Posted - Dec 17th, 2014
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Dan Murray reviews a busy year in the world of data.

In many ways, 2014 was a big and different year both for myself and for the entire InterWorks team. The team continues to grow and expand. I received recognition as a Tableau Zen Master, and was recognized by Tableau Software at Tableau’s first Partner Conference in Las Vegas as a Superstar Tableau Consultant.

Speaking took up a lot of my time this year. Most of the talks were solo, but I did do some events with my friend and fellow Tableau Zen Master, Andy Kriebel. Getting to know Howard Dresner while doing a series of talks for Tableau Software was a thrill too – Howard being the man that coined the term “Business Information.”

I also got to spend some time at a couple of conferences with industry guru, Mark Madsen, of Third Nature Consulting. Mark is a seasoned veteran with an encyclopedic knowledge of hardware and software. We met at a Pacific Crest Mosiac event and he joined the InterWorks team for dinner at DATA14 in Seattle.

Significantly our development team launched Power Tools for Tableau, a family of add-on products that enhance Tableau Server and Tableau Desktop. More will be coming in Q1 2015 to Power Tools for Tableau.

As you can imagine, I took a lot of photos during my travels this year. You can thumb through some of them in the slideshow below:

 

Highlights from 2014

Here are some notable happenings from this year:

Writing

  • “Tableau Your Data!” is a Best Seller
  • Wrote 16 blog posts
  • Wrote one white paper
  • “Tableau Your Data!” used as a textbook
  • Book translated into Simplified Chinese
  • Started Second Edition of “Tableau Your Data!”
  • Outlined another book for future publication

Honors

  • Recognized as a Tableau Zen Master
  • Recognized by Tableau as a Superstar Tableau Consultant
  • Closed the NYSE at the Tableau Conference in Seattle

Talks / Conferences

  • Attended six conferences
  • Gave 59 speeches
  • Gave three virtual speeches

Notable Meals

  • Had breakfast with Hans Rosling
  • Had dinner with Howard Dresner
  • Had dinner with Mark Madsen

Other

  • Did 21 consulting gigs
  • Added 38 people to the team
  • Over 1,200 projects billed this year
  • Launched Power Tools for Tableau
  • Launched iOS and Android apps for Tableau Server
  • Had one gallbladder removed

What’s in Store for Me in 2015

Since founding the Tableau/BI team at InterWorks, my title has been Director of BI Services. This year, I spent two weeks running the team. Most of my time went into speeches, field consulting, writing and book tour events.

My role at InterWorks has changed. I’m going to continue to write books, create blog posts and give speeches. My title in 2015 will change to reflect this new role. I’m excited about the entire data and data visualization market over the next five years. The Hadoop ecosystem continues to evolve, which is particularly interesting. It is an exciting time to work in data. I look forward to 2015!

On another note, our company Holiday Party is the only event of the year in which every InterWorks employee is in the same physical place. It’s such a joy to work with the entire team, and it was great to see everyone. I’m impressed with our new team members and the overall strength of our crew. InterWorks is a great place to work, and it just keeps getting better!

I leave you with some fun videos. The first is Tableau Software closing the NYSE. The second is me doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.