In preparation for TDWI San Diego, I was finalizing my schedule and checking out what some of my favorite TDWI instructors are up to for San Diego. I'll be blogging about my fave classes from these instructors all next week.

This evening I caught up on Cindi Howson 's blog post about her popular session on Tuesday, the BI Platform Bake-Off. I remember doing that bake-off a couple of times when I was a product manager at SAS. As a vendor doing Cindi's bake-off was always a challenge to look forward to .... and to relish completing! Her students are savvy and the questions are direct. The side-by-side nature of the BI Platform feature/function comparisons creates a bit of camaraderie among the vendors - especially when you see each other every few bake-offs.

If you are going to TDWI San Diego, I really hope to see in you Cindi's Tuesday session. Her sense of humor and knowledge make her sessions a real treat! I can't wait!

Since this is my first time attending TDWI as a member of SAS Business Intelligence Research and Development my view point and objectives of attending are a bit different than in the past. Being responsible for BI customer experience puts a different lens on the event and the conversations. I actually get to bring so much back to share with our developers and our customers.

I am most excited about being at the SAS booth (#309) with my peers who are experts in areas like self-service and mobile BI, data mining and forecasting, social media analytics and data management. They are inspiring folks. If you are attending TDWI San Diego, schedule an appointment with one of our experts. It is really easy to do and bring along your BI challenges! Simply use our online booking system.

Well, it's almost time to shut down the laptop, finish packing and take flight for a week of great sessions with folks like Claudia Imhoff, Mark Madsen and Jill Dyche! I look forward to sharing my adventures with you from sunny TDWI San Diego.