The agenda for the 2008 Datawatch User Conference to be held in Phoenix Arizona was recently published, and I’m very pleased that I’ve been selected to once again provide a presentation to the group.
The conference is a fantastic opportunity to learn about Monarch and the other Datawatch products with which you may not have had hands-on experience. Additionally, the opportunity to speak with so many others who face, and have often devised solutions to, the same challenges you likely encounter is worth the trip alone.
I’ve come to realize that my experiences really aren’t that much different from those you likely have had. One of the things that I’ve been meaning to discuss here is how getting this site going has been somewhat surprising, and why it really shouldn’t have been.
I’ve often been in the situation where, in the office, or sometimes even across the whole company, I’ve been trying to accomplish things that nobody in the group has experience with, so it can be a struggle at times to move forward with a task or a project. Sometimes it felt very frustrating, like you’re the only one who’s ever tried to do that sort of work.
Now that the site’s been running for a little while, I realize that there are many others out there who are bound to be feeling the same way. Why is that? Because I can now see what information people are searching for. Collectively, we wouldn’t be turning to search engines if someone in our office had the answers we need.
You know, in the end, we’re all in the same boat: trying to do things with Excel and/or Monarch that we want to do, but need a little guidance. And there are more of us in that boat that you‘d think. It’s probably not a surprise to know that there are many tools available for administrators to monitor and analyze web sites. You can determine where people who visit the site are located and such.
From all around the planet and in all kinds of different industries, there are people visiting this site (that really did surprise me) who I now realize are just like you and me: trying to do their best with the tools they have, and sometimes probably feeling quite alone.
I really shouldn’t have been surprised in the first place.
Come join the rest of us for a few days, and, for a while at least, we all won’t feel quite so lonely. I hope to see you there!
