Look for #JMPdiscoverysummit for everything being posted online. And come back here for updates as well.
At the welcome dinner, John Sall told attendees to look for people with the blue badge holders on so that they can connect with other JMP users and learn from each other. And then he told them to look for the yellow lanyard people to tell them what they don’t like about JMP. After laughs, he made it clear that he and the rest of us are indeed here to learn from them and to keep making JMP better and better.
Tuesday
"What? You’re in-person together in Spain?!?" Discovery Summit Europe host Jeff Perkinson pulled a prank from backstage, pretending to be logged on from his home office in North Carolina, USA. After a bit of audience confusion, he made his way onto the stage to laughs. To complete the illusion that he thought the conference was remote, he wore a suit coat with lounge pants. Coming out of the pandemic, that’s a fashion statement we can all relate to.
“Find your comfort zone,” urged Jon Weisz during the opening session, explaining the need for self-care during in-person events. And then he challenged attendees to get out of their comfort zones and talk to people who use JMP differently than they do. Jon and Jeff played back and forth on the finding the sweet spot between challenging yourself and being comfortable.
On the big stage, John Sall was joined by Mandy Chambers, Principal Test Engineer; Ryan Lekivetz, Manager, Advanced Analytics R&D; Rebecca Lyzinski, Clinical Research Developer; and Aurora Tiffany-Davis, Principal Software Developer. At his wrap-up, John reiterated the team’s desire to hear from users. “Tell us if you run into obstacles that inhibit your workflow. We want to know,” he said.
Just because the plenary session was over doesn't mean people were in a hurry to leave. The conversations continued long after the stage was empty. As expected, there was a lot of excitement over JMP 17.
Did you know that "Meet the Experts" was originally called "Ask the Developers"? We changed it when we realized that these screens would be staffed by testers, SEs, executives and others who didn't fall under the "developer" title. And then we changed it from "Ask the Experts" to "Meet the Experts." That was because we learned that "meet" was more comfortable than "ask" -- our users may not have any questions, but would still like to connect. As you can see, we're not afraid to evolve and, we hope, improve as we take in more data.
“Some of my favorite stories are JMP user stories,” said John Sall at the welcome dinner. And one of the best places to hear user stories is at Discovery paper presentations. Rooms were full, presentations were impressive, and questions kept coming even after the talks officially adjourned.
The evening ended with a lovely dinner where attendees reflected on the day's conversations, where connections were deepened, and the Spanish architecture and cuisine were appreciated.
Wednesday
“When I was asked to run the Analytic Advocates Spotlight, I couldn’t decide if I should interview a statistician, a scientist, or an engineer,” said Meg Hermes. “So, I decided, let’s invite a statistician
and a domain expert.” And she did. The Spotlight featured Maria Lanzerath, Global Statisticians Team Leader and Mirco Lang, Quality Engineer, both with W.L. Gore. Meg conducted an in-depth conversation about Gore’s culture of analytics. JMP’s Valerie Nedbal brought home some supporting points.
Discussion Forums were popular with attendees, giving them an opportunity to address JMP products from an industry perspective. Each room had representatives listening well and taking notes of user requests.
This JMP attendee was so excited to chat with the ultimate JMP expert that he asked a colleague to get a photo of him with John Sall.
Ask the Expert sessions continued to draw attendees. Some people lined up to ask questions. Others listened in. Often multiple conversations took place around one monitor.
Wednesday closed out with a seaside dinner of, you guessed it, fresh seafood served up Spanish style.
Thursday
Thursday starts with a rainbow, caffeine, a fun run, and a promise of another extraordinary day of Discovery. Still to come are papers, JMP lab, JMP expo and keynotes by Vanderbilt University’s Suzanna Herculano-Houzel and Hannah Fry, Professor in the Mathematics of Cities.
Everybody thought everybody else already knew how many neurons the human brain had, said Vanderbilt University’s Suzanna Herculano-Houzel at Thursday’s opening keynote. But nobody knew. It turns out, she said, that “sampling brains to count neurons is a statistical nightmare.” The biologist and neuroscientist took the audience through her research, her logic, and her statistical exploration process to count neurons in the human cerebral cortex – and then tackle even bigger questions like, “What difference does it make if we have a thousand more neurons than a mouse?”
Hannah Fry, Professor and author Hannah Fry closed the conference with a keynote entitled The Joy of Data. “This is my favorite data of all time,” she said. “Everyone in this room probably has a favorite data set. You can’t say that in that many rooms.”
