TUESDAY, APRIL 29
8:45 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.

Trends in Data Administration

John Ladley
President
Knowledge Interspace

It has been said that change is instituted through Ideas or Pain. At times, a great idea creates a shift in human action. At other times, necessity is the mother of new procedures. Currently, Data Administration is at the intersection of both new ideas and pain management. In the keynote, John Ladley will cover the exciting opportunities and responsibilities being presented to the Data Administration field. He will explore the major trends affecting this field, and provide explicit steps to leverage these trends for success in organizations of all types and sizes.

John Ladley is known as a data warehouse pioneer and pragmatic information manager. Prior to Knowledge InterSpace, John was Senior Program Director of Data Warehouse strategies and a Research Fellow at Meta Group. Mr. Ladley is an authority on collaborative applications, enterprise intelligence architectures, enterprise information management, knowledge management, data quality and tools. Prior to joining META Group, Mr. Ladley was director of technology planning for Alliance Blue Cross of Missouri. His 20+ years of IT experience also include working as a management consultant with the Coopers and Lybrand IT practice where he specialized in the healthcare, insurance, defense and consumer products industries. He is a co-author of ITERATIONS, a data warehouse methodology, and authored Knowledge Logistics.TM He is currently working on two new books, "Knowledge Logistics -- Increasing the Value of Your Information Assets", and "One Minute Information Management for Executives". He is frequently published and often speaks on information management and enterprise intelligences topics.

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30
2:45 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.

Data Management — Thinking Outside the Box

Graeme Simsion
Senior Fellow
University of Melbourne

The need to better manage data is greater than ever. Yet the data management profession continues to struggle for senior-level support and commitment. What’s the problem? And more importantly, what’s the solution? Graeme Simsion has been a consistent critic of the conventional “Data Administration” approach in recent years, arguing that we need to “re-invent” data management. He argues that the business need for data management is not in doubt; what is in doubt is the effectiveness of the methods which professional data managers have used to tackle the problem.

In this presentation, Graeme will look very critically at the key ideas that constitute the conventional wisdom of data management and argue that there ARE a number of rules which can usefully be broken in the pursuit of better data management. Should you be afraid? No. But be prepared to question some long-held assumptions. There’s a bright future out there — Graeme will draw on his extensive practical experience as a data manager, consultant and business executive to help you find it.

Graeme Simsion founded Australian consultancy Simsion Bowles & Associates in 1982, after working as a DBA for a major insurance company. Over 20 years he grew the business from a one-person operation specializing in data modeling to some 70 staff in three states, offering consultancy in data management, information systems, and business process design. Graeme sold Simsion Bowles in 1999, and is currently a Senior Fellow with Melbourne University’s Department of Information Systems. Throughout his career, he has been a regular publisher and presenter and is the author of the widely used text, Data Modeling Essentials.

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THURSDAY, MAY 1
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

How Data Management Built the Pyramids
(Mummy’s Lessons For Today)

Warren Selkow
Author and
Consultant

There they stand, almost 5000 years old, the Pyramids of Egypt. Built before an alphabet based
language, accounting, law, economic theory, engineering and the definition of the laws of physics.
Built without an industrial wheel and axle, hoists, draft animals and iron tools. Built with illiterate
and untrained workers. Built before unions, managers, personnel theory and psychologists.
So how did the ancient Egyptians build those colossal stone tombs?

The Egyptians had to invent out of literally thin air all the sciences modern man uses today to manage data and projects. We were taught well by the ancients as today we travel into outer space and around the world. We live and work in great cities, buildings and houses. And we in Data Management play an important role in keeping it all moving.

This presentation will cover how the ancients went about solving the problem of building such large structures without the science of architecture. The presentation will explain how the Designers of the pyramids created the sciences that were necessary required to make the project possible, proved the practical application of those sciences and created all the rules of process and data to support those sciences. In short, the presentation will put you inside the head of Imhotep, the Great Pyramid designer and builder and the very first data and process
modeler and trace the long term impact of the great leaps of intelligence made 5000 years ago and how they are still influencing us today.

Warren Selkow has been in the data processing industry since 1961. The companies he has worked for include NCR, Honeywell, Cap Gemini, and IBM. The list of his client companies is long and extensive and includes organizations in almost all industries. He was an original member of the Business Rules Group, was a member of the Application Development Joint Project as part of Guide, and a DAMA member. For the past many years he has been actively engaged in using the Zachman Framework and in March of 2003 a textbook written with Carol O’Rourke and Neal Fishman entitled, Enterprise Architecture, Using the Zachman Framework, was published by Course Technology.