DMBOK2 being announced!
Three years ago, DAMA-I restated its vision and mission and we have been working to build on those foundations and put that vision into practice.
After this year’s meeting, the Board has aligned our strategic focus on five business pillars:
- Membership
- Certification & Training
- Research & Resources
- Chapters
- Partnerships
The Sunday saw the President’s Council meeting, our chance to have a face-to-face meeting with as many representatives of our Chapters as could make it to the conference, with others joining by teleconference. Every continent was represented, and it was great to see the number of international attendees. As usual, the discussion was interesting and intense, with some great ideas raised; questions asked and answered and a few concerns debated. We left feeling there was still work to be done, but that Chapters are seeing the value of the organization, and are appreciative of the efforts made by the DAMA-I Board over the past few years to shakeup and begin to modernize DAMA.
Sunday also saw the first of our CDMP certification exam sessions at EDW2017. As always, Dataversity obliged us with a room for the week. Over the course of the conference, in three days of exam sessions, over 100 examinations were taken at EDW2017. For the entire week, the exam room had at least two DAMA Board members available for almost the entire day to allow conference delegates to take their exams at their leisure. For some of us, that meant hearing about great conference sessions at lunch breaks rather than getting to see them ourselves, but it was worth it to see people taking the CDMP exams with such gusto.
By the end of the week, the 100 exam takers had turned into 30 new CDMP holders at both Associate and Practitioner levels. We even had one candidate for CDMP MASTER! (To quote Yoda: “A Case Study now they must submit”).
On the Tuesday, DAMA-I President Sue Geuens co-hosted the welcome to the conference, and handed out well deserved DAMA Awards for Excellence to three winners: Donna Burbank (DAMA-RMC), Katherine O’Keefe (DAMA-Ireland), and Salah Kamel(DAMA-Central).
The DAMA-I Board manned the DAMA stand during the conference exhibit and had, thanks to the hard work of Missy Wittmann (DAMA-WI), copious amounts of SWAG to give away this year to current and prospective members. Dataversity won’t make it official, but the rumour mill tells us that DAMA’s conference socks were considered the “Swag of the Year” at EDW2017.
EDW2017 also saw the launch of the Data Leader’s Manifesto by our colleagues and friends John Ladley, Tom Redman, Danette McGillivray, and Kelli O’Neal. DAMA-I wholeheartedly endorses this initiative as another key step to maturing the data management profession. The discussion of the manifesto actually picked up on themes raised by our VP of Online Services, Tony Mazzarella (DAMA-NE) in his “Data Babies” presentation, echoed strongly by our VP of Professional Development – we need to stop thinking about “data management” as a “technology discipline” and look to solve our skills shortages by asking people in the liberal arts and other disciplines to come join us in Data. DAMA has re-engineered the CDMP over the past 18 months to help serve exactly that need and begin building bridges to new entrants who might have been put off by the technology-centric focus of the old exams.
The final full day of the conference was Thursday. Weary minds and bodies ran to give or attend their last sessions. Our closing keynote was a master class from four experienced CDOs sharing their thoughts and insights on the evolution of the role. They even had to think about what their favourite movie was and what they brought from that into their day job. CJ Nakamura won with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, because as a CDO you can create your own perfect day, no matter what the obstacles.
To cap off our perfect last day, we announced the publication date of DMBOK2 – 23:59 Hawaii Standard time on the 30th June 2017 (data geeks like contingency).
The best part of events like EDW is seeing our friends and colleagues from around the world begin to trickle into the conference venue over the weekend. This was particularly true this year as we were celebrating a significant birthday.
By Monday, the trickle of data friends had become a flood and we all looked forward to the Casino Evening (sponsored by Erwin) in honor of the 21 years of partnership with Tony Shaw and his phenomenal team at Dataversity. The now annual tradition of “Homemade Jam” took place immediately after the casino closed. Despite the best efforts of the professional band to keep a gaggle of data geeks away from instruments, two hours later we had learned that our Privacy Officer had kept his guitar skills secret, our VP Professional Development could carry a tune and our VP of Online Services could play bass guitar at least as well as a certain Past President. We also had the old reliables, Robert Abate and “Bob the Harmonica Guy”. Those who stayed to the end would have seen DAMA Emeritus Advisor John Zachman on the dancefloor showing the younger generation how to do it. Just like Enterprise Architecture. We’re not sure how he does it, but apparently, “Blockchain is the answer!”
A week later, we can take stock of where we are and what we achieved at EDW2017.
We achieved lots. And we achieved it through the efforts of a relatively small number of volunteers who give up their time to do things for DAMA.
- We had conversations with at least three new Chapters, and reconnected with the new leadership of a number of others.
- Chapter leaders were able to ask directly for help and advice on how to improve their governance and their ability to support their members.
- Board members, on top of Board stuff and CDMP stuff and other stuff, gave over 12 presentations, workshops, panels, and lightning talks to help contribute to the education and knowledge sharing at the event.
- We announced DMBOK2, and that it can be pre-ordered starting in May.
- We reaffirmed our vision and mission and (hopefully) showed people that we can have fun doing DAMA stuff, because doing Data Stuff can be deadly serious.
A lot has been done. There is more to do. But with a small, committed, motivated team we have already achieved so much. Imagine what we could do with an even LARGER committed, motivated team!?! Roll on EDW2018, when the Association celebrates its 30th birthday. We are going to need a bigger cake.
DAMA continues to grow from strength to strength through the efforts and commitments of its members. We look forward to expanding the reach of DAMA around the globe, through new Chapters, new collaborations, new partners and the growing CDMP community.
Join us!
