IT at TC: Everything you need to know

Tableau Conference is just a couple of days away, and for many of you that means combing through hundreds of session offerings, cross referencing abstracts, and finalizing your daily schedules. The good news is that this year’s schedule includes way more session options designed for IT professionals, Tableau Server Admins, Enterprise Administrators, and Developers. Don’t freak out—our TC17 App will help you organize your time with ease.
  
We know so many choices can still seem overwhelming—especially if this is your first TC—so we’ve got more good news! We’re hosting a Newbie IT Welcome Meetup on Monday, October 9 at 4pm. Not only do we want to welcome you to conference, we want to also give you an overview of the session types, give specific session recommendations, walk you through choosing sessions in the TC17 App, and help you connect with your peers. Schedule scouts will also be on hand to help you choose sessions and assist with questions.
 
If you need a summary of how sessions work at conference check out the next section, otherwise skip to the list of Enterprise and IT sessions consolidated below.

Tracks
If you’re looking to learn about best practices for deploying Tableau at scale, you’ll want to look into these track categories:

• Data: Get more from data by learning how to prepare, connect to, join, and blend it.
• Developer: Uncover the possibilities for developing with Tableau. Embed, connect, customize, and automate Tableau with all things API. Find out how to use all kinds of web data connectors.
• Enablement and Adoption: Roll out Tableau across your enterprise and drive adoption. Learn how to create a culture of analytics, train people, build Centers of Excellence, and deploy Tableau’s latest mobile and self-service features.
• IT & Server Administration: Administer your first instance of Tableau server or deploy Tableau across your enterprise. Get the lowdown on monitoring and automation, server configuration and architecture, scaling, and improving performance.
• Tableau in Action: Find out how we use Tableau at Tableau. Plus, hear from our customers about the impact Tableau has on their business.

Who
Sessions at TC fall into these main categories:

• Customer- and Tableau-led Breakout Sessions: Hour-long, lecture-style presentations led by Tableau employees, customers, partners, sponsors, and Zen Masters. Customer sessions demonstrate how their journey has progressed, while Tableau-led sessions are typically product or feature focused. Breakouts are organized by level and track. Breakouts are recorded and made available (along with speakers’ presentations) on the Tableau Conference Live website within 48 hours.
• Hands-On Trainings: Two-hour classroom-style sessions led by expert Tableau trainers who will guide you step-by-step through lessons on a Tableau-provided computer. Hands-On Trainings are organized by level and track. Be sure to reserve your seat in advance as they tend to fill up quickly – you can do so on the conference app or the website. Hands-On Trainings are not recorded, but guided exercises, solutions, and datasets used in the training are shared on TC Live the week after conference ends.

We’ve consolidated a list of IT and Enterprise sessions for you to quickly reference (formatted spreadsheet).

In addition to Monday’s IT welcome Meetup, there will be several more Meetups for you to connect with your peers throughout the week.

SAP HANA and BW Meetup,Wednesday, 10:15am-11:15am
If you’re considering or already using SAP HANA or BW, this meetup is for you. We’ll cover some basics and answer any questions you have, then facilitate group discussions around best practices.

IT and Server Admin User Group Meeting, Wednesday, 3:00pm – 4:00pm
This joint session between Pepsi and Cox Communications will outline how their IT departments led enterprise wide deployments and their key takeaways for being successful. Following the presentations, we will have an hour to mingle and meet before heading over to Data Night Out.

Lunch Meetup - Wednesday Lunch
We’ll have a section of the lunch area dedicated to IT and Server Admins, so come grab a bite to eat and share your tips, tricks, and experiences.

Embedding Dashboards for Mass Consumption Technical Meetup, Thursday, 10:30pm - 11:30pm
New for TC17, we have IT specific peer-to-peer discussions planned for embedding Tableau best practices. Tableau developers will get things kicked off and then facilitate discussions at breakout tables. This is a unique chance to connect with Tableau developers and also see how your peers are tackling embedded analytics.
   
Go here for a complete list of sessions, and download the iOS or Android version of the App. For those of you that haven’t yet register for TC, it’s not too late! Tickets are still available here. If you can’t make it to Las Vegas this year, we’ll be live streaming many of the sessions, including the keynotes. We can’t wait to see you at TC!