Catalog & Cocktails: The Honest, No-BS Data Podcast

The Era of Data Usage w/ Mike Ferguson

You can’t get from your home to the grocery simply by owning a car. You have to actually drive the vehicle to get to a place that delivers value. Sounds obvious right? But we don’t instinctively think this way when it comes to data. We focus so much on tools, processes, and architectures, but we don’t talk enough about actually using the data.
This week, Tim and Juan are joined by Mike Ferguson, managing director of Intelligent Business Strategies Limited to look at why we’re not using data nearly as effectively as we think and what can be done about it.
This episode will feature:
Data usage do’s and don’ts
How to get your company aligned on effective data use and measurement?
What’s the most expensive thing you bought that you’ve never used?

Can’t spell BUZZWORDS without BS w/ Kirk Borne of DataPrime AI

We all want to get more value from our data, right? So should we wrangle it, prep it, classify it, mine it, or model it? Then once we’ve got our data squared away, should we do prescriptive or predictive analytics? And does that require real-time or just-in-time data? If we had a nickel for every buzzword we hear, we could afford far better podcasting equipment.
In this episode, Tim and Juan are joined by Kirk Borne, Chief Science Officer at Dataprime AI to demystify some of our most egregious buzzwords and look at what everyone’s going to be talking about next.
This episode will feature:
What is industry 4.0?
How can an edge be intelligent?
What is the buzzword that makes you want to pull your hair out the most?

Free-range, grass-fed, open-source data w/ Denise Gosnell of Datastax

Open source software is one of the largest and fastest growing segments within the data landscape. And if you’re implementing DataOps practices or considering data mesh, openness and flexibility are key architectural principles.
This week, Juan and Tim are joined by Denise Gosnell, CDO of Datastax, to talk about the business of open source and how community-centric data applications are reshaping the enterprise.
This episode will feature:
A glimpse into the future of open source data
The difference between open source and open core
What open source tool best personifies your personality?

Documents and Clouds and Graphs, Oh My! w/ Emil Eifrem, CEO of Neo4j

The data landscape has evolved substantially over the last decade. We’ve gone from data lakes to data hubs to lake houses. We see data represented as documents, columns, graphs, and time series. So how might this evolution continue over the next ten years?
To help us ponder this question, Juan and Tim are bringing in Emil Eifrem, CEO of Neo4j. We’ll take a look at how we got to this point, and what new data management challenges and opportunities await.
This episode will feature:
A look at database categories that may spring up over the next decade
Positives and negatives of database standardization
What’s changed the most about the hosts/guest over the past 10 years?

SEASON TWO KICKOFF w/ DJ PATIL

We’re back in the office. Now what?
We roll into season two with a straightforward question: “Did we learn anything new about data work and data people during the pandemic?”
Who better to address that subject than DJ Patil, mathematician, entrepreneur, and the very first U.S. Chief Data Scientist? Join Tim, Juan, and DJ for a wide-ranging conversation on data cultures, architectures, roles, and enduring lessons from the past 16-months of largely remote work.
This episode will feature:
Hot new job titles and emerging opportunities
How to establish a new data culture built around hybrid work environments
Favorite podcast, book, or show discovered during the Pandemic

Special Edition: Panel on Data Architecture at the Knowledge Graph Conference

*Corrected Audio*
Data Architecture is evolving and there are many questions with various perspectives. What is the balance between centralization and decentralization? How do you start treating data as a product? How do you incentivize people? What’s the role of Data Mesh, Data Fabric, Knowledge Graphs?
This special edition of Catalog and Cocktails is the Data Architecture panel from the Knowledge Graph Conference, moderated by Juan Sequeda. Listen and learn from Teresa Tung Chief Technologist of Accenture’s Cloud First group , Zhamak Dehghani director of emerging technologies at Thoughtworks and founder of Data Mesh concept, and Jay Yu, Distinguished Architect at Intuit.
You can watch the panel here and follow Juan’s takeaways.

SEASON ONE FINALE: Episode 50

What’s the old saying? “The journey IS the destination.”
What started as an experiment and a way to kick back with colleagues and peers on a video call, turned into a thriving, honest, no BS podcast about enterprise data management.
Hosts Juan and Tim embarked on this journey that turned into a 50-episode series. The episodes boasted conversation topics spanning from identity graphs, modern data stacks, and building data teams, all the way to data lineage, data trust issues and learning what a CDO actually does. Our audience heard vulnerable and transparent talks from leaders at companies like AirBnB, McKinsey and Company, Wunderman Thompson and more.
This season finale is a look back at season one and a candid talk about the lessons learned.

The Future of BI is AI

Business intelligence has come a long way since the early days of IBM’s decision support systems. Today BI is the backbone of many data-driven organizations, and companies often look to BI tools to help them make accurate predictions.
In this episode, we take a look into the future of BI itself. Join Tim, Juan, and Ashley Kramer, the Chief Product Officer from Sisense, as they explore the intersection of BI, analytics, and artificial intelligence.
Other topics include:
How companies can take advantage of the convergence of BI and AI
Separating AI reality from AI fiction
What one thing would you want to know about your own future?

Knowledge is Power: Knowledge Management meets Data Management

We always talk about managing metadata and data...but what about managing knowledge? It has to be more than keeping a spreadsheet of a business glossary!
Join Tim, Juan, and Joe Hilger from Enterprise Knowledge for a conversation about how the data management and knowledge management communities need to unite in order to best manage your unstructured and structured data.
Other topics include:
How to best manage unstructured and structured data?
Taxonomies, Knowledge Graphs: how does it fit?
What is one piece of knowledge that you know NOW that you wish you knew when you were younger?

Don’t Treat your Data Stack like a Fine Wine

Classic Rock, historical paintings, and fine wine; some things are better left untouched. When it comes to your data stack however, that rule doesn’t apply.
Having the right foundation- a mix of tools, people, and processes- is absolutely essential to getting value from your data. Join Juan, Tim, and Brandon Chen from FiveTran for a chat about letting go of your organization’s old tools and processes and welcoming in the new.
Other topics include:
Obvious signs that it's time to change your data architecture
How to prevent your data stack from becoming another silo
Classic TV shows worth modernizing and rebooting