on November 2, 2018
I’m excited to have a session accepted to GroupBy, a free online conference targeting the Microsoft data platform community. The conference is sponsored by Brent Ozar Unlimited, and sessions are chosen by community votes.
My session will be given on Fri, Dec 21, along with five other terrific looking sessions. You should register for GroupBy here.
About my session
My session is called “What ‘Digital Transformation’ means, and how you can use it to advance your career (without being a robot)." Here’s the abstract:
Whether you love or hate buzzwords, the big ones signify critical cultural changes. In this session, Kendra Little will explain what executives mean when they describe a ‘digital transformation’, why this transformation is happening across all industries, and how understanding this gives developers and database administrators an advantage in building their careers.
You will learn what motivates CEOs to modify their business models in a digital transformation, and patterns and anti-patterns of companies that have attempted these transformations – with different results.
You’ll leave the session with an understanding of the core ideas and philosophies behind digital transformation that will help you prioritize what to learn, guide your interactions at work, and strategize your career path.
I wasn’t sure that this session would get votes
I’m particularly excited that the community of voters saw value in this topic because I haven’t seen any talks on this topic before in the data platform community.
While we hear the phrase ‘digital transformation’ in conference keynotes frequently these days, I think many technologists don’t think much about what it means. Or worse, assume it doesn’t mean anything.
‘Digital transformation’ is meaningful, and is absolutely worth understanding
For the last several months, I have been researching what worries and inspires CEOs and CIOs. I was surprised to find a large body of studies and predictions of massive trends in “digital transformation” across all industries.
What I once thought was “just a buzzword” is a shorthand that executives use to represent major changes in business models. It’s incredibly useful for practitioners, team leads, and managers to understand what the goals of a digital transformation are and how success is measured. This understanding helps you communicate better with executives, align your team’s work with business strategies, and ask for the right resources and headcount to execute on critical tasks for your organization.
I hope you join me in December at GroupBy!