IBM Think 2018 is a first-of-its-kind conference and it’s almost here.  IBM is merging all of the conferences, including World of Watson into a unified technology event.  So if you are looking for top analytics innovations and content – look no further.  IBM Think 2018 is the destination for world class analytics solutions, sessions, labs, and more.  But with 1000’s of training sessions and technical labs to choose from – building your itinerary might be daunting.  If you aren’t sure which Analytics sessions to attend, here are our picks for the 12 top analytics sessions at IBM Think 2018.

Top Analytics Sessions at IBM Think

1 Better Together: Integrating IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM Planning Analytics

This session will walk you through everything you need to know about integrating IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM Planning Analytics to expand your analytics capabilities.  Learn how to design queries that minimize processing time and avoid common pitfalls. Understand what types of IBM Planning Analytics structures are best suited for business intelligence reporting.   

Session ID: 3722A

2 Planning for Advanced Analytics across Cloud, Fog, and Mist Computing

Today’s deployment topologies for hybrid cloud leverage a myriad of computing capabilities—not all of which are elastic. Users require the ability to perform complex analytical tasks in disparate locations even when disconnected from a network or operating in low-bandwidth (high-latency) environments. Where should the data side reside? Where should the analytic capabilities reside? How do I plan for a tiered cloud topology? These are core questions that this talk will address. 

Session ID: 8469A

3 Empower Professionals across Your Enterprise to Make More Confident, Insight-Driven Decisions

It’s been eleven years since it was declared that “data is the new oil.” Many companies thought they would be further along by now on their analytics journey to become an insight-driven organization. However, this goal has proven elusive for most, especially at an enterprise level. Join us to learn how to catapult your organization forward by using a combination of the major analytics disciplines—descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive—with cognitive, machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to put insights into the hands of decision-makers. See how we bring business analytics and data science together to help you avoid the most common traps that keep companies from achieving their analytics objectives. 

Session ID: 8139A

4 Confessions of a Tableau Power User: The View from a University Analytics Office

Tableau users since 2006, the Institutional Research (IR) Office at the University of Regina is leading a new enterprise-wide installation of IBM Cognos Analytics, along with a newly defined data governance structure. IR offices have many similarities to marketing offices. We see an emerging trend of IR/marketing taking a prominent role in enterprise-wide analytics platforms, because of their experience in bridging the gap between ad hoc analytics (e.g., Tableau) and trusted enterprise data sources. We will share our experiences starting with an explanation of why this gap exists, and complemented with a functional comparison of Tableau and Cognos Analytics. 

Session ID: 4501A

5 Building a Hadoop Environment to Centralize Reporting and Analytics: Insight from Verizon

Let Verizon show you how to build a Hadoop environment from which you can also provide centralized reporting and analytics. This approach will remove the need for data marts, which can result in loss of data and erosion of data quality, not to mention the additional cost to deploy and manage data marts. A centralized, secured Hadoop environment also gives business users access to quality customer insights, expanding its value beyond a narrow group of IT users. 

Session ID: 8019A 

6 User Experience: Future Design for IBM Business Analytics—Moving from Optional to Essential

Thanks to machine learning, the screen you see when you log into Netflix is very likely different from the one that I see. Advancements in digital technologies continue to enrich customer experiences, to delight users and better anticipate their needs and preferences. Soon, the way you interact with IBM Business Analytics will be tailored to your cognitive profile. Come see the future of IBM Business Analytics and learn how IBM Design is improving the customer experience. It’s going to change the way you look at data. 

Session ID: 8226A 

7 Machine Learning: A Primer for the Non-Data Scientist

In the cognitive era, machine learning is playing a large part in shaping insight that directly impacts many business decisions and actions. Machine learning tends to be the purview of data scientists and programmers. But what if you are a data analyst, DBA, architect, business person, etc.? This session will cover aspects of machine learning for the non-data scientist so that you gain a sufficient foundation to understand the problems that machine learning algorithms are seeking solve, as well as the basics of numerous algorithms. 

Session ID: 8578A

8 Roadmap Alert! See What IBM Business Analytics Has in Store for You

Disrupt or be disrupted—that’s today’s challenge. Join this session to see how IBM Business Analytics self-service dashboards enable everyone from developers to business users to data scientists to uncover insights quickly and easily. Witness the evolution to a new, intuitive user experience with augmented intelligence for personalized analytics. Built on an open, governable, modern architecture, with features such as conversational analytics and chatbots, we’re literally putting answers in your hands so you can be confident you’re making the right decisions. Get a front-row view of IBM’s roadmap to infuse traditional analytics with capabilities like machine learning and embedded smarts, whether you’re on-premise or on cloud. 

Session ID: 8142A

9 Contextual Analytics Using SPSS Text Analytics and Cognos 11 Visualizations in the Airline Industry

This session will demonstrate how SPSS text analytics, and the resulting Cognos visualizations, address critical business issues in a timely manner and influence decision-making. We will show how free-form comments are categorized into multi-dimensional hierarchies using a custom taxonomy specific to the airline industry, and how the SPSS insights are converted into meaningful dashboards in Cognos 11. 

Session ID: 6365A

10 Applying Deep Learning to Self-Driving Cars

Learn how Lunewave used IBM’s Data Science Experience to apply deep learning for radar interference avoidance to improve the performance of self driving cars. Lunewave’s auto sensor product serves the needs of L4/L5 autonomous vehicles with high and consistent performance across all weather conditions. 

Session ID: 8827A 

11 Building a Self-Service Environment Command Center in IBM Cognos Analytics

Learn how Baxter, a global diversified healthcare company, is using IBM Cognos Analytics to build a visual command center for users to quickly see and easily understand what’s going on in all of their environments—on easily customizable dashboards that anyone can understand. We’ll show you how to make visually appealing, easy-to-use dashboards that will actually make people want to view system status, best times to run reports, audit content and more. This session will walk you through the design and development work required to implement this yourself! 

Session ID: 7034A

12 Machine Learning 101

Machine learning has become one of the hottest topics lately, with countless applications spanning virtually every industry. This presentation covers the fundamentals of machine learning, including the main algorithms, techniques, open source tools, and evaluation strategies. It also introduces the pipeline of stages needed to productize a machine learning system. The discussion covers complex technical concepts with a practical approach so that no math/statistics background is needed. 

Session ID: 3743A

Conclusion

We hope you find our list of the top analytics sessions at IBM Think useful.  We are excited to sponsor the IBM Think 2018 conference and look forward to all the innovations and developments in store.  Make sure to  stop by our booth #716 if you are planning to attend.  You can meet with one of our solution architects to discuss your analytics objectives and how we can help optimize your solution.  Contact us for more details.  Subscribe to our e-newsletter for more technical articles and updates delivered directly to your inbox.

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