Each year after we close our annual Data Citizens conference I feel energized – but this year was particularly significant. Last week we hosted the largest Data Citizens yet, with close to 700 attendees representing over 300 companies from industries spanning financial services, utilities, telco, technology, retail, healthcare, universities, and more.
When we started Collibra in 2008 we started with the idea that we needed to solve today’s biggest challenge and opportunity – data. Since then we’ve seen the number of CDOs at large organizations skyrocket from one in 2002 to a projected 10,000 by the end of next year.
I’m still in awe of how much our community of data citizens has grown in the last few years, but it’s only the beginning. A recurring theme from the event this year was the idea that data shouldn’t just be the “new oil” or the “new gold” but should instead be like water – clear, usable, and available to everyone at every organization. At the final panel of the event, Simmi Bhargava, Senior Director, Data Governance at Adobe, built on the concept a step further – our goal should be for the “water” to be usable not just at the faucet, but at every step of the process starting with the source.
In his remarks, our Chief Product Officer Jim Cushman outlined how important this democratization of data is to us. He shared that over the next two years Collibra will be embarking on a journey towards data intelligence. We’ll be working in partnership with our customers to enable more people to find, access, and unlock the value of their data.
Our goal is to be the system of record for data teams and provide one platform to be at the center of your data strategy. This platform will help you transition from the old way of data management to a new approach that will fuel digital transformation. This new approach is focused on increasing trust, understanding context, encouraging collaboration, leveraging automation, and prioritizing usage in order to put you on the path towards data intelligence. For us, data intelligence means allowing any data citizen to uncover and extract the value hidden in their data. We want to empower everyone to use data to solve problems, implement new ideas, and grow their business.
As we work towards this goal, we want to make sure we bring the experience of Data Citizens to more of you. We’ve got exciting new developments in the works for our event in London later this year and our New York event in 2020.
In the meantime, let’s take the enthusiasm from this year’s event with us into the future. I’m proud of the progress our community of data citizens has made, but most of all, I’m energized for what’s next. True data intelligence is about looking beyond managing data and instead moving towards understanding data’s full impact. We can’t wait to launch this journey towards data intelligence together. The future is now, and the future is data intelligence.
Thank you again to everyone who joined us at Data Citizens ‘19 this year. For a day-to-day recap, check out our posts from Day 1 and Day 2 or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
