The annual Tableau Conference (formerly known as TCC) is one of my favorite parts about working at InterWorks and being a part of the Tableau Community. I get to meet all sorts of new Tableau users and attend fascinating sessions and keynotes. Some of last year’s highlights included Neil deGrasse Tyson, Hans Rosling, Dr. John Medina, Michael Lewis and my personal favorite, Alberto Cairo. Almost every conference or trade show I have attended throughout my varied career has been a networking event with a sprinkling of fresh content, but the Tableau Conference really shines with the staggering amount of valuable sessions they put on (and, of course, you’re free to network as you please).

Decisions, Decisions

By far the hardest part about the conference is figuring out what sessions you will attend. This year, there are almost 400 (so far!) sessions you can attend, the bulk of which are spread over just two days. Immediately following the Tableau keynote on Tuesday (Day 2), there are 50 sessions starting at the same time! Fortunately, Tableau records most (if not all) of the sessions and makes them available to attendees within a few weeks of the conference’s conclusion. Even if you can’t attend in person, it’s a great ticket.

This year, Tableau provided a download of all the sessions planned with their speakers, times, locations, etc. Being a Tableau nut, of course I had to make a viz. Within hours of the data’s availability, I had read through the entire list of sessions and picked out the ones I wanted to attend in person. Sadly, many of those sessions overlapped. I knew I’d have to make some tough decisions.

I quickly realized that many others would probably have the same problem I did: What sessions are interesting to me and how can I keep track of all of them? It was time to go to work. The day I received the data, I was so excited that I worked until midnight! A few days later (I had to get my fantasy football post up in time for people to draft), I was ready to share my Tableau Conference 2015 Session Planner with all of you.

Using the TC15 Session Planner

Below, you’ll find the four dashboards necessary for an amazing TC15 experience. First, the Session Finder is a list of all sessions sorted by day and start time. You can search session titles, ID #’s or descriptions (Abstracts). You can also filter by day, content type, track, industry or your Tableau skill level. Simply click a session to see detailed information. From the popup menu, you can view just that session and a map of where it will occur, link to Tableau’s up-to-date posting for that session or even tweet about that session!

The Session Details dashboard will show you just one session at a time so you can better digest its content, and there’s a map of where the session will occur. For now, the only detailed maps are of the Conference Center sessions. Hopefully, I’ll receive the information necessary to update those maps with all the various locations soon.

Next, you’ll see a simple dashboard of the sessions I’m planning on attending. Last, there’s a basically blank dashboard that will show you your session schedule! It’s easy to complete, but you’ll need to download the workbook, which you can find at:

https://interworks.box.com/IWTC15Planner

Instructions for scheduling your sessions are on the final dashboard.

I hope you find the session planner useful, and please let me know your thoughts or suggestions here or on Twitter @TheGoodDoctorJ. I look forward to meeting you in October!